Thread: One-liners from your favourite books. Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.
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Posted by Huia (# 3473) on
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I have been enjoying the T shirt slogans thread and it occurred to me that some of my favourite books have lines that stay in my memory long after I have read the book. They may be funny or thought-provoking or leave me with a sense of completion.
Jane Austen's - It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man of good fortune must be in want of a wife. is one of the best known opening sentences in a novel. So what are your favourites?
Mine - from Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy "Time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so"
And from Madeline the first book I loved as a child. '"Thank the Lord that you are well and go to sleep,'" said Miss Clavell. And she turned out the light and closed the door. That's all there is, there isn't anymore".
Huia
Posted by Pine Marten (# 11068) on
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From my favourite childhood book Through the Looking Glass, the whole of chapter 11: '...and it really was a kitten, after all.'
Yes, I am owned by several cats ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
.
And the line that always gives me shivers of delight (no doubting from where): 'Mr Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound!'
Maybe I just have a thing about animals... ![[Paranoid]](graemlins/paranoid.gif)
And of course from the wonderful Miss du Maurier: 'Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.'
Posted by ExclamationMark (# 14715) on
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"May I?" he said. And he did
Uncle Pumblechook, Great Expectations (Dickens)
And another
"What wind blows you here Pip?" (Miss Havisham)
Posted by leo (# 1458) on
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Earthly Powers - Anthony Burgess, begins with a pope saying "It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me."
Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on
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I collect these for my miscellaneous quotes file and a favourite for the moment comes from Mark Haddon's A Spot of Bother
quote:
But god, the woman could make you feel greedy and self-centred just by the way she wore a shapeless fawn cardigan.
Posted by ElaineC (# 12244) on
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"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." from 1984 by George Orwell
"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." from Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Posted by Firenze (# 619) on
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'It is not the object of this work to give a description of Derbyshire'. (J Austen)
Good quote for writers - ie, stuff the lyrical evocation of landscape and Get On With It.
Posted by JonahMan (# 12126) on
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"And ever Sir Lancelot wept, as he had been a child that were beaten." Le Morte D'Arthur
Posted by Caissa (# 16710) on
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"The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles" Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto
Posted by Hedgehog (# 14125) on
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“Marley was dead: to begin with.” -- Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
What a great way to start a story! Actually, the first 2 paragraphs are delightful, but I realize we are to limit ourselves to one-liners.
Posted by S. Bacchus (# 17778) on
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Two appropriately churchy first lines:
'Had the Dean's daughter worn a bra that afternoon, Norman Shotover might never have found out about the Church of England; still less about how to fly' — A.N. Wilson, 'Unguarded Hours'.
'"Take my camel, dear", said my aunt Dot, as she climbed down from this animal on her return from High Mass.' — Rose Macauly, The Towers of Trebizond.
(The latter book also has what is perhaps the most poignant final sentence, which is written as a paragraph unto itself: 'That seems, indeed, the eternal dilemma'. Now, granted that's not terribly poignant out of context, but in the context of the astonishing final chapter, it's a real tear-jerker).
Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on
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Armistead Maupin in Maybe the Moon:
quote:
Like I’ve always said, love wouldn’t be blind if the Braille weren’t so damned much fun.
Posted by venbede (# 16669) on
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Here's Barbara Pym at the very opening of her first published novel, "Some Tame Gazelle", managing both to sum up her themes (female interest in unobtainable but unsatisfactory males)and anticipate her parodists:
The new curate seemed quite a nice young man, but what a pity it was that his combinations showed, tucked carelessly into his socks when he sat down.
Posted by venbede (# 16669) on
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And from Angela Carter's Wise Children
She was going on about it as if it were a matter of life and death. We knew that nothing is a matter of life and death except life and death.
Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on
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From the excellent Last Train to Innocence by Jayabrato Chatterjee:
quote:
Badibua was never pleased with anything or anybody and she had mastered the knack of making other people’s lives miserable.
Posted by venbede (# 16669) on
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And Jane Austen Emma
It was rather too late in the day to set about being simple-minded and ignorant.
And the entire text of The Importance of Being Earnest.
Posted by Gwai (# 11076) on
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One of my favorite ways to begin a book: “There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge.” from Red Wind by Raymond Chandler
Posted by venbede (# 16669) on
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That's wonderfully Chandlereque. I was going to post the opening of The Big Sleep but thought we were only allowed to post one liners.
Posted by Firenze (# 619) on
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He was good, wasn't he? I like -
'IT WAS ABOUT ELEVEN O’CLOCK in the morning, mid October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearness of the foothills. I was wearing my powder-blue suit, with dark blue shirt, tie and display handkerchief, black brogues, black wool socks with dark blue clocks on them. I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn’t care who knew it. I was everything the well-dressed private detective ought to be. I was calling on four million dollars.'
Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on
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A fabulous bit of Graham Greene from Travels with my Aunt:
quote:
I sometimes believe in a Higher Power, even though I am a Catholic.
Posted by venbede (# 16669) on
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That is just what I was going to post, Firenze.
Posted by Og, King of Bashan (# 9562) on
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My favorite Graham Greene one liners come from the last two pages of The Heart of the Matter. Hard to pick one, but I'll go with quote:
For goodness' sake, Mrs. Sconce, don't imagine you- or I- know a thing about God's mercy.
And you could do a whole discussion on the best Wodehouse one liners, but I'll go with the classic, which I think stands up well on its own, but is even funnier in the original context:
quote:
She was definitely the sort of girl who puts her hands over a husband’s eyes, as he is crawling into breakfast with a morning head, and says. ‘Guess who!’
Posted by venbede (# 16669) on
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Madelaine Basset! It is profound that she ends up marrying the fascist Roderick Spode. Sentimentality is indeed the partner of fascism.
My favourite Wodehouse is from the village hall chapter of The Mating Season. The whole lot is glorious but I'll go and check out the description of the vicar introducing it.
Posted by venbede (# 16669) on
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The Mating Season P G Wodehouse
"A tall, drooping man, looking as if he had been stuffed in a hurry by an incompetent taxidermist, it became apparent that he was not one of those boisterous vicars who, when opening a village concert, bound on the stage with a whoop and a holler, give the parishoners a huge Hello, slam across a couple of travelling-salesman-and-farmer's- daughter stories and bound off, beaming."
Not just looking stuffed.
Not just looking stuffed in a hurry.
Not just looking stuffed in a hurry by a taxidermist.
But stuffed in a hurry by an incompetent taxidermist,
Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on
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Ngaio March uttering a truism in Death of a Peer:
quote:
There’s something inherently vulgar in fashion.
