Favorite Literature Quotes/Excerpts

[punk4ever]

"There is no such thing as a good influence, Mr. Gray. All influence is immoral immoral from the scientific point of view."

 

 

 

"Why?"

 

 

 

"Because to influence a person is to give him one's own soul. He does not think his natural thoughts, or burn with his natural passions. His virtues are not real to him. His sins, if there are such things as sins, are borrowed. He becomes an echo of some one else's music, an actor of a part that has not been written for him. The aim of life is self-development. To realize one's nature perfectly that is what each of us is here for. People are afraid of themselves, nowadays. They have forgotten the highest of all duties, the duty that one owes to one's self. Of course, they are charitable. They feed the hungry and clothe the beggar. But their own souls starve, and are naked. Courage has gone out of our race. Perhaps we never really had it. The terror of society, which is the basis of morals, the terror of God, which is the secret of religion these are the two things that govern us. And yet..."

 

 

 

"And yet," continued Lord Henry, in his low, musical voice, and with that graceful wave of the hand that was always so characteristic of him, and that he had even in his Eton days, "I believe that if one man were to live out his life fully and completely, were to give form to every feeling, expression to every thought, reality to every dream I believe that the world would gain such a fresh impulse of joy that we would forget all the maladies of mediaevalism, and return to the Hellenic ideal to something finer, richer than the Hellenic ideal, it may be. But the bravest man amongst us is afraid of himself. The mutilation of the savage has its tragic survival in the self-denial that mars our lives. We are punished for our refusals. Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind and poisons us. The body sins once, and has done with its sin, for action is a mode of purification. Nothing remains then but the recollection of a pleasure, or the luxury of a regret. The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful. It has been said that the great events of the world take place in the brain. It is in the brain, and the brain only, that the great sins of the world take place also. You, Mr. Gray, you yourself, with your rose-red youth and your rose-white boyhood, you have had passions that have made you afraid, thoughts that have fined you with terror, day-dreams and sleeping dreams whose mere memory might stain your cheek with shame "

 

 

 

-The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.

[mad4u689]

"There is no such thing as a good influence, Mr. Gray. All influence is immoral immoral from the scientific point of view."

 

 

 

"Why?"

 

 

 

"Because to influence a person is to give him one's own soul. He does not think his natural thoughts, or burn with his natural passions. His virtues are not real to him. His sins, if there are such things as sins, are borrowed. He becomes an echo of some one else's music, an actor of a part that has not been written for him. The aim of life is self-development. To realize one's nature perfectly that is what each of us is here for. People are afraid of themselves, nowadays. They have forgotten the highest of all duties, the duty that one owes to one's self. Of course, they are charitable. They feed the hungry and clothe the beggar. But their own souls starve, and are naked. Courage has gone out of our race. Perhaps we never really had it. The terror of society, which is the basis of morals, the terror of God, which is the secret of religion these are the two things that govern us. And yet..."

 

 

 

"And yet," continued Lord Henry, in his low, musical voice, and with that graceful wave of the hand that was always so characteristic of him, and that he had even in his Eton days, "I believe that if one man were to live out his life fully and completely, were to give form to every feeling, expression to every thought, reality to every dream I believe that the world would gain such a fresh impulse of joy that we would forget all the maladies of mediaevalism, and return to the Hellenic ideal to something finer, richer than the Hellenic ideal, it may be. But the bravest man amongst us is afraid of himself. The mutilation of the savage has its tragic survival in the self-denial that mars our lives. We are punished for our refusals. Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind and poisons us. The body sins once, and has done with its sin, for action is a mode of purification. Nothing remains then but the recollection of a pleasure, or the luxury of a regret. The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful. It has been said that the great events of the world take place in the brain. It is in the brain, and the brain only, that the great sins of the world take place also. You, Mr. Gray, you yourself, with your rose-red youth and your rose-white boyhood, you have had passions that have made you afraid, thoughts that have fined you with terror, day-dreams and sleeping dreams whose mere memory might stain your cheek with shame "

 

 

 

-The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.

 

 

 

GOSH YES :D

 

Wow. Good literature feels so freaking good.

[punk4ever]

GOSH YES :D

 

Wow. Good literature feels so freaking good.

 

 

 

Woohoo, another Wilde fan :D I adore his work. Anything you read you get that same sort of a cynical outlook on life but it feels so right :oops: The way the sentences flow.. *swoons* Why couldn't this man be alive in our age :3> (I didn't even see your comment on Wilde's work before I posted, haha).

