# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![merrily](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@merrily](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/merrily)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/41 "2007-01-02T23:04:39Z")
First line from the play _The Lady’s Not For Burning_ by Christopher Fry: Thomas [trying to get someone’s attention]: Soul! …and the last line: Thomas: Then let me wish us both Good morning–And God have mercy on our souls. So it starts with a singular ‘soul’ and ends with a plural. Do you think he got the girl? Spoiler: she wasn’t for burning. ---
**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, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/42 "2007-01-02T23:35:57Z")
[QUOTE=gigi] 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** [/QUOTE] Ah, my vote for the best short story ever written. Thanks for the reminder. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/43 "2007-01-02T23:39:54Z")
[QUOTE=Biffy the Elephant Shrew] …are belong to us. [/QUOTE] Call me! ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/44 "2007-01-02T23:46:02Z")
[QUOTE=Valgard] I don’t have the book in front of me but one of Stephen King’s short stories is presented as the diary of a man marooned alone on an island with nothing to eat. He’s slowly going mad and the last intelligible entry is: “If you are what you eat then I HAVEN’T CHANGED A BIT” You can figure out what he’s been doing for food. [/QUOTE] I believe the last line is "_Lady fingers they taste just like lady fingers . . ."_ Great opening paragraph : [QUOTE=H G Wells] No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter. It is possible that the infusoria under the microscope do the same. No one gave a thought to the older worlds of space as sources of human danger, or thought of them only to dismiss the idea of life upon them as impossible or improbable. It is curious to recall some of the mental habits of those departed days. At most terrestrial men fancied there might be other men upon Mars, perhaps inferior to themselves and ready to welcome a missionary enterprise. Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us. And early in the twentieth century came the great disillusionment. [/QUOTE] Last line of _The Outsider_, HP Lovecraft : “For although nepenthe has calmed me, I know always that I am an outsider; a stranger in this century and among those who are still men. This I have known ever since I stretched out my fingers to the abomination within that great gilded frame; stretched out my fingers and touched a _cold and unyielding surface of polished glass._” ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/45 "2007-01-03T00:00:08Z")
“Next day it snowed, and killed off half the crops – but it was a _good_ day.” – Last line of “It’s a _Good_ Life”, by Jerome Bixby. Mickey Spillane wrote some great last lines, when taken in context, which we won’t do here. (Hope my memory serves me.) From _I, the Jury_: “It was easy.” And from (I think) _The Erection Set_: “Shut up,” she said, “and fuck me like a dog.” ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/46 "2007-01-03T00:07:02Z")
Forgot to add a first line (and again, my memory may be faulty:) “If I had cared to live, I should have died.” ---
**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 3, 2007, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/47 "2007-01-03T02:35:20Z")
[QUOTE=Baldwin] Forgot to add a first line (and again, my memory may be faulty:) “If I had cared to live, I should have died.” [/QUOTE] **Silverlock**? ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/48 "2007-01-03T02:51:05Z")
[QUOTE=OttoDaFe] **Silverlock**? [/QUOTE] Exactly! – sorry, I forgot to put the source. Didn’t mean to be cryptic. ---
**Author:** ![633squadron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/ee59a6/32.png) [@633squadron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/633squadron)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/49 "2007-01-03T03:17:13Z")
[QUOTE=matt\_mcl] 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_ [/QUOTE] Yay! Finally, someone else in the universe knows both Lem and The Cyberiad. ---
**Author:** ![kung\_fu\_lola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f4b2a3/32.png) [@kung\_fu\_lola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kung_fu_lola)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/50 "2007-01-03T03:56:00Z")
“How does it all begin? I suppose it never begins. It just continues. And, one…” from Martha Graham’s _Blood Memory_ ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/51 "2007-01-03T04:05:11Z")
[QUOTE=Ignatz] " :“all me Ishmael.” Herman Melville, **Moby Dick**. [/QUOTE] And the last line: “It was the devious-cruising Rachel, that in her retracing search after her missing children, only found another orphan.” Also (last line): “La commedia è finita!” (_I pagliacci_, Ruggero Leoncavallo. Line often misattributed to Canio, originally assigned to Tonio.) ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/52 "2007-01-03T04:13:14Z")
