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A few days ago, Reddit user TheRealNayef posted this question to r/books:
What's the most beautiful paragraph or sentence you've ever read?
I just read the first page of Lolita, and it was just so good that I put it down and appreciated it.
"Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta. She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita."
In the beginning, the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.-Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
They were having an argument as old and comfortable as an armchair, the kind of argument that no one ever really wins or loses but which can go on forever, if both parties are willing.-Coraline, Neil Gaiman
I always thought insanity would be a dark, bitter feeling, but it is drenching and delicious if you really roll around in it.-The Help, Kathryn Stockett
"What day is it?""It's today", squeaked Piglet."My favourite day", said Pooh.-Winnie The Pooh, A. A. Milne
If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.-A Farewell To Arms, Ernest Hemingway
I looked at the stars, and considered how awful it would be for a man to turn his face up to them as he froze to death, and see no help or pity in all the glittering multitude.-Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.-Neuromancer, William Gibson
Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them. With Major Major it had been all three. Even among men lacking all distinction he inevitably stood out as a man lacking more distinction than all the rest, and people who met him were always impressed by how unimpressive he was.-Catch 22, Joseph Heller
Faster, faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death.-attributed to Hunter S. Thompson
Always remember that the crowd which applauds your coronation is the same crowd that will applaud your beheading. People like a show.-Going Postal, Terry Pratchett
Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?The Cheshire Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.Alice: I don't much care where.The Cheshire Cat: Then it doesn't much matter which way you go.Alice: ...So long as I get somewhere.The Cheshire Cat: Oh, you're sure to do that, if only you walk long enough.-Alice In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
"Maybe...you'll fall in love with me all over again.""Hell," I said, "I love you enough now. What do you want to do? Ruin me?""Yes. I want to ruin you.""Good," I said. "That's what I want too."-A Farewell To Arms, Ernest Hemingway
It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured. I realised, somehow, through the screaming of my mind, that even in that shackled, bloody helplessness, I was still free: free to hate the men who were torturing me, or to forgive them. It doesn't sound like much, I know. But in the flinch and bite of the chain, when it's all you've got, that freedom is an universe of possibility. And the choice you make between hating and forgiving, can become the story of your life.-Shantaram, Gregory David Roberts
"I love her, and that's the beginning and end of everything." -F. Scott Fitzgerald on Zelda Fitzgerald
Your absence has gone through me Like thread through a needle. Everything I do is stitched with its color.-Separation, W.S Mervin
To be with you or not to be with you is the measure of my time.(Estar contigo o no estar contigo es la medida de mi tiempo.)-The Threatened Man, Jorge Luis Borges
It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained glass window.-Farewell, My Lovely, Raymond Chandler
She wasn't doing a thing that I could see, except standing there leaning on the balcony railing, holding the universe together.-A Girl I Knew, J.D. Salinger
I wanted so badly to lie down next to her on the couch, to wrap my arms around her and sleep. Not fuck, like in those movies. Not even have sex. Just sleep together in the most innocent sense of the phrase. But I lacked the courage and she had a boyfriend and I was gawky and she was gorgeous and I was hopelessly boring and she was endlessly fascinating. So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was hurricane.-Looking For Alaska, John Green
"Why are you sad?" "Because you speak to me in words and I look at you with feelings."-Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses. You build up a whole armor, for years, so nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life... You give them a piece of you. They didn't ask for it. They did something dumb one day, like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so simple a phrase like 'maybe we should be just friends' or 'how very perceptive' turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a body-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. Nothing should be able to do that. Especially not love. I hate love.-The Sandman, Neil Gaiman
How lucky I am to have something, that makes saying goodbye so hard.-Winnie The Pooh, A.A. Milne
You can read all the responsea on the original Reddit thread here.
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