[Zonorhc]

Another one of my favourites, from Brave New World:

 

'Government's an affair of sitting, not hitting. You rule with the brains and the buttocks, never with the fists.'

[indy500fan]

Ha, that's one intense speech. I was kind of bored by the end. I may have skipped a few bits... it was so repetitive. That said, John Galt was an incredibly sexy character. I'm serious, while reading both Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead I'd sometimes have to stop because I'd be turned on because the characters were so damn intriguing and attractive. Very Happy

 

 

 

Yes, it is very repetitive. The first time I read the book it took me eight days, one of those days was just reading those 80 pages. Kind of hard to get through. I just finished the Fountainhead, and everytime I think of Howard Roark it makes me feel good :D

[Flame_guy3]

To be or not to be Man that one had me confused for days.

[logic-is-overrated]

Ha, that's one intense speech. I was kind of bored by the end. I may have skipped a few bits... it was so repetitive. That said, John Galt was an incredibly sexy character. I'm serious, while reading both Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead I'd sometimes have to stop because I'd be turned on because the characters were so damn intriguing and attractive. Very Happy

 

 

 

Yes, it is very repetitive. The first time I read the book it took me eight days, one of those days was just reading those 80 pages. Kind of hard to get through. I just finished the Fountainhead, and everytime I think of Howard Roark it makes me feel good :D

Roarks speech at the end where he's defending himself, to me, is about 10 times better than Galt's speech. After about 20 pages of Galt's speech everything started sounding the same.

[mad4u689]

Ha, that's one intense speech. I was kind of bored by the end. I may have skipped a few bits... it was so repetitive. That said, John Galt was an incredibly sexy character. I'm serious, while reading both Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead I'd sometimes have to stop because I'd be turned on because the characters were so damn intriguing and attractive. Very Happy

 

 

 

Yes, it is very repetitive. The first time I read the book it took me eight days, one of those days was just reading those 80 pages. Kind of hard to get through. I just finished the Fountainhead, and everytime I think of Howard Roark it makes me feel good :D

Roarks speech at the end where he's defending himself, to me, is about 10 times better than Galt's speech. After about 20 pages of Galt's speech everything started sounding the same.

 

 

 

On Atlas Shrugged vs. The Fountainhead:

 

 

 

I think that Atlas Shrugged does a better job of accurately (and explicitly) defining Ayn Rand's philosophy... but The Fountainhead makes a better novel :D

[knives669]

It was many and many a year ago,

 

In a kingdom by the sea,

 

That a maiden there lived whom you may know

 

By the name of Annabel Lee;

 

And this maiden she lived with no other thought

 

Than to love and be loved by me.

 

 

 

 

 

I was a child and she was a child,

 

In this kingdom by the sea;

 

But we loved with a love that was more than love-

 

I and my Annabel Lee;

 

With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven

 

Coveted her and me.

 

 

 

 

 

And this was the reason that, long ago,

 

In this kingdom by the sea,

 

A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling

 

My beautiful Annabel Lee;

 

So that her highborn kinsman came

 

And bore her away from me,

 

To shut her up in a sepulchre

 

In this kingdom by the sea.

 

 

 

 

 

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,

 

Went envying her and me-

 

Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know,

 

In this kingdom by the sea)

 

That the wind came out of the cloud by night,

 

Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

 

 

 

 

 

But our love it was stronger by far than the love

 

Of those who were older than we-

 

Of many far wiser than we-

 

And neither the angels in heaven above,

 

Nor the demons down under the sea,

 

Can ever dissever my soul from the soul

 

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.

 

 

 

 

 

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams

 

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

 

And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes

 

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

 

And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side

 

Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,

 

In the sepulchre there by the sea,

 

In her tomb by the sounding sea.

 

 

 

-Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe

 

 

 

This is honestly one of the most beautiful poems I've ever read. I remember having to memorize it when I was in 7th grade. I still love it so much.

[nathrox]

i have two quotes one classic from romeo and juliet (that shakespeare was a randy old git) i believe it is mercutio speaking to juliets nanny

 

 

 

A hoary old hare

 

and hairy old [bleep]

 

are both good meat for lent

 

but a clapped out [bleep] isnt good any more

 

for a pimp or a lusty gent

 

 

 

the other i stumbled across in my readings as a urban design and shows (to me) how elegant language can be

 

 

 

" i far prefer the towering architecture of the Bg Mac to the sprawling wasteland of the quarterpounder"

[MyPurpleCrayon]

There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.

