# Famous First Words **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 1, 2000, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588 "2000-02-01T08:14:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2000, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/221 "2000-02-05T04:54:00Z")
TomH; Your guesses for LN1 and LN4 were correct. I’ll admit I probably exaggerated when I called LN2 a well-known work, it’s somewhat obscure (and LN8 is also something of a specialized subject). ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2000, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/222 "2000-02-05T04:59:00Z")
Oops, I meant LN3 was from an obscure work; LN2 is from a fairly well-known book and the opening line is representative of the book as a whole. ---
**Author:** ![TomH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/90db22/32.png) [@TomH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TomH)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2000, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/223 "2000-02-05T17:41:00Z")
If LN3 isn’t J K Galbraith, is it _Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds_? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2000, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/224 "2000-02-06T06:28:00Z")
Nope, but I’ll admit that’s what I expected people to guess. ---
**Author:** ![Brightmoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b487fb/32.png) [@Brightmoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brightmoon)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2000, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/225 "2000-02-05T21:41:00Z")
Try this one: QYZ) " When I stepped out into the sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had two thing on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home." One of my favorite books. 😃 * * * Whatever!!! Just don’t screw up my life with your wicked stupid ideas! ---
**Author:** ![SanibelMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@SanibelMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanibelMan)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2000, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/226 "2000-02-07T02:09:00Z")
Try this one: Sani #1: “I am a cheerful man, even in the dark, and it’s all thanks to a good Lutheran mother.” * * * _SanibelMan_ - [My Homepage](http://members.macconnect.com/~jonkleinow/) “Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There’s a frood who really knows where his towel is.” ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2000, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/227 "2000-02-07T05:54:00Z")
Here’s the sources of the quotes I posted: LN1: _The Gathering Storm_ - Winston Churchill (as TomH noted, the first volume of Churchill’s history of the Second World War) LN2: _A History of Christianity_ - Paul Johnson LN3: _The Natural History of Stupidity_ - Paul Tabori (this one was something of a trick; as I wrote above, I expected someone to guess this was from the better known work Charles MacKay’s _Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds_) LN4: _The Face of Battle_ - John Keegan LN5: _The Seekers_ - Daniel J. Boorstin LN6: _The Armada_ - Garrett Mattingly LN7: _The Last 100 Days_ - John Toland LN8: _The Wooden World_ - N.A.M. Rodgers (I figured this one would be tough) LN9: _Undaunted Courage_ - Stephen Ambrose (this one, on the other hand, I expected to be guessed right away) LN10: _Admiral of the Ocean Sea_ - Samuel Eliot Morison ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2000, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/228 "2000-02-07T19:15:00Z")
AW21 I. Ferryslip. Three gulls wheel above the broken boxes, orangerinds, spoiled cabbage heads that heave between the splintered plank walls, the green waves spume under the round bow as the ferry, skidding on the tide, crashes, gulps the broken water, slides, settles slowly into the slip. Handwinches whirl with jingle of chains. Gates fold upwards, feet step out across the crack, men and women press through the manuresmelling wooden tunnel of the ferry-house, crushed and jostling like apples fed down a chute into a press. A: John Dos Passos, Manhattan Transfer. ---
**Author:** ![Melatonin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b3f665/32.png) [@Melatonin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melatonin)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2000, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/229 "2000-02-08T02:43:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by MoosieGirl: > \*\* > > MG6: “On an exceptionally hot evening early in July a young man came out of the garret in which he lodged in S. Place and walked slowly, as though in hesitation, towards K. Bridge.” > > \*\* A very strange translation of Crime and Punishment, by the inimitable Mr. F.M. Dostoevsky. ---
**Author:** ![Melatonin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b3f665/32.png) [@Melatonin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melatonin)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2000, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/230 "2000-02-08T03:53:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Brightmoon: > \*\*Try this one: > > QYZ) " When I stepped out into the sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had two thing on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home." > > One of my favorite books. 😃 > \*\* Outsiders, S.E. Hinton ---
**Author:** ![MrKnowItAll](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrknowitall/32/87_2.png) [@MrKnowItAll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrKnowItAll)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2000, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/231 "2000-02-08T05:46:00Z")
Gee, I should have checked this thread out earlier, before it bacame huge. Here’s a few quotes for you guys while I finish looking over the rest of the thread. KIA1: “One may as well begin with Helen’s letters to her sister.” KIA2: “I have been afraid of putting air in a tire ever since I saw a tractor tire blow up and throw Newt Hardbine’s father over the top of the Standard Oil sign.” (fairly recent) KIA3: “It was a quiet morning, the town covered over with darkness and at ease in bed. Summer gathered in the weather, the wind had the proper touch, the breathing of the world was long and warm and slow.” KIA4: “They’re out there. Black boys in white suits up before me to commit sex acts in the hall and get it mopped up before I can catch them.” KIA5: “Buck did not read the newspapers, or he would have know that trouble was brewing, not alone for himself, but for every tide-water dog, strong of muscle and with warm, long, hair, from Puget Sound to San Diego.” ---
