# What is the greatest sentence you have read or heard ? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 12, 2014, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598 "2014-01-12T18:47:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/21 "2014-01-15T00:43:58Z")
“I, for one, welcome our new ant overlords.” _—Kent Brockman_ “Trying is the first step towards failure.” _—Homer J Simpson_ ---
**Author:** ![I\_Made\_French\_Toast\_For\_You](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/858c86/32.png) [@I\_Made\_French\_Toast\_For\_You](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Made_French_Toast_For_You)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/22 "2014-01-15T00:45:54Z")
An amazing “sentence” from Faulkner’s _Absalom, Absalom!_: “You get born and you try this and you don’t know why only you keep on trying it and you are born at the same time with a lot of other people, all mixed up with them, like trying to, having to, move your arms and legs with string only the same strings are hitched to all the other arms and legs and the others all trying and they don’t know why either except that the strings are all in one another’s way like five or six people all trying to make a rug on the same loom only each one wants to weave his own pattern into the rug; and it can’t matter, you know that, or the Ones that set up the loom would have arranged things a little better, and yet it must matter because you keep on trying and then all of a sudden it’s all over and all you have left is a block of stone with scratches on it provided there was someone to remember to have the marble scratched and set up or had time to, and it rains on it and then sun shines on it and after a while they don’t even remember the name and what the scratches were trying to tell, and it doesn’t matter.” ---
**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 15, 2014, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/23 "2014-01-15T01:12:37Z")
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before; But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token, And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, `Lenore!’ In fact, I’d take even just the first two lines of it if you want to count that as a sentence. It’s amazing. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/24 "2014-01-15T01:36:29Z")
“I must not only punish, but punish with impunity.” ---
**Author:** ![Jungian\_Camisole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8baadc/32.png) [@Jungian\_Camisole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jungian_Camisole)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/25 "2014-01-15T02:03:15Z")
“It stops being funny when it starts being you.” Stephen King. Good lesson in empathy. “Stay on the streets of this town and they’ll be carving you up alright.” Bruce Springsteen. This song changed my life. Long and boring story, but I give him all of the credit for lighting a fire under my ass to improve my situation. It’s worked out very, very well. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/26 "2014-01-15T02:09:22Z")
It is far better to sit idle than to do nothing at all. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/27 "2014-01-15T02:24:13Z")
Der Trihs’s signature: Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest. _— Denis Diderot_ ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/28 "2014-01-15T03:34:17Z")
“Jesus wept.” (John 11:35, from the story of Lazarus) So sad, so succinct. > [@terentii](#): > > “I, for one, welcome our new ant overlords.” > > _—Kent Brockman_ This one’s my second favorite. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/29 "2014-01-15T05:32:47Z")
“A Saturday afternoon in November was approaching the time of twilight, and the vast tract of unenclosed wild known as Egdon Heath embrowned itself moment by moment.” [http://www.wepsite.de/novel%20writing.htm](http://www.wepsite.de/novel%20writing.htm) ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/30 "2014-01-15T05:51:34Z")
The opening line to a Tale of Two Cities. The first clause is often quoted, the rest of it often forgotten. > [@Charles Dickens](#): > > 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. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/31 "2014-01-15T06:36:44Z")
“Of all the gin joints in all the world, why did she have to walk into mine?” Rick Blaine, Casablanca ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/32 "2014-01-15T07:26:03Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > “Of all the gin joints in all the world, why did she have to walk into mine?” Rick Blaine, Casablanca Actually it’s, “Of all the gin joints, in all the world, she walks into mine.” ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/33 "2014-01-15T07:47:31Z")
“Stonewall” Jackson’s dying words were simple and beautiful: “Let us cross over the river and rest in the shade under the trees.” ---
**Author:** ![RobDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f07891/32.png) [@RobDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobDog)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/34 "2014-01-15T09:31:32Z")
> [@movingfinger](#): > > “Stonewall” Jackson’s dying words were simple and beautiful: “Let us cross over the river and rest in the shade under the trees.” I’m surprised; I thought you’d have chosen something from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. ---
**Author:** ![Nayna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ebca7d/32.png) [@Nayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nayna)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/35 "2014-01-15T11:01:48Z")
They flash one another concerned looks, like the March sisters in Little Women, and I am Beth, the youngest, chattering brightly at Christmas about the piano recital I shall give this spring when it is clear to everyone else that I will surely be dead long before they even run out of eggnog. - David Rakoff, Don’t Get Too Comfortable Cracks me up every time. ---
**Author:** ![Ostrya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/35a633/32.png) [@Ostrya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ostrya)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/36 "2014-01-15T11:19:54Z")
The greatest sentence I ever heard was “220 years without parole”. ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/37 "2014-01-15T11:47:06Z")
“The sun went down, and it’s golden glow lighted with fire the wonderful O.” - _The Wonderful O_ - James Thurber ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/38 "2014-01-15T13:50:19Z")
> [@Eutychus](#): > > “The sun went down, and it’s golden glow lighted with fire the wonderful O.” > > - _The Wonderful O_ - James Thurber My favorite sentence from that book is “Stop his squawking,” Black exclaimed, “or else I’ll squck his thrug till all he can whupple is geep.” ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/39 "2014-01-15T13:56:02Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > My favorite sentence from that book is > > “Stop his squawking,” Black exclaimed, “or else I’ll squck his thrug till all he can whupple is geep.” “Geep”, whuppled the parrot! ---
**Author:** ![Enigma42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/87869e/32.png) [@Enigma42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enigma42)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/40 "2014-01-15T16:04:58Z")
I wouldn’t necessarily say it is the absolute best sentence I’ve ever read, but it may have been the most instantly engaging opening line to a book I’ve ever read. Alfred Bester’s “The Stars My Destination”: “He was one hundred and seventy days dying and not yet dead.” To be honest though, I think it should have been ‘one hundred and eighty days’ instead. It flows better to me that way. Still, that line really pulled me in! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598.md?page=3)