” ‘It is a far, far better job that I do than I have ever done, and it is a far, far better rest than I have ever known.” Last line from A Tale of Two Cities. This line has stayed with me since I was in 7th grade when we read the book in English class. It made me realize that death isn't always a bad thing. There can be things worth dying for.
As humans we remember the past, and look to the future. However, all we live in is the moment. In each we choose what to do, and then comes the next moment. "Seize the day" is a romanticism, for we are seizing a moment every moment of our lives.
I really love the following sentences. They are all from “The Atonement Child” by Francine Rivers, and this characterise and foreshadows the two characters (Ethan and Joe) perfectly, especially after I finished reading the novel:
“The nurse ushered Dynah to the waiting room. She saw Joe first, standing in the middle of the room, his
expression filled with pain and compassion. Janet was sitting on the couch; Ethan stood near the windows.”
"I distrust the perpetually busy; always have. The frenetic ones spinning in tight little circles like poisoned rats. The slower ones, grinding away their fourscore and ten in righteousness and pain. They are the soul-eaters."
"One Christmas was so much like the other, in those years around the sea-town corner now, out of all sound except the distant speaking of the voices I sometimes hear a moment before sleep, that I can never remember whether it snowed for six days and six nights when I was twelve, or whether it snowed for twelve days and twelve nights when I was six." from "A Child's Christmas in Wales" by Dylan Thomas
This is absolute favorite paragraph from “The Painted Veil” by Somerset Maugham
“It is the Way and the Waygoer. It is the eternal road along which walk all beings, but no being made it, for itself is being. It is everything and nothing. From it all things spring, all things conform to it, and to it at last all things return. It is a square without angles, a sound which ears cannot hear, and an image without form. It is a vast net and though its meshes are as wide as the sea it lets nothing through. It is the sanctuary where all things find refuge. It is nowhere, but without looking out of the window you may see it. Desire not to desire, it teaches, and leave all things to take their course. He that humbles himself shall be preserved entire. He that bends shall be made straight. Failure is the foundation of success and success is the lurking-place of failure; but who can tell when the turning point will come? He who strives after tenderness can become even as a little child. Gentleness brings victory to him who attacks and safety to him who defends. Mighty is he who conquers himself.”
Tough one. So many bites of key-lime pie sentences.
I was going to go with Lewis Carroll's “Why, sometimes, I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” from Through the Looking Glass (and I do so want to believe), but because I'm feeling tender today, how 'bout E.B. White's “‘Why did you do all this for me?’ he asked. ‘I don’t deserve it. I’ve never done anything for you.’ ‘You have been my friend,’ replied Charlotte. ‘That in itself is a tremendous thing.’”
Rough days in our country but having a friend helps. Here's to sentences that sing.
"With his symbolic helmet numbered 451 on his stolid head, and his eyes all orange flame with the thought of what came next, he flicked the igniter and the house jumped up in gorging fire that burned the evening sky red and yellow and black." Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
"For what are the small black shadows dappling the ground in the shining pathway of the sun, like water-plants on a river, the early unfolding leaves of lilac drooping their sweet and delicate heads through the railings of suburban gardens, the huge old fruit trees come suddenly to blossom on the far side of a wall, like the apparition of a fresh intoxicating beauty aureoled in light and dazzling grace--what are all these things if not witnesses of childhood's Springtime, fragments from the memories of our earliest emotions which Nature woke in us, which have lost nothing of their power, which suddenly open our hearts to the coming of the same delicious bliss, letting us escape from the tyranny of the years and give ourselves over wholly to Nature's magic, to the mysterious transformation of the seasons which bathe the things and incidents around us in a life that is greater than them, which we recognize from having once already seen them in the long distance of past years, which is no more part of our childhood than it is of our old age, but seems, for a moment, to show us the world in which we live, not as a mediocre thing that soon for us will end, a place of human and familiar life, but as a world eternal in itself, and young eternally, a place of mystery rich with incredible promises?" --Marcel Proust
"Is my attention on loving, or is my attention on who isn't loving me?"
From the poem Wellness Check by Andrea Gibson
I want to get this tattood inside my arm because I feel I need this reminder every single day. I appreciate how it shifts the narrative of happiness, and focus. Are we focused on things that will bring us joy and love or are we spending energy on people and things that will not bring us love and happiness?