Posted by Firenze (# 619) on
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There are some lines from Shaw's days as a music critic stay with me: not just the famous quip about Brahm's Requiem ('to be endured with equanimity only by the corpse') but the likes of: 'the other day, being in want of a headache, I went to the music hall... '. Or on the performance of some soprano - 'the memory of which is, as I write, reconciling me to the grave'.
Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on
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Some words of wisdon from Niccolao Manucci, the author of a book now known as A Pepys of Mughal India - he travelled here in the second half of the 17th century:
quote:
Travelling is a teacher of many things, and he who wanders without learning anything can only be said to have the head of an ass.
Posted by Lyda*Rose (# 4544) on
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quote:
The King was pregnant.
~from The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin
This was evidently LeGuin's seed sentence for the entire book, a story set on a planet where all adults morphed either male or female for a few days of sexual activity every few weeks. And, of course, if one got pregnant, she would remain female until the birth and weaning.
Posted by Lord Jestocost (# 12909) on
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"Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He’s the King, I tell you."
No prizes...
Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on
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A wonderful line from Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini:
quote:
He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad.
Posted by mousethief (# 953) on
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"The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't."
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on
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"Her tone had an upholstered confidence that was both regal and vulgar at once. It demanded a few moments of silence in its wake, like the ringing of a church bell or the playing of taps" (8.)-Brownies, Z.Z Packer, describing the queen bee bully of a Brownie troop.
Well, two liner, but they really needed to hang together.
Posted by quetzalcoatl (# 16740) on
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Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.
Beckett. Worstward Ho.
Posted by quetzalcoatl (# 16740) on
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Perfume of embraces all him assailed. With hungered flesh obscurely, he mutely craved to adore.
Joyce. Ulysses.
It's just the Irish in me coming out. (That's not my favourite line).
Posted by quetzalcoatl (# 16740) on
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duplicate post.
[ 13. September 2013, 16:53: Message edited by: quetzalcoatl ]
Posted by Late Paul (# 37) on
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I quite like this:
quote:
The key to living anywhere is to know how to live there – just ask any snail
M.M. Smith, The Servants.
Oh and did someone mention Chandler?
quote:
…there was a broad stained-glass panel showing a knight in dark armour rescuing a lady who was tied to a tree and didn’t have any clothes on but some very long and convenient hair. The knight had pushed the vizor of his helmet back to be sociable, and he was fiddling with the knots of the ropes that tied the lady to the tree and not getting anywhere. I stood there and thought that if I lived in the house, I would sooner or later have to climb up there and help him. He didn’t seem to be really trying.
from The Big Sleep.
Posted by Firenze (# 619) on
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All of the Myles naGopaleen Buchhandlung columns, including -
'Not less than six volumes to be inscribed with forged messages of affection and gratitude from the author of each work, e.g.... 'From your devoted friend and follower, K. Marx.'... 'Short of the great pleasure of seeing you personally, I can only send you, dear A.B., this copy of "Nostromo". I miss your company more than I can say... (signature undecipherable).'
Under the last inscription, the moron who owns the book will be asked to write (and shown how if necessary) the phrase 'Poor old Conrad was not the worst.'
[ 13. September 2013, 17:36: Message edited by: Firenze ]
Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on
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From Why Catholics Can't Sing by Thomas Day
quote:
Hail Mary:Gentle Woman by Carey Landry requires special attention here because it provides a superior example not only of musical whimsy but of whimsy gone berserk.
Try YouTubing it - see if you agree!
And from the same volume
quote:
Even at that tender age I knew that in our relatively prosperous parish, which claimed to have "one of the finest adult choirs in the archdiocese", only the deaf willingly attended High Mass.
![[Killing me]](graemlins/killingme.gif)
Posted by hanginginthere (# 17541) on
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'Frederick had been the kind of husband whose wife betakes herself early to the feet of God.'
From Elizabeth von Arnim's The Enchanted April
Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on
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Another Austen, again probably no prizes necessary:
"It darted through her, with the speed of an arrow, that Mr. Knightley must marry no one but herself!"
Posted by Hedgehog (# 14125) on
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Perhaps this is technically a two-liner, but it is short enough to be granted an exemption:
"I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did. I said I didn't know." Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi
Posted by Enoch (# 14322) on
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Wendy Cope always cheers me up. Here she is on Kindness to Animals:-
quote:
"But the lamb is not endangered
And at least I can truthfully say
I have never, ever, eaten a barn owl
So perhaps I am OK."
It's not really a favourite book, but this is a gem from Svetlana Alllelyova, Stalin's daughter. It says so much about the old Russia as it inhabits our imaginations.
quote:
"People were a lot more honest and emotional back in those days. If they didn't like the way it was, they shot themselves. Who does that kind of thing now?"
Posted by Garasu (# 17152) on
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I'm quite fond of: quote:
"Reader, I martyred him."
Brenchley, Chaz. - Dead of light
Posted by Heavenly Anarchist (# 13313) on
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Another Hitchhiker's, this is Arthur after Ford asks him how he feels.
"Like a military academy," said Arthur, "bits of me keep on passing out".
Zaphod at the restaurant:
"You guys are so unhip it's a wonder your bums don't fall off."
And from 1066 (but a 3 liner!):
Charles I was a Cavalier King and therefore had a small pointed beard, long flowing curls, a large, flat, flowing hat, and gay attire. The Roundheads, on the other hand, were clean-shaven and wore tall, conical hats, white ties, and sombre garments. Under these circumstances a Civil War was inevitable.
[ 13. September 2013, 19:12: Message edited by: Heavenly Anarchist ]
Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on
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“Some people need a red carpet rolled out in front of them in order to walk forward into friendship. They can't see the tiny outstretched hands all around them, everywhere, like leaves on trees.”
― Miranda July, No One Belongs Here More Than You
Posted by Huia (# 3473) on
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I'm sorry that my specifying 'one liners' has limited some people - it may have been better if I had said, "short quotes" still it's good to see shippies going ahead regardless of the ineptitude of the original post.
Venbede - I love your sig, which was part of my inspiration in launching this thread.
From The Red Tree a picture book by Shaun Tan and one of the best books at describing the experience of depression.
"sometimes the day begins with nothing to look forward to and things go from bad to worse darkness overcomes you nobody understands the world is a deaf machine..."
In writing that I've just realised that he doesn't use conventual punctuation, but allows the turning of the page to act as punctuation. It's brilliant because it captures the relentlessness of feeling depressed.
Huia
Posted by Kaplan Corday (# 16119) on
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"Oh," said the Bright Young People. "Oh,oh oh".
From Evelyn Waugh's description of a rough crossing of the Channel in Vile Bodies.