From “Scanners Live in Vain” by Cordwainer Smith; first line: “Martel was angry. He did not even adjust his blood away from anger.” IMNSHO, that sentence is right up there with Orwell’s “clocks were striking thirteen” and Heinlein’s “the door dilated” as Best. Science. Fiction. Sentence. Ev-AR! As far as I recall, the last lines are: “Sorry your friend didn’t make it.” “Who?” “Your friend, Parizianski.” There are not enough cool smileys for this story. Here’s one 🆒 to start. ---
**Author:** ![Jplacer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/85f322/32.png) [@Jplacer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jplacer)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/53 "2007-01-03T04:29:27Z")
It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed. With the brass nozzle in his fists, with this great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world, the blood pounded in his head, and his hands were the hands of some amazing conductor playing all the symphonies of blazing and burning to bring down the tatters and charcoal ruins of history. –Farenheit 451, Ray Bradbury ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/54 "2007-01-03T05:42:25Z")
[QUOTE=Chez Guevara] _It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me._ Anthony Burgess, _Earthly Powers_. [/QUOTE] Hey, you took mine. How about “This is the saddest story I have ever heard” _The Good Soldier_, Ford Madox Ford ---
**Author:** ![MacSpon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@MacSpon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacSpon)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/55 "2007-01-03T10:49:47Z")
Closing line: \*And the silence was deeper that night across the face of the world, from pole to pole, deeper than it had ever been before in the life of the creatures that called themselves human. But not as deep as it would soon become.\* – **On the Slab** , Harlan Ellison ---
**Author:** ![from\_a\_to\_z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5fc32e/32.png) [@from\_a\_to\_z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/from_a_to_z)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/56 "2007-01-03T11:48:28Z")
[QUOTE=C K Dexter Haven] I’m doing this from memory… [/QUOTE] Great choices. [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/) Online Reader is also available, for both _Rebecca_ – “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” – and _The Stranger_ (and _A River Runs Through It_). My contribution, from among many great and short stories… First line: “My aunt will be down presently, Mr. Nuttel,” said a very self-possessed young lady of fifteen; “in the meantime you must try and put up with me.” Last line: Romance at short notice was her speciality. Yes, Saki’s “The Open Window”. ---
**Author:** ![Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boulter_s_Canary)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/57 "2007-01-04T02:41:16Z")
Now consider the tortoise and the eagle. Vorbis stood up, uncertainly, and followed Brutha across the dsesert. Death watched them walk away. ‘Small Gods’ - Terry Pratchett ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/58 "2007-01-04T23:27:41Z")
“He was one hundred and seventy days dying and not yet dead.” **The Stars My Destination** ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2007, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/59 "2007-01-05T00:15:22Z")
“Someone must have slandered Josef K., f or one morning without having done anything truly wrong, he was arrested.” "Like a dog!” he said; it was as if the shame of it should outlive him. Franz Kafka, “The Trial” ---
**Author:** ![Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilvert_s_Pagan)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2007, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273/60 "2007-01-05T00:19:32Z")
**Opening:** _We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like “I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive…” And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas. And a voice was screaming: “Holy Jesus!” What are these goddamn animals?_ - **Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas** , Hunter S. Thompson _These are the times that try men’s souls._ - **The American Crisis** , Thomas Paine **Closing:** - - That is very well put, said Candide, but we must cultivate our garden.\* - **Candide** , Voltaire \*“But why?” Simon Wagstaff shouted. “Why? Why? Why?” Old Bingo drank a glass of beer, belched, and spoke. “Why not?” \* - **Venus on the Half-Shell** , Kilgore Trout (Philip Jose Farmer) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-first-and-last-lines-from-various-works/386273.md?page=4)