A bit grim, but this sentence by Raymond Chandler in The Big Sleep always sticks with me: "The plants filled the place, a forest of them, with nasty meaty leaves and stalks like the newly washed fingers of dead men." And another from the same book: "Dead men are heavier than broken hearts."
"The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't."
— Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
"In the Ramtop village where they dance the real Morris dance, for example, they believe that no one is finally dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away—until the clock he wound up winds down, until the wine she made has finished its ferment, until the crop they planted is harvested. The span of someone’s life, they say, is only the core of their actual existence."
— Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man
Also the entire first page of Lolita by Nabakov. Holy writing, Batman.
"124 was spiteful." and "Denver's secrets were sweet." and "A fully dressed woman walked out of the water." and, "To go back to the original hunger was impossible." The first of course is the iconic start to Toni Morrison's award-winning novel "Beloved", the others are the first sentence of other chapters in the book. I did a deep dive into the novel for an MFA requirement and every line became a reason for awe and inspiration. And these first lines, some as short as three words, fill the reader with curiosity, anticipation and dare us to keep reading.
"There once was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubbs and he almost deserved it." - CS Lewis
"“If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence.” - George Eliot
” ‘It is a far, far better job that I do than I have ever done, and it is a far, far better rest than I have ever known.” Last line from A Tale of Two Cities. This line has stayed with me since I was in 7th grade when we read the book in English class. It made me realize that death isn't always a bad thing. There can be things worth dying for.
"Now is forever" - Eiffel 65.
As humans we remember the past, and look to the future. However, all we live in is the moment. In each we choose what to do, and then comes the next moment. "Seize the day" is a romanticism, for we are seizing a moment every moment of our lives.
I really love the following sentences. They are all from “The Atonement Child” by Francine Rivers, and this characterise and foreshadows the two characters (Ethan and Joe) perfectly, especially after I finished reading the novel:
“The nurse ushered Dynah to the waiting room. She saw Joe first, standing in the middle of the room, his
expression filled with pain and compassion. Janet was sitting on the couch; Ethan stood near the windows.”
Intrigued what the foreshadowing turned out to be now... And love it when such simple characterisation can do so much.
True, and would they be there would be for Dynah in the end? (I am not telling you as it would be a spoiler.)
"I distrust the perpetually busy; always have. The frenetic ones spinning in tight little circles like poisoned rats. The slower ones, grinding away their fourscore and ten in righteousness and pain. They are the soul-eaters."
--Mark Slouka, "Quitting the Paint Factory"
Ha! Indeed. Everyone freakin' chill.
"One Christmas was so much like the other, in those years around the sea-town corner now, out of all sound except the distant speaking of the voices I sometimes hear a moment before sleep, that I can never remember whether it snowed for six days and six nights when I was twelve, or whether it snowed for twelve days and twelve nights when I was six." from "A Child's Christmas in Wales" by Dylan Thomas
Captures that feeling so so well.
This is absolute favorite paragraph from “The Painted Veil” by Somerset Maugham
“It is the Way and the Waygoer. It is the eternal road along which walk all beings, but no being made it, for itself is being. It is everything and nothing. From it all things spring, all things conform to it, and to it at last all things return. It is a square without angles, a sound which ears cannot hear, and an image without form. It is a vast net and though its meshes are as wide as the sea it lets nothing through. It is the sanctuary where all things find refuge. It is nowhere, but without looking out of the window you may see it. Desire not to desire, it teaches, and leave all things to take their course. He that humbles himself shall be preserved entire. He that bends shall be made straight. Failure is the foundation of success and success is the lurking-place of failure; but who can tell when the turning point will come? He who strives after tenderness can become even as a little child. Gentleness brings victory to him who attacks and safety to him who defends. Mighty is he who conquers himself.”
Oh. Yes.
Tough one. So many bites of key-lime pie sentences.
I was going to go with Lewis Carroll's “Why, sometimes, I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” from Through the Looking Glass (and I do so want to believe), but because I'm feeling tender today, how 'bout E.B. White's “‘Why did you do all this for me?’ he asked. ‘I don’t deserve it. I’ve never done anything for you.’ ‘You have been my friend,’ replied Charlotte. ‘That in itself is a tremendous thing.’”