[ 13. September 2013, 19:56: Message edited by: Kaplan Corday ]
Posted by Firenze (# 619) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Heavenly Anarchist:
And from 1066 (but a 3 liner!):
Charles I was a Cavalier King and therefore had a small pointed beard, long flowing curls, a large, flat, flowing hat, and gay attire. The Roundheads, on the other hand, were clean-shaven and wore tall, conical hats, white ties, and sombre garments. Under these circumstances a Civil War was inevitable.
I've found the categorisation Wrong but Wromantic vs Right but Repulsive has stood me in good stead over the years.
Favourite HGTTG is probably -
'It's unpleasantly like being drunk'
'What's unpleasant about being drunk?'
'Ask a glass of water'.
Posted by no prophet (# 15560) on
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My current sig is Stephen Maturin to Jack Aubrey in Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian, published circa 1972.
"Wit is the unexpected copulation of ideas."
Posted by Moo (# 107) on
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About the King and the Duke in Huckleberry Finn quote:
They gave several temperance lectures, but they didn't raise enough money to get drunk.
Moo
Posted by Firenze (# 619) on
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quote:
Originally posted by no prophet:
My current sig is Stephen Maturin to Jack Aubrey in Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian, published circa 1972.
"Wit is the unexpected copulation of ideas."
Cf. Swift - 'In the midwife's phrase - a quick conception and an easy delivery'.
And mention above of Sellars & Yeatman reminds me of the example of Horse poetry (from Horse Nonsense) - )
Come saddle my beaver and toss me my mare
Not to mention all of 'I sprang to the rollocks and Jorrocks and I...'
Posted by PeteC (# 10422) on
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It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
(Dickens) Tale of Two Cities
Many other lines from that novel spring to mind, but that is one of my favourites.
Posted by Timothy the Obscure (# 292) on
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Appleby: "But they're trying to kill everybody!"
Yossarian: "What difference does that make?"
From Catch-22, of course. Needs a little context, I guess.
Posted by Patdys (# 9397) on
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An ok series but the best opening sentence I have read in a long time.
It was a dark blustery afternoon in Spring, and the city of London was chasing a small mining town across the dried out bed of the old North Sea.
Philip Reeve, Mortal Engines.
Posted by Patdys (# 9397) on
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“We owe it to each other to tell stories.”
― Neil Gaiman
Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on
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In Just Williams - An Autobiography Kenneth Williams quotes Peter Cook
quote:
Every morning there’s the toothpaste to be squeezed, the laces to be tied: it’s a full life.
PeteC used it as his siggy line for a while years ago.
Posted by Kaplan Corday (# 16119) on
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A couple more from Waugh, first the inevitable, "Feather-footed through the plashy fen passes the questing vole", and,"The better sort of Ishmaelites have been Christians for many centuries, and will not publicly eat human flesh uncooked in Lent, without special and costly dispensation from their bishop", both from Scoop.
Posted by Palimpsest (# 16772) on
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From Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey - Maturin series;
"Jack you have debauched my slug."
From "Scoop" by Evelyn Waugh the opening to the telegram
LOVELY SPRING WEATHER BUBONIC PLAGUE RAGING
From Saki (HH Munro)
The cook was a good cook, as cooks go; and as cooks go, she went.
From Mark Twain "The Innocents Abroad"
“In a museum in Havana, there are two skulls of Christopher Columbus, one when he was a boy and one when he was a man”
Posted by balaam (# 4543) on
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In the beginning there was nothing, which exploded.
Terry Pratchett - Lords and Ladies
Posted by Dafyd (# 5549) on
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The line that made me a Jane Austen fan for ever:
[Darcy] really believed, that were it not for the inferiority of [Elizabeth's] connections, he should be in some danger.
Posted by hanginginthere (# 17541) on
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Two memorable couplets:
But far more numerous was the herd of such
Who think too little and who talk too much.
Dryden: The Medal
and
For th'orisonte had refte the sunne his light;
This is as much to say as it were night.
Chaucer: The Franklin's Tale
Posted by venbede (# 16669) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Kaplan Corday:
A couple more from Waugh, first the inevitable, "Feather-footed through the plashy fen passes the questing vole", and,"The better sort of Ishmaelites have been Christians for many centuries, and will not publicly eat human flesh uncooked in Lent, without special and costly dispensation from their bishop", both from Scoop.
Wonderful.
Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on
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From an online story by Jon Kent:
quote:
Oh, he really is a bad-tempered, irascible man. On his gravestone he'll probably have the words 'Just you bugger off!'
Posted by PeteC (# 10422) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Welease Woderwick:
From an online story by Jon Kent:
quote:
Oh, he really is a bad-tempered, irascible man. On his gravestone he'll probably have the words 'Just you bugger off!'
Perhaps we should place that on your own memorial stone. ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
Posted by Firenze (# 619) on
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It's difficult to capture the wonderful Flora Finching in Little Dorrit in anything approaching one line -
“One more remark,' proceeded Flora.... 'I wish to make, one more explanation I wish to offer, for five days I had a cold in the head from crying which I passed entirely in the back drawing-room—there is the back drawing-room still on the first floor at the back of the house to confirm my words- "
Posted by venbede (# 16669) on
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I keep meaning to re-read Little Dorrit soon.
Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on
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quote:
Originally posted by PeteC:
quote:
Originally posted by Welease Woderwick:
From an online story by Jon Kent:
quote:
Oh, he really is a bad-tempered, irascible man. On his gravestone he'll probably have the words 'Just you bugger off!'
Perhaps we should place that on your own memorial stone.
Ah but I forebore to mention who I was thinking of as I posted that.
![[Two face]](graemlins/scot_twoface.gif)
And from the same source [my mate ibid.]:
quote:
… but he is unconcerned, for he is yet to encounter a problem, be it ever so big or complicated, that he hasn't been able to run away from.
Posted by S. Bacchus (# 17778) on
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quote:
Originally posted by venbede:
Madelaine Basset! It is profound that she ends up marrying the fascist Roderick Spode. Sentimentality is indeed the partner of fascism.
And, speaking of fascism and sentimentality, it's hard to beat this bit of political analysis from The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie:
quote:
Benito Mussolini is a great man. He began life as a journalist, a man of learning, an intellectual, but he is also a man of action. He has made Capri into a sanctuary for birds. A simple act of goodness.
{I must be honest and say that I don't know if that occurs in Muriel Spark's novel or only in the film adaptation}
Posted by Dafyd (# 5549) on
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quote:
Originally posted by S. Bacchus:
{I must be honest and say that I don't know if that occurs in Muriel Spark's novel or only in the film adaptation}
I can't find it in the novel. I did find:
Mussolini has performed feats of magnitude and unemployment is even farther abolished under him than it was last year.
Posted by quetzalcoatl (# 16740) on
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Hell isn't punishment, it's training.
