APPENDIX E: GREAT LINES FROM GREAT BOOKS

 

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. —Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

 

Fate is like a strange, unpopular restaurant, filled with odd waiters who bring you things you never asked for and don't always like. —Lemony Snicket

 

Life isn't about what happens to you, it's about how you handle what happens. —Nicholas Evans, The Smoke Jumper

 

Death is but the next great adventure. —Albus Dumbledore (J.K. Rowling) (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone)

 

And I, of course, am innocent of all but malice. —Fiona, Sign of the Unicorn, Roger Zelazny

 

And if you're going to criticize me for not finishing the whole thing and tying it up in a bow for you, why, do us both a favor and write your own damn book, only have the decency to call it a romance instead of a history, because history's got no bows on it, only frayed ends of ribbons and knots that can't be untied. It ain't a pretty package, but then it's not your birthday that I know of so I'm under no obligation to give you a gift. —Orson Scott Card, Alvin Journeyman

 

Because we are the people, and the people go on. —Ma Joad, The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck

 

Death belongs to God alone. By what right do men touch that unknown thing? —Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

 

Life is a Gift Horse. —J.D. Salinger, Teddy

 

Life is pain. Anybody that says different is selling something. —Fezzik's mother, The Princess Bride

 

Not all who wander are lost. —J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

 

The surest sign that there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us. —Calvin and Hobbes

 

A bore is a person who deprives you of solitude without providing you with company. —John MacDonald, The Turquoise Lament

 

All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others. —George Orwell, Animal Farm

 

Behind them lay pain, and death, and fear. Ahead of them lay doubt, and danger, and fathomless mysteries. But they weren't alone. —Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass

 

Certain things should just stay as they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone. —JD Salinger, Catcher in the Rye

 

Dad, how do soldiers killing each other solve the world's problems? —Calvin and Hobbes