# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![NineToTheSky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5a626/32.png) [@NineToTheSky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NineToTheSky)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2014, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/82 "2014-01-18T12:57:20Z")
I am sorry, two sentences, but, boy, is it worth it. Did he live his life again in every detail of desire, temptation, and surrender during that supreme moment of complete knowledge? He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision, – he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath – “The horror! The horror!” ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2014, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/83 "2014-01-18T13:17:47Z")
> [@](#): > > We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender… That one sentence has occasionally left me wishing I were English. ---
**Author:** ![RobDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f07891/32.png) [@RobDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobDog)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2014, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/84 "2014-01-18T14:47:48Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > That one sentence has occasionally left me wishing I were English. Console yourself with the fact that these days you need to replace “landing grounds”, “fields” and “hills” with “pub”, “curry house” and “football terraces”, and “surrender” with “be sober”. ---
**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 18, 2014, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/85 "2014-01-18T16:31:37Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > After several hours of passion: > > “There’s nothing wrong with you that isn’t correctable.” Said to Lucy in _ **The Godfather** _? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Evin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/59ef9b/32.png) [@Evin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evin)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2014, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/86 "2014-01-18T16:33:57Z")
“… the PA system was moaning unctuously, like a lady hippopotamus reading A. E. Housman …” – James Blish, _They Shall Have Stars_ ---
**Author:** ![Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2014, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/87 "2014-01-18T18:13:16Z")
Dorothy Parker, writing a book review wrote: “The covers of this book are too far apart.” Apparently she didn’t like it much…🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Skara\_Brae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Skara\_Brae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skara_Brae)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2014, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/88 "2014-01-18T18:33:45Z")
“He wore the unmistakable look of a man about to be present at a row between women, and only a wet cat in a strange backyard bears itself with less jauntiness than a man faced by such a prospect.” PG Wodehouse ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2014, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/89 "2014-01-18T21:46:56Z")
“Men love women, women love children, children love hamsters, and hamsters don’t love anybody.” I heard that quoted in a book review, and I don’t know who wrote the book. ---
**Author:** ![Chanteuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de053/32.png) [@Chanteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chanteuse)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2014, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/90 "2014-01-18T22:43:56Z")
> [@epolo](#): > > Two pages and no St. Crispin’s Day? > > “This story shall the good man teach his son; > And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by, > From this day to the ending of the world, > But we in it shall be remembered- > We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; > For he to-day that sheds his blood with me > Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile, > This day shall gentle his condition; > And gentlemen in England now-a-bed > Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here, > And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks > That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.” I loved [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHYeDqEngxU) scene from _Renaissance Man_. Even though it’s not perfectly quoted (he was trying to remember it on the spot and under pressure, after all), I think I found it moving because it was more emoTION and less emoTING. I loved the drill sergeant’s reaction as he realized, perhaps for the first time, that Shakespeare was still relevant to the soldier’s heart. ---
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2014, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/91 "2014-01-19T00:19:31Z")
> [@BuzzSaw101](#): > > “The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.” > > “On the Road” Jack Kerouac > [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > From Mark Twain’s **The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn** : > > “All right then, I’ll _go_ to Hell!” > > (Context is everything here. Huck sincerely believes that unless he betrays his friend Jim, who is fleeing slavery, that he (Huck) will be eternally damned.) I love these two, I have them up in the loo. I’ll contribute another that I have there: “Day by day and night by night we were together–all else has long been forgotten by me” by Walt Whitman, from _Once I Pass’d Through a Populous City_ I love it because it’s so recognisable to me. I have a terrible memory for events, but I’ll remember that I was there with someone I love. When Whitman puts it like that, I don’t feel so bad about having a bad memory. Yeah, I forgot that we went to that museum, we went to that play, that we climbed that hill and picnicked under that tree, but in my memory we were together and I don’t care about the rest. We were together. Now I’m going to read through the thread again and see if there is another nice one to put up in the loo! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Fat\_Orange\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e495f1/32.png) [@Fat\_Orange\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fat_Orange_Cat)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2014, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/92 "2014-01-19T00:35:17Z")