Not really from a book - by Shunryu Suzuki.
Posted by Sighthound (# 15185) on
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There was a truly dreadful novel about Owen Glendower that had one saving grace; a line where a character remarked that Bolingbroke (Henry IV) had a jester because 'I guess he can't think of anything funny for himself.'
I loved that line. Still do. Always will.
Posted by venbede (# 16669) on
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Is that John Cowper Powys? I tried Wolf Solent and finished it, so now I know not to bother with his other novels.
Posted by Kaplan Corday (# 16119) on
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Mr Toots's ""If you could see my legs when I take my boots off, you would form some idea of what unrequited affection is", from Dombey And Son.
Posted by Firenze (# 619) on
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Dickens is a gold mine. I like how, in the 1860s, he already has Wildean protagonists in Eugene and Mortimer in Our Mutual Friend . As in staggering out, retching, from viewing a drowned corpse - 'Not much worse than Lady Tippins'.
Posted by Jonah the Whale (# 1244) on
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Also from Dickens, the unpleasant schoolmaster Squeers is praised for his humane attitude to animals:
Mr Squeers, being amiably opposed to cruelty to animals, not unfrequently purchased for boy consumption the bodies of horned cattle who had died a natural death.
Posted by W Hyatt (# 14250) on
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Jasper Fforde in one of his Thursday Next books:
quote:
Thursday's uncle Mycroft is such a brilliant inventor that the Goliath Corporation offered him not one but two blank checks.
Posted by Starbug (# 15917) on
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Scout describes the long hot summers of her youth in To Kill A Mockingbird :
'Ladies bathed before noon, after their three o'clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft tea-cakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum.'
Posted by Sighthound (# 15185) on
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quote:
Originally posted by venbede:
Is that John Cowper Powys? I tried Wolf Solent and finished it, so now I know not to bother with his other novels.
No it was fromCry God For Glendower by, I think, Martha Rofheart.
The Cowper Powys book on Glendower is the best novel out there about the guy. Which says a lot about the dearth of novels about Glendower. Cowper Powys is hard going.
Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on
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Currently, having just finished "Women in Antiquity" by Charles Seltmann (mentioned in the can men be feminist thread), I am somewhat taken with this anti-church piece. (He is careful to say he is not ant-Christianity.) He writes it in a bit bridging the gap from antiquity to his 1950 present.
quote:
This new religion, like its rivals, expounded stories of miracles and a theophany with recurrent emphasis on corn, wine and blood; but, in contrast to its precursors, it was simultaneously aggressive and humble, exclusive and catholic, anthropocentric and misanthropic, pontifical and penitentiary, authoritarian and anarchic, redemptionist and comminatory, absolutionist and evangelistic, transcendential and purgatorial, sacrificial and apocalyptic.
Not that I agree, but he had fun composing it.
[ 15. September 2013, 19:00: Message edited by: Penny S ]
Posted by Huia (# 3473) on
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Wow -is the whole book like that? If so kudos for wading through it.
Huia
Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on
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No, it was just the last chapter. I have noticed over the years a tendency for some writers to go off on one there.
Fred Hoyle, in a book on cosmology, enlivened with diagrams of universes shaped like trouser legs, spent the last chapter ranting about how the steady state theory disproved the existence of God. (Instead of continuing his argument against the Big Bang.)
A chap who wrote a book on cancer I read in my teens had a chapter about how cankers on trees could be found outside houses where people got cancer.
Someone who did a book about lost rivers in London attributed awful diseases to living over the buried rivers.
I haven't read Hawking's "Brief History of Time" but I gather he did something similar to Hoyle.
The odd thing is there is no predicting that this is going to happen until one reaches the end - though in this case, there were hints that the sustained misogyny of the Christian era was seen in contrast to the enlightened attitude to women found among the ancients. Not that sort of writing though. Overkill, I feel. Had he been in a pulpit, which seems unlikely, one could imagine him working himself up into a powerful performance, arms waving, voice rising in pitch and volume, face distorted, glaring at those in his audience he thought to be guilty of following the beliefs of the church.
[ 15. September 2013, 20:19: Message edited by: Penny S ]
Posted by Hedgehog (# 14125) on
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One of the chapter headings from Eco's The Name of the Rose:
quote:
In which Alinardo seems to give valuable information, and William reveals his method of arriving at a probable truth through a series of unquestionable errors.
I have always been rather fond of the concept of reaching truth through unquestionable errors.
Come to think of it, in the same chapter there is this lovely exchange when William admits that, if he had answers to his questions he would be teaching theology in Paris:
quote:
"In Paris do they always have the true answer?"
"Never," William said, "but they are very sure of their errors."
Posted by Firenze (# 619) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Hedgehog:
One of the chapter headings from Eco's The Name of the Rose:
quote:
In which Alinardo seems to give valuable information, and William reveals his method of arriving at a probable truth through a series of unquestionable errors.
"when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth"
The Sign of the Four
Posted by Hedgehog (# 14125) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
quote:
Originally posted by Hedgehog:
One of the chapter headings from Eco's The Name of the Rose:
quote:
In which Alinardo seems to give valuable information, and William reveals his method of arriving at a probable truth through a series of unquestionable errors.
"when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth"
The Sign of the Four
Love that line too! I am nothing if not consistent.
Posted by Cara (# 16966) on
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Austen, Pym, Dickens...all superb, and bottomless barrels of good short quotes.
Perhaps a little less well-known, though beloved among aficionados, are these opening lines:
"I write this sitting in the kitchen sink. That is, my feet are in it; the rest of me is on the draining-board, which I have padded with our dog's blanket and the tea-cosy..."
from I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith.
Wonderful book, much more to it than meets the eye.
Posted by Earwig (# 12057) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by Cara:
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith.
Wonderful book, much more to it than meets the eye.
YES! It's full of good one liners, like
quote:
Noble deeds and hot baths are the best cures for depression.
And it also has the finest last lines of any book. I'm welling up just thinking of it.
Posted by Kaplan Corday (# 16119) on
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More Waugh, from the description of the filming of the Wesley biopic in Vile Bodies:-
"But did Wesley and Whitefield fight a duel?"
"Well it's not actually recorded, but it's known that they quarreled and there was only one way of settling quarrels in those days. They're both in love with Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, you see".
And later:-
.....Wesley in America was being rescued from Red Indians by Lady Huntingdon disguised as a cowboy....
[ 16. September 2013, 09:47: Message edited by: Kaplan Corday ]
Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by Earwig:
quote:
Originally posted by Cara:
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith.
Wonderful book, much more to it than meets the eye.
YES! It's full of good one liners, like
quote:
Noble deeds and hot baths are the best cures for depression.