**Author:** ![MrKnowItAll](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrknowitall/32/87_2.png) [@MrKnowItAll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrKnowItAll)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2000, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/232 "2000-02-08T06:13:00Z")
Damn search engine. OK, two of mine have already been used, namely KIA1 and KIA5. (_Howard’s End_ and _Call of the Wild_ respectively.) Good luck with the rest of them. ---
**Author:** ![MrKnowItAll](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrknowitall/32/87_2.png) [@MrKnowItAll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrKnowItAll)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2000, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/233 "2000-02-08T06:26:00Z")
Now to make up for the previous repeats (and of course to pad my post count): KIA6: “In the days when the spinning wheels hummed busily in the farmhouses–and even great ladies, clothed in silk and thread lace, had their toy spinning wheels of polished oak–there smight be seen, in districts far away among the lanes, or deep in the bosom of the hills, certain pallid undersized men who, by the side of the brawny countryfolk, looked like the remnants of a disinherited race.” KIA7: “Midway in our life’s journey, I went astray from the straight road and woke to find myself alone in a dark wood.” (translated) ---
**Author:** ![Melatonin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b3f665/32.png) [@Melatonin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melatonin)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2000, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/234 "2000-02-08T13:19:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by MrKnowItAll: > \*\*G > > KIA4: “They’re out there. Black boys in white suits up before me to commit sex acts in the hall and get it mopped up before I can catch them.” > \*\* One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey. ---
**Author:** ![MrKnowItAll](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrknowitall/32/87_2.png) [@MrKnowItAll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrKnowItAll)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2000, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/235 "2000-02-08T16:00:00Z")
Bingo, Mel! Good job. ---
**Author:** ![G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c67d28/32.png) [@G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G.B.H.Hornswoggler)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2000, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/236 "2000-02-08T17:49:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by MrKnowItAll: > KIA7: > “Midway in our life’s journey, I went astray > from the straight road and woke to find myself > alone in a dark wood.” (translated)\*\* ## I hate to tell you this, but a different translation of this was already posted, However, I missed it then, so now I’ll jump on: it’s _Inferno_ by Dante Aligheri. …but when you get blue, and you’ve lost all your dreams, there’s nothing like a campfire and a can of beans! ---
**Author:** ![MrKnowItAll](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrknowitall/32/87_2.png) [@MrKnowItAll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrKnowItAll)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2000, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/237 "2000-02-08T20:04:00Z")
…I blame the search engine… ---
**Author:** ![Brightmoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b487fb/32.png) [@Brightmoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brightmoon)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2000, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/238 "2000-02-09T21:39:00Z")
Yeppers it was the outsiders. i figured someone would get that wicked fast. two more: QYZ2)“In the heart of the Swiss Alps, on the high fronteer between earth and sky, stands one of the great moutains of the world.” QYZ3) "In the second year of the reign of the great King Ahasuerus, on the first day of Nisan, Mordecai, son of Jair, son of Shemei, son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, had a dream. 😃 * * * Whatever!!! Just don’t screw up my life with your wicked stupid ideas! ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2000, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/239 "2000-02-10T00:18:00Z")
> [@](#): > > KIA2: “I have been afraid of putting air in a tire ever since I saw a tractor tire blow up and throw Newt Hardbine’s father over the top of the Standard Oil sign.” Barbara Kingsolver, _The Bean Trees_. > [@](#): > > KIA6: “In the days when the spinning wheels hummed busily in the farmhouses–and even great ladies, clothed in silk and thread lace, had their toy spinning wheels of polished oak–there smight be seen, in districts far away among the lanes, or deep in the bosom of the hills, certain pallid undersized men who, by the side of the brawny countryfolk, looked like the remnants of a disinherited race.” George Eliot, _Silas Marner_(?) ---
**Author:** ![MrKnowItAll](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrknowitall/32/87_2.png) [@MrKnowItAll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrKnowItAll)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2000, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/240 "2000-02-10T01:06:00Z")
Right on, Fretful! Correct on both counts. > [@](#): > > QYZ3) "In the second year of the reign of the great King Ahasuerus, on the first day of Nisan, Mordecai, son of Jair, son of Shemei, son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, had a dream. :::guessing::: _The Book of Ruth_ by Jane Hamilton??? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588.md?page=13)