 

 

 

"That's some catch, that Catch-22," he observed.

 

 

 

"It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed.

 

 

 

Ah, one of my favorites too. :P

[Greatsilverwyrm]

I also love Beaty's monologue from Fahrenheit 451, it's several pages long so I won't post it, but I just love it..

 

 

 

The juxtoposition of the terrible tumultuous never-ending ever-speeding images next to Beaty sitting calmly, smoking his pipe, is just fantastic.

 

That and the whole stomach-pumping scene.. god, the whole book is just fantastic.

 

 

 

"Denhams Dentrifice"...

[Tigra00]

Pale Blue Dot.

[Scruffy5389]

I can't decide which of these poems is my favorite of Longfellow's; they're all really good for very different reasons. Enjoy :D

 

 

 

Nature

 

As a fond mother, when the day is o'er,

 

Leads by the hand her little child to bed,

 

Half willing, half reluctant to be led,

 

And leave his broken playthings on the floor,

 

Still gazing at them through the open door,

 

Nor wholly reassured and comforted

 

By promises of others in their stead,

 

Which, though more splendid, may not please him more;

 

 

 

So nature deals with us, and takes away

 

Our playthings one by one, and by the hand

 

Leads us to reast so gently, that we go

 

Scarce knowing if we wish to go or stay,

 

Being too full of sleep to understand

 

How far the unknown transcends the what we know.

 

 

 

Snow-Flakes

 

Out of the bosom of the Air,

 

Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken,

 

Over the woodlands brown and bare,

 

Over the harvest-fields forsaken,

 

Silent, and soft, and slow

 

Descends the snow.

 

 

 

Even as our cloudy fancies take

 

Suddenly shape in some divine expression,

 

Even as the troubled heart doth make

 

In the white countenance confession,

 

The troubled sky reveals

 

The grief it feels.

 

 

 

This is the poem of the air,

 

Slowly in silent syllables recorded;

 

This is the secret of despair,

 

Long in its cloudy bosom hoarded,

 

Now whispered and revealed

 

To wood and field.

 

 

 

The Cross of Snow

 

In the long, sleepless watches of the night,

 

A gentle face - the face of one long dead--

 

Looks at me from the wall, where round its head

 

The night-lamp casts a halo of pale light.

 

Here in this room she died; and soul more white

 

Never through martyrdom of fire was led

 

To its repose; nor can in books be read

 

The legend of a life more benedight.

 

 

 

There is a mountain in the distant West

 

That, sun-defying, in its deep ravines

 

Displays a cross of snow upon its side.

 

Such is the cross I wear upon my breast

 

These eighteen years, through all the changing scenes

 

And seasons, changeless since the day she died.

[Centuramage]

Another one that I liked when I was in high school was...well, the entire essay by Annie Dillard entitled: Death of a Moth (Not to be confused with Virginia Woolf's Death of the Moth). The whole essay can be found here.

 

 

 

However, for the pitifully lazy (it's not that long an essay), my favorite bit is:

 

 

 

I don't mind living alone. I like eating alone and reading, I don't mind sleeping alone. The only time I mind being alone is when something is funny, when I am laughing at something funny, I wish someone were around. Sometimes I think it is pretty funny that I sleep alone.

[Lateralus]

The Second Coming - W.B. Yeats

 

 

 

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

 

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

 

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

 

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

 

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

 

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

 

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

 

Are full of passionate intensity.

 

 

 

Surely some revelation is at hand;

 

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

 

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out

 

When a vast image out of Spritus Mundi

 

Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert

 

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

 

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,

 

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it

 

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.

 

The darkness drops again; but now I know

 

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

 

were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

 

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

 

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

 

 

 

Favourite bit is bolded.

[Nahdrav]

"Its some sort of electric snake!"

 

"Shoot it!"

 

"Not yet,i want to study its habits"

 

 

 

A drug person can learn to handle such things as seeing their dead grandmother crawling up their leg with a knife in her teeth. But no one should be asked to deal with this trip.

 

 

 

With a bit of luck, his life was ruined forever. Always thinking that just behind some narrow door in all of his favorite bars, men in red woolen shirts are getting incredible kicks from things he'll never know.

 

 

 

There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. Some kind of high powered mutant never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die.

 

 

 

You can turn your back on a person, but, never turn your back on a drug. Especially when it's waving a razor-sharp hunting knife in your eye.