And it also has the finest last lines of any book. I'm welling up just thinking of it.
I've just got out my copy and read the last half page and it really is superb. I think I'll have to put it on the stack for a full re-read soon.
Posted by Pine Marten (# 11068) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
"when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth"
The Sign of the Four
Ack! Whence comes this barbarism? 'Tis The Sign of Four - no 'the' ![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
Posted by piglet (# 11803) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by S. Bacchus:
... '"Take my camel, dear", said my aunt Dot,' ...
Thanks, S.B. - you took the words right out of my mouth.
Posted by Lord Jestocost (# 12909) on
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"It was the day my grandmother exploded."
The opening line of The Crow Road by Iain Banks.
Posted by Stejjie (# 13941) on
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Feel slightly guilty that, amidst all these (genuinely) profound and lovely one-liners, the first one that went through my head takes the tone down considerably:
quote:
My father announced at breakfast that he is going to have a vasectomy. I pushed my sausages away untouched.
From "The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole" by Sue Townsend.
I'd like to point out I'm actually 34, not 13, as my calling this line to mind so quickly might suggest...
Posted by quetzalcoatl (# 16740) on
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I'm still mainlining 'Ulysses'. Just two, the second one 3 sentences, so a cheat/cheap/cheep/sheep/ship ...
Me. And me now.
Mr Leopold Bloom ate with relish the inner organs of beasts and fowls. He liked thick giblet soup, nutty gizzards, a stuffed roast heart, liverslices fried with crustcrumbs, fried hencods' roes. Most of all he liked grilled mutton kidneys which gave to his palate a fine tang of faintly scented urine.
Posted by Carex (# 9643) on
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It's difficult to pick out any one line from Mark Twain because there are so many:
A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.
It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.
Barring that natural expression of villainy which we all have, the man looked honest enough.
Posted by Hedgehog (# 14125) on
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While on the Mark Twain theme, I'd also nominate:
"His one striking peculiarity was his . . . using big words for their own sakes, and independent of any bearing they might have upon the thought he was purposing to convey."
--Mark Twain, Roughing It
Posted by Fr Weber (# 13472) on
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"At the Name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, but Parlabane didn’t stop short at bowing; he positively cringed and crossed himself with that crumb-brushing movement which is supposed to show long custom and which he, born a Protestant of some unritualistic sect, grossly overdid."
--Robertson Davies, The Rebel Angels
Posted by quetzalcoatl (# 16740) on
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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.
Dubliners, Joyce.
Posted by Cara (# 16966) on
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Ah, wonderful, other lovers of I Capture the Castle.
Here's something from a book I love, though not sure how well they work if you haven't read it--the effect is slowly cumulative, so these lines gather force from all that's gone before.
"We can ask and ask but we can't have again what once seemed ours for ever -- the way things looked, that church alone in the fields, a bed on a belfry floor, a remembered voice, the touch of a hand, a loved face. They've gone and you can only wait for the pain to pass."
from the last page of A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr.
Posted by Firenze (# 619) on
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Again, hardly one line, but you need the cumulative build for the full effect.
'Oblivion is not to be hired. The greater part must be content to be as though they had not been, to be found in the register of God, not in the record of man. Twenty-seven names make up the first story and the recorded names ever since contain not one living century. The number of the dead long exceedeth all that shall live. The night of time far surpasseth the day, and who knows when was the equinox? Every hour adds unto that current arithmetick, which scarce stands one moment. And since death must be the Lucina of life, and even Pagans could doubt, whether thus to live were to die; since our longest sun sets at right descensions, and makes but winter arches, and therefore it cannot be long before we lie down in darkness, and have our light in ashes; since the brother of death daily haunts us with dying mementoes, and time that grows old in itself, bids us hope no long duration;--diuturnity is a dream and folly of expectation.'
Sir Thomas Browne Urn Buriall
[ 17. September 2013, 18:54: Message edited by: Firenze ]
Posted by mousethief (# 953) on
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A two-liner by Charles Williams.
"After all, that's our direction."
"The chief use of the material world ... is that one can, just occasionally, say that with truth."
Posted by Gwai (# 11076) on
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I can't believe I haven't mentioned my favorite living writer here:
I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I have burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the university at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during the day. I have talked to gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep. my name is Kvothe. You may have heard of me.
From Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
Posted by Keren-Happuch (# 9818) on
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My all-time favourite lines are on here already (the opening of the Towers of Trebizond and the Saki one about the cook) but I've also always been fond of the opening of Through the Looking Glass:
quote:
One thing was certain, that the white kitten had had nothing to do with it - it was the black kitten's fault entirely.
And then there's the one I had (part of) as my sig for a while:
quote:
"Well!" said Kanga, and Roo fell in quickly, crying "I must see Owl's sponge! Oh, there it is! Oh, Owl! Owl, it isn't a sponge, it's a spudge! Do you know what a spudge is, Owl? It's when your sponge gets all -" and Kanga said, "Roo, dear!" very quickly, because that's not the way to talk to anybody who can spell TUESDAY.
Mostly though, this thread is making me feel that I need to re-read some P.G. Wodehouse and all of Jane Austen. And I'm wondering why I've never read Chandler, and my to-be-read list is growing longer by the second!
Posted by no prophet (# 15560) on
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A few from Robertson Davies.
A happy childhood has spoiled many a promising life. -What's Bred in the Bone
I wish people weren't so set on being themselves, when that means being a bastard. -The Rebel Angels
This is one of the cruelties of the theatre of life; we all think of ourselves as stars and rarely recognize it when we are indeed mere supporting characters or even supernumeraries.
-Fifth Business
Posted by Golden Key (# 1468) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by Welease Woderwick:
A fabulous bit of Graham Greene from Travels with my Aunt:
quote:
I sometimes believe in a Higher Power, even though I am a Catholic.
That's rather like Pres. Barlett's quip in the "West Wing" series: "I don't believe in God, and I believe that Mary is his mother."
Posted by Golden Key (# 1468) on
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The first line of Madeleine L'Engle's wonderful A Wrinkle In Time:
It was a dark and stormy night.
She made it work! AWIT is a beloved children's classic.
Posted by Huia (# 3473) on
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She did indeed, but when it was published in Britain the first lines included the fact that it was set the USA, which, according to her autobiography, she was not happy about.
Madeleine L'Engle is one of my childhood favourites.
Huia
Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on
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Another online writer puts these words in a teacher's mouth:
quote:
Listen carefully. Differences are good. They're cause for celebration, not for bad feelings. Your parents send you here to expand your minds, not to narrow them. You should really try to honor their wishes.
Posted by Moo (# 107) on
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Another from Winnie-the-Pooh
quote:
Piglet took Pooh's hand, in case Pooh was frightened.
