# Perfect last lines.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-last-lines/465531
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [September 28, 2008, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-last-lines/465531 "2008-09-28T02:46:08Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Ponderoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponderoid)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2008, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-last-lines/465531/21 "2008-09-28T20:12:18Z")
“What smells purple?” --“The Man with the English”, Horace L. Gold
“We live in the lovely quiet and dark.” –_The Persistence of Vision_, John Varley
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### Author:  [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2008, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-last-lines/465531/22 "2008-09-28T22:49:06Z")
Ahem:
“Well, I’m Back” (Return of the King). JRR Tolkien wins the thread.
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### Author:  [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2008, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-last-lines/465531/23 "2008-09-28T22:51:30Z")
“I’m finished!”
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2008, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-last-lines/465531/24 "2008-09-28T23:09:47Z")
Well, if we’re counting written work, there’s the last line of Alfred Bester’s “Adam and No Eve.”
And with glazing eyes, Steven Krane smiled up at the stars, stars that were sprinkled evenly across the sky. Stars that had not yet formed into the familiar constellations, and would not for another hundred million centuries.
Also, the final word from Fredric Brown’s “Nightmare in Yellow.”
“Surprise!”
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### Author:  [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2008, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-last-lines/465531/25 "2008-09-28T23:25:12Z")
In honor of Paul Newman:
_Butch: When we get outside, when we get to the horses, just remember one thing. Hey, wait a minute!
Sundance: What?
Butch: You didn’t see Lefors out there, did ya?
Sundance: Lefors? No.
Butch: (confidently) Good. For a moment there, I thought we were in trouble._
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### Author:  [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2008, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-last-lines/465531/26 "2008-09-28T23:25:36Z")
Well, always look on the bright side of life…😛
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### Author:  [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2008, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-last-lines/465531/27 "2008-09-28T23:28:57Z")
[QUOTE=The Nine Billion Names of God]
“Look,” whispered Chuck, and George lifted his eyes to heaven. (There is always a last time for everything.)
Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out.
[/QUOTE]
_A Matter of Oaths_, from memory :
> [@](#):
>
> “He’ll get control of the Guild over my dead body !”
>
> Years later, she realized that it was the wrong thing to say about an immortal.
“But for now the learning was too late, and soon the fury of atoms in bondage conquered all.” - _The Bully And The Crazy Boy_
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### Author:  [@SuperNelson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuperNelson)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2008, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-last-lines/465531/28 "2008-09-28T23:52:15Z")
“She won’t live forever. But who does?”
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### Author:  [@Tracy\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tracy_Lord)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2008, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-last-lines/465531/29 "2008-09-28T23:56:54Z")
“The circle had closed. She found what she had been searching for.”
- _Contact_, Carl Sagan.
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### Author:  [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2008, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-last-lines/465531/30 "2008-09-28T23:57:23Z")
_The Ramans do everything in threes._
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### Author:  [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2008, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-last-lines/465531/31 "2008-09-29T00:23:25Z")
> [@Baker](#):
>
> _The Ramans do everything in threes._
Which _is_ an awesome last line…
…But, then we saw what the other three were, and wished they kind of did things in ones. Or did things in threes, but did them as good as the first one. But, really, we got four. So, now I’m confused. Damn you, Ramans! Damn you all to heck!
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### Author:  [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2008, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-last-lines/465531/32 "2008-09-29T00:25:37Z")
> [@well\_he\_s\_back](#):
>
> Ahem:
>
> “Well, I’m Back” (Return of the King). JRR Tolkien wins the thread.
Pfff, a little biased, aren’t we?
But yeh, I almost posted that, but figured I’d leave it for you. 😉
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### Author:  [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2008, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-last-lines/465531/33 "2008-09-29T00:30:51Z")
“We each owe a death, there are no exceptions, I know that, but sometimes, oh God, the Green Mile is so long.” _(King has a lot of good ones)_
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### Author:  [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2008, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-last-lines/465531/34 "2008-09-29T00:36:56Z")
“I don’t know. Maybe it was Utah.”
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### Author:  [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2008, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-last-lines/465531/35 "2008-09-29T00:41:29Z")
Many, many different lead-ins, but they all ended with
“…the Twilight Zone.”
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### Author:  [@jk1245](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jk1245)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2008, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-last-lines/465531/36 "2008-09-29T01:46:07Z")
Hard to top _Casablanca_, of course, but some of my favorites
> [@](#):
>
> And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all
-_The Masque of the Red Death_
> [@](#):
>
> And like that [poof]…he was gone
-_The Usual Suspects_
> [@](#):
>
> It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both
-_Charlotte’s Web_
> [@](#):
>
> In spite of everything, I still believe people are really good at heart
-\*The Diary of Anne Frank \*(from the play. This wasn’t the last line of the actual diary, but she did write it.)
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### Author:  [@jk1245](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jk1245)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2008, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-last-lines/465531/37 "2008-09-29T01:50:52Z")
Crap. How could I have forgotten probably my favorite one form a movie??
> [@](#):
>
> I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams.
> I hope
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### Author:  [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2008, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-last-lines/465531/38 "2008-09-29T01:59:35Z")
_“The Dude abides.”_
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### Author:  [@Skara\_Brae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skara_Brae)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2008, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-last-lines/465531/39 "2008-09-29T02:14:22Z")
_“Home. I’ll go home. And I’ll think of some way to get him back. After all… tomorrow is another day.”_
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### Author:  [@Quercus\_alba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus_alba)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2008, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-last-lines/465531/40 "2008-09-29T02:32:27Z")
“Oh, good. For a moment there I thought we were in trouble.”
(:smack: missed it above)
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