# Great first and last lines from various works **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 1, 2007, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273 "2007-01-01T05:10:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/21 "2007-01-02T00:21:11Z")
[QUOTE=Ignatz] “all me Ishmael.” [/QUOTE] …are belong to us. ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/22 "2007-01-02T00:30:36Z")
“What was the need to give these people to the fire, that the symbol of their passing might shine above Bethlehem?” Arthur C Clarke, _The Star_ ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/23 "2007-01-02T00:54:13Z")
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” - Jane Austen, _Pride & Prejudice_ “Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.” - Douglas Adams, _The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy_ ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/24 "2007-01-02T01:22:34Z")
[QUOTE=Ignatz] “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all doing direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.” Charles Dickens, (1812-1870) \*\*A Tale of Two Cities \*\* [/QUOTE] Its final lines are great too: > [@](#): > > It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done. It is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/25 "2007-01-02T01:48:09Z")
_“The Ramans did everything in threes.”_ From Rendevouz With Rama. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/26 "2007-01-02T02:01:10Z")
“Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.” – last lines, _On the Origin of Species_, Charles Darwin ---
**Author:** ![MonkeyMensch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@MonkeyMensch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeyMensch)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/27 "2007-01-02T02:10:29Z")
“This is my favorite book in all the world, although I have never read it.” The Princess Bride - William Goldman ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/28 "2007-01-02T03:01:38Z")
\*\*It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. \*\* 1984 George Orwell. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/29 "2007-01-02T05:05:16Z")
And so we will all be together. - Margaret Atwood, _Alias Grace_ One day, Trurl the constructor put together a machine that could make anything starting with the letter ‘n.’ - Stanislaw Lem, _The Cyberiad_ ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/30 "2007-01-02T05:59:09Z")
“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.” First line of J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye” ---
**Author:** ![ZebraShaSha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/eada6e/32.png) [@ZebraShaSha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZebraShaSha)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/31 "2007-01-02T06:21:47Z")
[QUOTE=Mahaloth] \*\*It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. \*\* 1984 George Orwell. [/QUOTE] “I loved Big Brother” is fracking jolly, too, although you kind of need to know the story for it to work. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/32 "2007-01-02T06:27:00Z")
[QUOTE=ZebraShaSha] “I loved Big Brother” is fracking jolly, too, although you kind of need to know the story for it to work. [/QUOTE] I assume that’s a reference to the final line. I thought it was “He loved Big Brother”. ---
**Author:** ![Bogeyman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3e96dc/32.png) [@Bogeyman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bogeyman)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/33 "2007-01-02T11:14:08Z")
“The human race, to which so many of my readers belong, has been playing at children’s games from the beginning, and will probably do it till the end, which is a nuisance for the few people who grow up. And one of the games to which it is most attached is called, “Keep to-morrow dark,” and which is also named (by the rustics in Shropshire, I have no doubt) “Cheat the Prophet.” The players listen very carefully and respectfully to all that the clever men have to say about what is to happen in the next generation. The players then wait until all the clever men are dead, and bury them nicely. They then go and do something else. That is all. For a race of simple tastes, however, it is great fun.” G. K. Chesterton, _The Napoleon of Notting Hill_ “The first time I laid eyes on Terry Lennox he was drunk in a Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith outside the terrace of The Dancers.” Raymond Chandler, _The Long Goodbye_ ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/34 "2007-01-02T12:23:01Z")
Meyer and McGee were about to call it a night when somebody dropped the girl off the bridge. Darker Than Amber, John D. MacDonald ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/35 "2007-01-02T16:39:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*On the third day of their honeymoon, infamous environmental activist Stewie Woods and his new bride Annabel Bellotti were spiking trees in the forest when a cow exploded and blew them up. Until then, their marriage had been happy. > > - C.J. Box, **Savage Run** And the best opening paragraph, ever: > [@](#): > > \*No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids ar supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone. > > - Shirley Jackson, **The Haunting of Hill House** ---
**Author:** ![congodwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/36 "2007-01-02T18:13:07Z")
[QUOTE=Cunctator] I assume that’s a reference to the final line. I thought it was “He loved Big Brother”. [/QUOTE] You are correct. ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/37 "2007-01-02T18:22:36Z")
“As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.” Franz Kafka, _The Metamorphosis_ ---
**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/38 "2007-01-02T21:47:29Z")
“It’s a cookbook.” --Damon Knight, _To Serve Man_. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/39 "2007-01-02T22:28:00Z")
It was not till they had examined the rings that they recognised who it was. **The Picture of Dorian Gray** One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair. **A Rose for Emily** Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her. **Emma** ---
**Author:** ![Intelligently\_Designed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intelligently_designed/32/20957_2.png) [@Intelligently\_Designed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intelligently_Designed)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/40 "2007-01-02T22:53:24Z")
“If I relegate impossible Salvation to the prop-room, what remains? A whole man, composed of all men and as good as all of them and no better than any.” — Last line of Jean-Paul Sartre’s autobiography, _The Words_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273.md?page=3)