Moo
Posted by Eigon (# 4917) on
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"In the crypt of the Abbey Church at Hallowdene, the monks were boiling their Bishop...."
It's the first line of The Bone-Pedlar by Sylvian Hamilton, and the bishop was definitely dead before they started boiling him! (in order to send his bones home, as the body would have started to rot on the way). Sadly, Sylvian Hamilton wrote three very good medieval novels, and then died.
And, from American Gods by Neil Gaiman:
"What I say is, a town isn't a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but unless it's got a bookstore it knows it's not fooling a soul.”
Posted by Garasu (# 17152) on
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On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays it was Court Hand and Summulae Logicales, while the rest of the week it was the Organon, Repetition and Astrology.
White, T. H. (Terence Hanbury), 1906-1964. The sword in the stone.
Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on
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Okay so I'm biased but I think this is an absolute gem from another online story, Mountain Magic by Sequoyah:
quote:
We were all standing around the table when Mrs. Dennison nodded and Mr. Dennison started praying. Hank once said one thing he liked about eating at our house was that Granddad gave God credit for having some sense. "He just says 'Thanks' and we get on with eating. Dad has to remind God of His responsibilities, I guess," and added, "He also carefully explains to God what He needs to do and exactly how to go about it. Treats God like He should be in Special Ed." Since then, every time we have supper at the Dennisons, we have to watch it to keep from laughing out loud at Mr. Dennison giving God His orders for the immediate and distant future.
Posted by Leaf (# 14169) on
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You might not expect to find a sharp comment about a clergyman in children's literature, let alone a book written in 1926, yet here it is, in Lucy Maud Montgomery's "The Blue Castle". Of the Rev. Dr. Stalling it is written: quote:
"When he could not understand a thing, he straightaway condemned it. Simplicity itself!"
I have had cause to reflect on this over the years.
Posted by Carex (# 9643) on
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I had another occasion yesterday to remember a great line from Richard Bach's A Bridge Across Forever (from memory, so I might not have the wording quite right.)
After an extended "discussion" with his Significant Other,
In the end we compromised and did it her way.
Posted by Mudfrog (# 8116) on
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How about this from A Christmas Carol, referring to Scrooge:
quote:
He carried his own low temperature always about with him.
I have known people like that!
Posted by EtymologicalEvangelical (# 15091) on
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quote:
The stub of the candle had long been guttering in its crooked candlestick within that wretched room, shedding its dim light on the murderer and the prostitute who had so strangely encountered each other in the reading of the eternal book.
Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky
Posted by Scots lass (# 2699) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Lord Jestocost:
"It was the day my grandmother exploded."
The opening line of The Crow Road by Iain Banks.
Brilliant opening line, and one of my favourite books ever. I first read it when I was 16 and I still love it now I'm in my 30s, which cannot be said of many of the books I loved when I was 16...
Posted by Keren-Happuch (# 9818) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by EtymologicalEvangelical:
quote:
The stub of the candle had long been guttering in its crooked candlestick within that wretched room, shedding its dim light on the murderer and the prostitute who had so strangely encountered each other in the reading of the eternal book.
Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky
In whose translation? After all, the translator wrote those English words.
Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on
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From Out of Bounds by Mike Seabrook:
quote:
And then, without any warning or preamble, he started to cry, a bitter spring of hot, painful tears. They were the last tears he ever shed as a boy, perhaps the first he ever shed as a man.
[ 23. September 2013, 12:44: Message edited by: Welease Woderwick ]
Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on
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The line in my sig is from A maçă no escuro ("The Apple in the Dark") by Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector.
Posted by piglet (# 11803) on
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Not exactly High Literature, but this put-down from one of Jilly Cooper's Rutshire books (I think it was Appassionata) always makes me smile:
quote:
"I think - " said Flora
"Don't," said Rannaldini icily, "you haven't got the equipment".
[ 23. September 2013, 14:44: Message edited by: piglet ]
Posted by Hedgehog (# 14125) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by piglet:
Not exactly High Literature, but this put-down from one of Jilly Cooper's Rutshire books (I think it was Appassionata) always makes me smile:
quote:
"I think - " said Flora
"Don't," said Rannaldini icily, "you haven't got the equipment".
Actually, that sounds very familiar. Where have I heard it before? Oh, yes! Here it is:
quote:
“I think--” began Piglet nervously.
“Don’t,” said Eeyore.
--The House at Pooh Corner
Posted by venbede (# 16669) on
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They knew I was a Four on the Enneagram at my seminar when I was able to quote by heart the following from Jane Austen's juvenilia, Love and Freindship (sic).
"A sensibility too tremblingly alive to every affliction of my Friends, my Acquaintance and particularly to every affliction of my own, was my only fault, if a fault it could be called."
Posted by Firenze (# 619) on
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"Gertrude DeMongmorenci McFiggin had known neither father nor mother. They had both died years before she was born. Of her mother she knew nothing, save that she was French, was extremely beautiful, and that all her ancestors and even her business acquaintances had perished in the Revolution."
Stephen Leacock 'Gertrude the Governess'
Posted by anoesis (# 14189) on
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The opening lines of 'The Glass Menagerie', by Tennessee Williams. Truly fabulous.
Yes, I have tricks in my pocket, I have things up my sleeve. But I am the opposite of a stage magician. He gives you illusion that has the appearance of truth. I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion.
To begin with, I turn back time. I reverse it to that quaint period, the thirties, when the huge middle class of America was matriculating in a school for the blind. Their eyes had failed them, or they had failed their eyes, and so they were having their fingers pressed forcibly down on the fiery Braille alphabet of a dissolving economy.
In Spain there was revolution. Here there was only shouting and confusion.
Posted by Lord Jestocost (# 12909) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Hedgehog:
“I think--” began Piglet nervously.
“Don’t,” said Eeyore.
--The House at Pooh Corner
A.A> Milne is another untapped vein, of course.
quote:
"Hello Rabbit, is that you?"
"Let's pretend it isn't", said Rabbit, "and see what happens."
Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on
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Having been prompted by this thread to reread Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle I came across this:
quote:
I shall go down and be very kind to everyone. Noble deeds and hot baths are the best cures for depression.
Posted by Cara (# 16966) on
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YES, WW!! Wonderful line.
Actually this very sentence was mentioned upthread by Earwig in response to my posting of the book's first line, but no reason why it shouldn't have a post all of its own.
Hope you are enjoying the re-read (and the wrist is healing...)
Hot baths are (to quote someone else but I don't know who) a real benison. But only those of a certain age who grew up in chilly, non-centrally-heated ramshackle English houses can really understand this...