“It doesn’t mean that much to me to mean that much to you…” Neil Young ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2014, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/93 "2014-01-19T01:21:00Z")
In my case, it was: “We would like to see more of your work” – George Scithers. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2014, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/94 "2014-01-19T03:08:26Z")
> [@AskNott](#): > > “Men love women, women love children, children love hamsters, and hamsters don’t love anybody.” > > I heard that quoted in a book review, and I don’t know who wrote the book. It’s apparently a quote from [Alice Thomas Ellis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Thomas_Ellis): > [@](#): > > Her best-known novel was probably Unexplained Laughter (1985), which was adapted for British television, as was her Summerhouse Trilogy. Her novel The 27th Kingdom (1982) was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Her Home Life column in The Spectator was published in four volumes. All her work was livened by a dry, dark sense of humour. One of her most famous witticisms is as follows: “There is no reciprocity. Men love women. Women love children. Children love hamsters. Hamsters don’t love anyone”. ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2014, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/95 "2014-01-19T05:47:56Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > You should be writing haiku. Better yet, reading the classics like Basho, Buson, Issa and Shiki. Here’s one your words evoked, from [WRITING THROUGH THE SEASONS](http://hokku.wordpress.com/2012/10/28/rain-beats-on-rain/): Thank you for the recommendations. I’ve given it a stab or two. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2014, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/96 "2014-01-19T06:04:02Z")
“My Lords, if I were an American the way I am an Englishman and foreign soldiers were on my soil I would never lay down my arms, never, never, never.” -William Pitt So often true throughout history and yet advice so often ignored. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2014, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/97 "2014-01-19T10:50:13Z")
“Let us step into the night, and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure!” ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/98 "2014-01-22T00:23:31Z")
> [@Nature\_s\_Call](#): > > The first sentence that came to my mind actually didn’t: I only recall my reaction to the sentence. It was from Tom Robbins “Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates” I remember after reading it having to put the book down just to chew on everything it said and everything it inferred, while wiping tears of laughter from my eyes. If I think about it when I get home I’ll try to find it (good luck!) > > The second sentence that came to my mind is… > > “Gerald began–but was interrupted by a piercing whistle which cost him ten percent of his hearing permanently, as it did everyone else in a ten-mile radius of the eruption, not that it mattered much because for them “permanently” meant the next ten minutes or so until buried by searing lava or suffocated by choking ash–to pee.” > > This is still my favourite ever Bulwar-Lytton, even long before I knew it was penned by our own **Boyo Jim** Wow, I am honored to be mentioned in this thread. Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/99 "2014-01-22T02:08:18Z")
> [@Gagundathar](#): > > Not a single sentence, but truly one of the most notable in all of SF: Kudos where due to Rutger Hauer, [who wrote much of that speech and improvised some changes the night before it was shot.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tears_in_rain_soliloquy) :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/100 "2014-01-22T02:14:28Z")
" My name is Asher Lev, _the_ Asher Lev, about whom you have read in newspapers and magazines, about whom you talk so much at your dinner affairs and cocktail parties, the notorious and legendary Lev of the _Brooklyn Cruxifixion."_ The opening sentence of the most important book I have ever read. " My Name Is Asher Lev ", by Chaim Potok. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/101 "2014-01-22T02:31:05Z")
Just because I like the sound of it… and because it makes you think about deep stuff, Clarence’s dream from Richard III: Methought I saw a thousand fearful wrecks; Ten thousand men that fishes gnaw’d upon; Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl, Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels, All scatter’d in the bottom of the sea: Some lay in dead men’s skulls; and, in those holes Where eyes did once inhabit, there were crept, As 'twere in scorn of eyes, reflecting gems, Which woo’d the slimy bottom of the deep, And mock’d the dead bones that lay scatter’d by. Oh, as I posted this, I remembered my real favorite. Repeated many times in Moby Dick: “Surely all this is not without meaning.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598.md?page=6)