Rough days in our country but having a friend helps. Here's to sentences that sing.
Did not need to cry this morning but thank you.
You're welcome, Jo. (Though I rarely say "you're welcome" for making someone cry, but I'll blame E.B.) May you and your friends flourish.
from Mary Oliver's poem What Can I Say:
"The song you heard singing in the leaf when you
were a child
is singing still."
Every Mary Oliver line could be in this smorgasbord!
"With his symbolic helmet numbered 451 on his stolid head, and his eyes all orange flame with the thought of what came next, he flicked the igniter and the house jumped up in gorging fire that burned the evening sky red and yellow and black." Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
Love this book so much. Remember reading it as a teenager and falling even more in love with Bradbury than I already was from his short stories.
"For what are the small black shadows dappling the ground in the shining pathway of the sun, like water-plants on a river, the early unfolding leaves of lilac drooping their sweet and delicate heads through the railings of suburban gardens, the huge old fruit trees come suddenly to blossom on the far side of a wall, like the apparition of a fresh intoxicating beauty aureoled in light and dazzling grace--what are all these things if not witnesses of childhood's Springtime, fragments from the memories of our earliest emotions which Nature woke in us, which have lost nothing of their power, which suddenly open our hearts to the coming of the same delicious bliss, letting us escape from the tyranny of the years and give ourselves over wholly to Nature's magic, to the mysterious transformation of the seasons which bathe the things and incidents around us in a life that is greater than them, which we recognize from having once already seen them in the long distance of past years, which is no more part of our childhood than it is of our old age, but seems, for a moment, to show us the world in which we live, not as a mediocre thing that soon for us will end, a place of human and familiar life, but as a world eternal in itself, and young eternally, a place of mystery rich with incredible promises?" --Marcel Proust
Now that's a hell of a rhetorical question. A lifetime in a sentence.
"It was her idea to tie up the nun."
Patricia Engel, Infinite Country
Is there a better opening sentence? You cannot put the book down after reading that one line.
Ha! Amazing. Going to look this up now... Love this thread (and this community) for giving me so many recommendations.
"Is my attention on loving, or is my attention on who isn't loving me?"
From the poem Wellness Check by Andrea Gibson
I want to get this tattood inside my arm because I feel I need this reminder every single day. I appreciate how it shifts the narrative of happiness, and focus. Are we focused on things that will bring us joy and love or are we spending energy on people and things that will not bring us love and happiness?
Love this <3
Oh!
A bit grim, but this sentence by Raymond Chandler in The Big Sleep always sticks with me: "The plants filled the place, a forest of them, with nasty meaty leaves and stalks like the newly washed fingers of dead men." And another from the same book: "Dead men are heavier than broken hearts."
Such an unexpectedly unpleasant description for plants.
"The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't."
— Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
"In the Ramtop village where they dance the real Morris dance, for example, they believe that no one is finally dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away—until the clock he wound up winds down, until the wine she made has finished its ferment, until the crop they planted is harvested. The span of someone’s life, they say, is only the core of their actual existence."
— Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man
Also the entire first page of Lolita by Nabakov. Holy writing, Batman.
We could fill this thread with Pratchett and Adams :D
"124 was spiteful." and "Denver's secrets were sweet." and "A fully dressed woman walked out of the water." and, "To go back to the original hunger was impossible." The first of course is the iconic start to Toni Morrison's award-winning novel "Beloved", the others are the first sentence of other chapters in the book. I did a deep dive into the novel for an MFA requirement and every line became a reason for awe and inspiration. And these first lines, some as short as three words, fill the reader with curiosity, anticipation and dare us to keep reading.
Oof I still remember being blown away the first time I read it. Opened up a whole new world of what writing could be.
Yes. Same. How can every sentence in a novel be so impactful? not a wasted word in any of them. :)
"There once was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubbs and he almost deserved it." - CS Lewis
"“If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence.” - George Eliot
A bold line from a guy whose middle name was 'Staples' hahaa!
And I've never read any George Eliot but now I MUST
Hahaha right?? And yes!! It's from Middlemarch, which I absolutely LOVED.
Dayums.