Posted by Kaplan Corday (# 16119) on
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quote:
Originally posted by anoesis:
The opening lines of 'The Glass Menagerie', by Tennessee Williams. Truly fabulous.
Yes, I have tricks in my pocket, I have things up my sleeve. But I am the opposite of a stage magician. He gives you illusion that has the appearance of truth. I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion.
To begin with, I turn back time. I reverse it to that quaint period, the thirties, when the huge middle class of America was matriculating in a school for the blind. Their eyes had failed them, or they had failed their eyes, and so they were having their fingers pressed forcibly down on the fiery Braille alphabet of a dissolving economy.
In Spain there was revolution. Here there was only shouting and confusion.
Reminds me of a favourite quote from Philp Roth's story Epstein, in which the character Epstein describes his daughter's boyfriend:-
Lou Epstein had never resembled that chinless, lazy, smart-alec whose living was earned singing folk songs in a saloon, and who once had asked Epstein if it hadn’t been “thrilling” to have lived through “a period of great social upheaval” like the thirties.
Posted by piglet (# 11803) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by Hedgehog:
quote:
“I think--” began Piglet nervously.
“Don’t,” said Eeyore.
--The House at Pooh Corner
Thanks, Hedgehog - I suspect Jolly Jilly may have been inspired by the great A. A.
Posted by Mama Thomas (# 10170) on
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Hope I'm remembering this correctly because Google seems to have no knowledge of it, but I love this line from Ulysses (I think).
The sound of the peal of the hour of the night by the chimes of the bells of the church of saint George
Posted by Eigon (# 4917) on
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“What I say is, a town isn't a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but unless it's got a bookstore it knows it's not fooling a soul.”
It's from American Gods, by Neil Gaiman
Posted by Makepiece (# 10454) on
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'We often hear military experts inculcate the doctrine of giving priority to the decisive theatre. There is a lot in this. But in war this principle, like all others, is governed by facts and circumstances; otherwise strategy would be too easy. It would become a drill-book and not an art; it would depend on rules and not on an instructed and fortunate judgement of the proportions of an ever-changing scene'.
From the Grand Alliance (Vol 3 WW2) by Winston Churchill.
Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on
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Virtually anything in Three Men in a Boat, quite probably the funniest book of the 19th century, especially the episode of the pineapple tin. I have a first edition and I recommend you lot read it yourselves! Mine is even illustrated!
Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on
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"Michael was usually attired in the height of fashion, with a certain mercantile brilliancy best described as stylish; nor could anything be said against him, as a rule, but that he looked a trifle too like a wedding guest to be quite a gentleman"
From The Wrong Box which also has to be a strong candidate for the funniest book of the 19th century (although I like Three Men in a Boat ), too.
The ending is perfect - I won't spoil it by quoting it here.
Posted by Firenze (# 619) on
:
'Bernard always had a few prayers in the hall and some whiskey afterwards as he was rarther pious but Mr Salteena was not very adicted to prayers so he marched up to bed. Ethel stayed as she thourght it would be a good thing. The butler came in as he was a very holy man and Bernard piously said the Our Father and a very good hymm called I will keep my anger down and a Decad of the Rosary.'
Daisy Ashford: The Young Visitors
Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on
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The one line comes part way through this, but you need the run up to it. It is in "Jennings Goes to School" by Anthony Buckeridge. The teacher, Mr Wilkins, is demonstrating the fire escape,a sling system (these actually exist - I saw one at an adult education centre.)
quote:
"Sticking out of this hole ... is a strap, or sling, which goes underneath your armpits. And this-er-gadget here is an adjustable-er-adjuster which you move up and down if you want to adjust it. In other words..." he sought in vain for the correct technical term. "In other words, it's adjustable."
"What's it just able to do, sir" inquired Venables innocently.
"I didn't say it was just able to do anything."
"Well, what's the good of it then, sir, if it doesn't do anything?"
Posted by Ariel (# 58) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
Daisy Ashford: The Young Visitors
Wonderful book.
"I say said Mr Salteena excitedly I have had some tea in bed."
"Yes I am nearly ready said Ethel I had a bath last night so I wont wash very much now."
Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on
:
quote:
"If he's really moving on towards emotional maturity he won't be having a reconciliation with a woman who merely replaced a teddy bear in his affections"
The Wonder Worker by Susan Howarth. Her books are full of great one-liners but this is one of my favourites.
Posted by ArachnidinElmet (# 17346) on
:
"She looks up at Anthony,
thinking how, if he knew,
if he had any idea,
then the soil of her Eden
could be ripped away
leaving her alone
on this unforgiving rock.
The secret must stay
and - according to the scientists -
the love will live.
The heart is quite comfortable with secrets."
Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow
Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on
:
Another online one, this from Sequoyah's Summerfire:
quote:
I guess time is a thief.......it steals what you love but memories hold them for you till you're ready to let them go.
Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on
:
That attribution is wronger than a wrong thing - it is actually by Grasshopper.
Posted by Lord Jestocost (# 12909) on
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For some reason I woke up with a couple of quotes form Perelandra going through my head.
First, when Ransom confronts Weston, a.k.a. the Devil:
quote:
Weston - "Do you not know who I am?".
Ransom - "I know what you are. Which of them doesn't matter"
And second, when Ransom finishes him off with a big, heavy stone:
quote:
"In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, here goes ... I mean, Amen."
Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on
:
I am just reading another story online and this line resonates:
quote:
You know what the worst thing is, the very worst thing, in the morning? Cheerfulness. It’s awful.
Preach it, brother!
Posted by Moo (# 107) on
:
From one of Saki's stories quote:
Each feels that she has nurtured a viper in her bosom. Nothing fans the flame of human resentment so much as the discovery that one's bosom has been utilized as a snake sanitarium.
Moo
Posted by Mr Curly (# 5518) on
:
More Hitchhikers:
Arthur Dent: You know, it's at times like this, when I'm locked in a Vogon airlock with a man from Betelgeuse and about to die of asphyxiation in deep space, that I really wish I'd listened to what my mother told me when I was young!
Ford Prefect: Why? What did she say?
Arthur Dent: I don't know! I didn't listen!
mr curly
Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on
:
From India by Sanjeev Bhaskar when he was asked by a school teacher why Asians smell so funny:
quote:
"Oh, it's something you would be unfamiliar with Miss, it's called soap." One of the detentions I ever got.
Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on
:
quote:
He said tha, by God, D H Lawrence was right when he said there must be a dumb, dark, dull, bitter belly-tension between a man and a womanm and how else could this be achieved save in the long monotony of marriage?
from Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
Posted by Beautiful Dreamer (# 10880) on
:
The play Cyrano de Bergerac has kind of a special meaning for me:
"Yes, what my life was for
was to be the one who prompts – and is ignored!"
