# Post great last lines of stories you love. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 29, 2010, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789 "2010-04-29T21:05:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/1 "2010-04-29T21:05:55Z")
I mean _written_ stories of course. My hatred of film is venomous, deep, and as hot as Natalie Portman. It can be more than a single sentence, but try not to set off the mods’ “Respect Copyright, Damn It!” alarms. I’ll begin: [QUOTE=Valerie Martin in her short story “The Freeze”] That night, in that city, there was the hardest freeze in fifty years. Pipes burst, houses flooded, and the water pressure was so low that several buildings burned to the ground while the firemen stood about, cursing the empty hoses they held in their cold and helpless hands. [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/2 "2010-04-29T21:48:20Z")
“…he had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.” ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/3 "2010-04-29T21:53:19Z")
“Well, I’m back.” ---
**Author:** ![E.Thorp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@E.Thorp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E.Thorp)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/4 "2010-04-29T21:55:58Z")
“He wishes he had never entered the funhouse. But he has. Then he wishes he were dead. But he’s not. Therefore he will construct funhouses for others and be their secret operator–though he would rather be among the lovers for whom funhouses are designed.” John Barth, “Lost in the Funhouse” ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/5 "2010-04-29T22:16:40Z")
As much as I object to the world view of this story, I found the ending poignant and beautiful. “And in the middle of them, with filthy body, matted hair, and unwiped nose, Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy.” “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/6 "2010-04-29T22:34:31Z")
**Skald** , would it bring the wrath of bees, flying monkeys, or similar dangers upon myself to point out the typo in your quote? ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/7 "2010-04-29T22:37:18Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > **Skald** , would it bring the wrath of bees, flying monkeys, or similar dangers upon myself to point out the typo in your quote? Course not. But I don’t see it. Can you bold it for to help out an old man? ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/8 "2010-04-29T22:37:31Z")
> [@](#): > > The consciousness of AC encompassed all of what had once been a Universe and brooded over what was now Chaos. Step by step, it must be done. > > And AC said, “LET THERE BE LIGHT!” > > And there was light– –Isaac Asimov, “The Last Question” ---
**Author:** ![Reno\_Nevada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Reno\_Nevada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reno_Nevada)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/9 "2010-04-29T22:43:59Z")
> [@](#): > > P.P.S. Please if you get a chanse put some flowrs on Algernons grave in the bak yard… – Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes. I hope that I did not make any typos there. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/10 "2010-04-29T22:44:06Z")
“‘The road is cleared,’ said Galt. ‘We are going back to the world.’ He raised his hand and over the desolate earth he traced in space the sign of the dollar.” ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/11 "2010-04-29T22:44:15Z")
“The Ramans do everything in threes.” ---
**Author:** ![\_Undecided\_Adrian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/eada6e/32.png) [@\_Undecided\_Adrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_Undecided_Adrian)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/12 "2010-04-29T22:49:38Z")
**Arthur C. Clarke: The Star** I read this when I still believed, but had my doubts, and it really got me. There can be no reasonable doubt: the ancient mystery is solved at last. Yet, oh God, there were so many stars you could have used. What was the need to give these people to the fire, that the symbol of their passing might shine above Bethlehem? ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/13 "2010-04-29T22:52:06Z")
“His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.” - James Joyce, **The Dead** ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/14 "2010-04-29T22:52:58Z")
“A chill night breeze came whispering down from the depths of the valley, and suddenly the place was full of ghosts, shadows of men alive and dead, my own among them.” ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/15 "2010-04-29T22:56:22Z")
> [@](#): > > And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all. … ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/16 "2010-04-29T22:56:31Z")
Just remembered another: “And so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” - **The Great Gatsby** ---
**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/17 "2010-04-29T23:01:26Z")
The end of Shirley Jackson’s _The Haunting of Hill House_: “Hill House itself, not sane, stood against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, its 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.” ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/18 "2010-04-29T23:13:33Z")
Catch-22 “The knife came down, missing him by inches, and he took off.” ---
**Author:** ![Satchmo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/satchmo/32/4223_2.png) [@Satchmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satchmo)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/19 "2010-04-29T23:25:49Z")
“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.” ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/20 "2010-04-29T23:37:40Z")
I hope I won’t come off as junior-modding when I ask that people actually post the author of the piece and title of the story. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789.md?page=2)