# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/102 "2014-01-22T02:50:49Z")
Graffiti following 9-11: “Dear God, save us from those who believe in you.” ---
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/103 "2014-01-22T11:40:52Z")
> [@Sattua](#): > > Oh, as I posted this, I remembered my real favorite. Repeated many times in Moby Dick: “Surely all this is not without meaning.” Sorry. The answer is that: “It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury Signifying nothing.” - _Macbeth_, William Shakespeare ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/104 "2014-01-22T11:56:56Z")
“I had been many - I was now one - and to me, myself, alone, grey-eyed Athene spoke saying ‘I am Justice, whom you have made both a slave and a whore.’” Mary Renault - _The Last of the Wine_. The perfect culmination of a great scene, and one of the best descriptions of the seductiveness of the mob that I’ve ever read. ---
**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 22, 2014, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/105 "2014-01-22T13:09:50Z")
Excerpt from **Locksley Hall** \*For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see, Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be; Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails, Pilots of the purple twilight dropping down with costly bales; Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rain’d a ghastly dew From the nations’ airy navies grappling in the central blue; Far along the world-wide whisper of the south-wind rushing warm, With the standards of the peoples plunging thro’ the thunder-storm; Till the war-drum throbb’d no longer, and the battle-flags were furl’d In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world.\* —Tennyson ---
**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 22, 2014, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/106 "2014-01-22T18:06:01Z")
“You know what they say about sleeping dogs; you can’t trust 'em.” _–Oliver Faltz (one of my pseudonyms)_ ---
**Author:** ![Just1Lurk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c0e974/32.png) [@Just1Lurk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just1Lurk)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/107 "2014-01-22T19:51:00Z")
Another one from Lincoln, after the fall of Vicksberg: “The Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea.” ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/108 "2014-01-22T19:53:48Z")
Brevity is key. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/109 "2014-01-24T00:58:48Z")
> [@kayT](#): > > Don’t think so. He believes he’s going to hell and he does not care because his friend is more important. One of my favorite lines too. I’m with **kayT**. Can’t even see the other. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/110 "2014-01-24T01:35:02Z")
Two candidates from the same poem: Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight: And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught The Sultan’s Turret in a Noose of Light. The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it. - Edward Fitzgerald’s translation of **The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam** , 1859 ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/111 "2014-01-24T04:26:23Z")
To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? ---
**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 24, 2014, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/112 "2014-01-24T05:05:51Z")
More effective when delivered in an oily, effeminate tone: “Who is it in the press that calls on me? I hear a tongue shriller than all the music cry ‘Caesar!’ Speak, ‘Caesar’ is turned to hear!” ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/113 "2014-01-24T15:12:17Z")
I want you to remember, Clark…in all the years to come…in your most private moments…I want you to remember…my hand…at your throat…I want…you to remember…the one man who beat you." Batman to Superman: Dark Knight Returns ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/114 "2014-01-24T16:10:15Z")
> [@Just1Lurk](#): > > I don’t remember which Discworld book it’s from, but I can’t forget this Terry Pratchett opening line: > > “In the beginning there was nothing, which exploded.” From _Lords and Ladies._ And as long as we are quoting from the Tao of Pterry: “Give a man a fire and he’s warm for a day, but set fire to him and he’s warm for the rest of his life.” “In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this.” “Some humans would do anything to see if it was possible to do it. If you put a large switch in some cave somewhere, with a sign on it saying ‘End-of-the-World Switch. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH’, the paint wouldn’t even have time to dry.” “Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.” And one of my absolute favorites. It’s a quote from an interview, not a book: “There is a rumour going around that I have found God. I think this is unlikely because I have enough difficulty finding my keys, and there is empirical evidence that they exist.” ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/115 "2014-01-24T16:15:15Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > From _Lords and Ladies._ > > And as long as we are quoting from the Tao of Pterry: > > “Give a man a fire and he’s warm for a day, but set fire to him and he’s warm for the rest of his life.” > > “In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this.” > > “Some humans would do anything to see if it was possible to do it. If you put a large switch in some cave somewhere, with a sign on it saying ‘End-of-the-World Switch. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH’, the paint wouldn’t even have time to dry.” > > “Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.” > > And one of my absolute favorites. It’s a quote from an interview, not a book: > > “There is a rumour going around that I have found God. I think this is unlikely because I have enough difficulty finding my keys, and there is empirical evidence that they exist.” A dynamite list. I especially love, “Give a man a fire and he’s warm for a day, but set fire to him and he’s warm for the rest of his life.” Has a sort of Jack Handey vibe. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/116 "2014-01-24T17:03:33Z")
From _Good Omens_: “He didn’t so much fall as saunter vaguely downward.” ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/117 "2014-01-24T17:49:06Z")
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. — Jefferson, Declaration of Independence’s 1st sentence. I like it not only for the elegant language but for the sentiment. ---
**Author:** ![Labor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Labor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labor)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/118 "2014-01-24T18:00:41Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > The opening line to a Tale of Two Cities. The first clause is often quoted, the rest of it often forgotten. This is the sentence that came to mind for me. Here are some others: “Call me Ishmael.” Moby Dick “In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job.” Job 1:1 “Bright, clear sky over a plain so wide that the rim of the heavens cut down on it around the entire horizon. . . . Bright, clear sky, to-day, to-morrow, and for all time to come.” Giants in the Earth O.E. Rolvaag Interestingly for me the best sentences in my examples are all first sentences of the work. If it starts well, its likely to end well; much like Beethoven’s 5th, or Mahler’s 5th. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/119 "2014-01-24T18:09:16Z")
Even if it’s more than one sentence (and I haven’t even tried to look it up yet) Rutger Hauer’s death speech in _Blade Runner_ leapt to mind as I read **Labor** ’s post. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/120 "2014-01-24T18:17:26Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > And one of my absolute favorites. It’s a quote from an interview, not a book: > > “There is a rumour going around that I have found God. I think this is unlikely because I have enough difficulty finding my keys, and there is empirical evidence that they exist.” And as long as we’re quoting from interviews, we might as well aspire to intellectual honesty by carrying on with the very next thing he said: > [@Pterry](#): > > But it is true that in an interview I gave recently {2008 – Mal} I did describe a sudden, distinct feeling I had one hectic day that everything I was doing was right and things were happening as they should. > It seemed like the memory of a voice and it came wrapped in its own brief little bubble of tranquillity. I’m not used to this. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598/121 "2014-01-24T18:29:42Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > Romans 8:38-39 > > 38For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Excellent choice. So far this is topping anything I can think of! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-sentence-you-have-read-or-heard/678598.md?page=7)