-being the shy kid in the back while others got the spotlight, although I didn't really mind. Plus there have been a few occasions where I have "played Cyrano"-I've written letters, given words and talked to guys for my prettier friends.
There was one college incident in particular that was a lot like the play...a much-prettier friend of mine and I met a guy...my friend liked him but had no idea what to say to him, so she had me talk to him for her, sort of like the scene in the garden*...we ended up liking each other, but I was dating someone at the time, so nothing happened...fast forward a few months, I was single so something could have possibly happened, but the opportunity had passed. Kind of like how, when Roxane finally figured out who was saying all those things to her, he's about to die.
" Physicist, metaphysician/poet/duellist and musician
and voyager to the heavens, master of how to answer back/A lover too, but not to his gain!
Here lies Hercule Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac,/who was all things, and all in vain."
*I've always wondered...how is it that Roxane didn't notice that the voice had changed when Cyrano took over for Christian during that scene?
Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on
:
Apologies to the Hosts if this qualifies as Thread Necrmancy but I've just read this online and thought I'd share it - it is an Imam speaking to a Jewish teenager:
quote:
What I’m getting at is that there truly is one God, and I’d be a fool to believe that he would create only one true and just path to seek his good graces.
Posted by Athrawes (# 9594) on
:
I have just been reminded of this lovely observation from Lindsey Davis' "The Silver Pigs"
Vespasian's banquets were very old fashioned. The waitresses kept all their clothes on and he never poisoned the food.
Posted by georgiaboy (# 11294) on
:
After all the carryings-on in The Lord of the Rings, the last line comes as quite a shock.
'Well, I'm back,' he (Sam) said.
Posted by Huia (# 3473) on
:
I like that. I hadn't really seen it before but I don't think it's reading too much into it to relate it to the full title of The Hobbit There and Back Again.
Even without that possible connection it's a satifying ending. For some reason Where The Wild Things Are sprung to mind as having a similar feel (from memory) Into the night of his very own room,
where he found his supper waiting for him - and it was still hot.
Both good stories.
Huia
Posted by Bob Two-Owls (# 9680) on
:
I am considering the following for my first tattoo on my 50th birthday (many years away yet):
Fere libenter homines id quod volunt credunt
men willingly believe that which they wish to be true
(Caesar, Gallic Wars III:18)
Posted by Galloping Granny (# 13814) on
:
Want some weepies?
'A babbled o' green fields' – death of Falstaff. (Please hand me a hanky)
And from Daudet: La Derničre Classe after which all lessons in Alsace will be condcted in German, the language of the conquerors:
quote:
He turned to the board, took a piece of chalk and, using all of his strength, he wrote as large as he could:
“VIVE LA FRANCE!”
He stayed there, his head resting on the wall, and wordlessly used his hand to motion to us: “It’s over … you may go.”
(Better in French but then I'd have to translate as well.)
GG
Posted by LutheranChik (# 9826) on
:
A short story, not a book, but...
"Romance at short notice was her specialty," from Saki's "The Open Window."
Posted by Lord Jestocost (# 12909) on
:
I met what may well become a favourite one-liner yesterday. From "Shards of Honor" By Lois McMaster Bujold:
"They think they are the wave of the future, when in fact they are sewage flowing downhill."
Posted by Eigon (# 4917) on
:
I was chatting today and quoted a line from (of all things) Bessie Bunter at the Circus, (by Hilda Richards, who was really Frank Richards, who also wrote the Billy Bunter books) which I think should be here.
The girls are helping out at a circus during the school holidays, and are told that they have to get up at 7am to feed the animals.
One of the girls says:
"Seven o'clock? Is there such an hour on holiday?"
Posted by georgiaboy (# 11294) on
:
I can't find the book just at the moment, so can't verify the title, but there is a W H Auden poem which begins (and I swear I'm not making it up!)
'When the sex wars ended
with the slaughter of the grandmothers'
(Unfortunately, it goes down-hill from there, IMO.
Posted by Palimpsest (# 16772) on
:
Some Science Fiction
From Earthblood by Keith Laumer and Rosalind Brown. (alas from memory, my copy has disappeared)
quote:
Be careful. Twenty years ago that place was the haunt of the scum of the galaxy and since then the neighborhood has deteriorated.
From Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
quote:
His followers called him Mhasamatman and said he was a god. He preferred to drop the Maha- and -atman, however and called himself Sam. He never claimed to be a god. But then, he never claimed not to be a god. Circumstances being what they were, neither admission could be of any benefit. Silence, though, could.
[ 20. November 2013, 06:03: Message edited by: Palimpsest ]
Posted by Moo (# 107) on
:
Here is the first sentence of Edith Wharton's short story, "Xingu". quote:
Mrs. Ballinger is one of the ladies who pursue Culture in bands, as though it were dangerous to meet it alone.
Moo
Posted by quetzalcoatl (# 16740) on
:
Not really a book, but quoted in many biographies, so kind of in lots of books, when Napoleon was asked how his honeymoon went, he is supposed to have said, 'she asked me to do it again'.
See for example, the marvelous Frank McLynn book, 'Napoleon'.
Posted by Galloping Granny (# 13814) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by Moo:
Here is the first sentence of Edith Wharton's short story, "Xingu". quote:
Mrs. Ballinger is one of the ladies who pursue Culture in bands, as though it were dangerous to meet it alone.
Moo
I must re-read Edith Wharton.
GG
Posted by Huia (# 3473) on
:
Me too. One of the unintended consequences for me in starting this thread has been to remind me of things I want to re-read as well as things I have never read, but now want to.
Huia
Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on
:
...and, even in retirement, there is NEVER enough time!
Posted by Moo (# 107) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by Galloping Granny:
I must re-read Edith Wharton.
That short story was in an excellent high school textbook of American literature. I have never seen it anywhere else.
The story is hilarious.
Moo
Posted by Galloping Granny (# 13814) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by Moo:
quote:
Originally posted by Galloping Granny:
I must re-read Edith Wharton.
That short story was in an excellent high school textbook of American literature. I have never seen it anywhere else.
The story is hilarious.
Moo
I've just read it at readbookonline.net and it really is very good.
Here's another quote:
quote:
Her mind was an hotel where facts came and went like transient lodgers, without leaving their address behind, and frequently without paying for their board.
GG
Posted by Eigon (# 4917) on
:
There's a lovely one from Sharyn McCrumb, who wrote the brilliant Bimbos of the Death Sun (about an SF convention - hilarious and painfully true at the same time) and also mysteries set in the Appalachian Mountains. Describing a friend of the main character in one story, she says
"She dwells in possibility - which in her case is a long commute from everyday life."
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