 

 

 

As you can probably guess,i just finished reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter.S.Thompson.

[Lordjake]

All my favorite book quotes are from Vonnegut works.

 

There are tons of em, but I'll just pick a few out so you can get a taste :wink:

 

 

 

Anyone who cannot understand how a useful religion based on lies can be will not understand this book either.

 

 

 

He supposed that the intent of the Gospels was to teach people, among other things, to be merciful, even to the lowest of the low.

 

But the Gospels actually taught this:

 

Before you kill somebody, make absolutely sure he isn't well connected. So it goes.

 

 

 

There is no reason why good cannot triumph as often as evil. The triumph of anything is a matter of organization. If there are such things as angels, I hope that they are organized along the lines of the Mafia.

 

 

 

"What froze me was the fact that I had absolutely no reason to move in any direction. What had made me move through so many dead and pointless years was curiosity. Now even that flickered out."

[darkmage099]

I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I am illiterate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Tale of Two Cities[/u] by Charles [bleep]ens":1iq7p9pq] I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss, and, in their struggles to be truly free, in their triumphs and defeats, through long years to come, I see the evil of this time and of the previous time of which this is the natural birth, gradually making expiation for itself and wearing out. . . .

 

I see that child who lay upon her bosom and who bore my name, a man winning his way up in that path of life which once was mine. I see him winning it so well, that my name is made illustrious there by the light of his. . . .

 

It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest I go to than I have ever known.

 

 

 

Sydney Carton on his death bed. Great book if you can get past the beginning.

[issy2]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A good minute passed as Archie said nothing, inviting us into his own thoughts. Faces staring at faces starting at faces. Tens of millions of years of faces in a living in a place called Arizona.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That is history. :

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Philosophy is questions which will never be answered, yet religion is answers will never be questioned.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I rest my case. 8-)

[willyhenriksen]

"It's dangerous business Frodo, walking out of your door..."

 

 

 

You know the rest :)

[np_tyler]

 

The soldier stood and faced God,

 

 

 

Which must always come to pass,

 

 

 

He hoped his shoes were shining,

 

 

 

Just as brightly as his brass.

 

 

 

"Step forward now, you soldier,

 

 

 

How shall I deal with you?

 

 

 

Have you always turned the other cheek?

 

 

 

To My Church have you been true?"

 

 

 

The soldier squared his shoulders and

 

 

 

said, "No, Lord, I guess I ain't,

 

 

 

Because those of us who carry guns,

 

 

 

Can't always be a saint.

 

 

 

I've had to work most Sundays,

 

 

 

And at times my talk was tough,

 

 

 

And sometimes I've been violent,

 

 

 

Because the world is awfully rough.

 

 

 

But, I never took a penny

 

 

 

That wasn't mine to keep...

 

 

 

Though I worked a lot of overtime

 

 

 

When the bills got just too steep,

 

 

 

And I never passed a cry for help,

 

 

 

Though at times I shook with fear,

 

 

 

And sometimes, God forgive me,

 

 

 

I've wept unmanly tears.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know I don't deserve a place

 

 

 

Among the people here,

 

 

 

They never wanted me around,

 

 

 

Except to calm their fears.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you've a place for me here, Lord,

 

 

 

It needn't be so grand,

 

 

 

I never expected or had too much,

 

 

 

But if you don't, I'll understand."

 

 

 

There was a silence all around the throne,

 

 

 

Where the saints had often trod,

 

 

 

As the soldier waited quietly,

 

 

 

For the judgment of his God.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Step forward now, you soldier,

 

 

 

You've borne your burdens well,

 

 

 

Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,

 

 

 

You've done your time in Hell."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sgt. Joshua Helterbran

 

 

 

224th Engineer Battalion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a awesome poem. After reading this topic, I feel bad for not reading literature except for books. And I feel bad for being too lazy to read the quotes everyone else posted here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hmm... here's one from Harry Potter that I liked...

 

 

 

For some, death is like the next great adventure

 

 

 

Or something like that...

[issy2]

 

 

The soldier stood and faced God,

 

 

 

Which must always come to pass,

 

 

 

He hoped his shoes were shining,

 

 

 

Just as brightly as his brass.

 

 

 

"Step forward now, you soldier,

 

 

 

How shall I deal with you?

 

 

 

Have you always turned the other cheek?

 

 

 

To My Church have you been true?"

 

 

 

The soldier squared his shoulders and

 

 

 

said, "No, Lord, I guess I ain't,

 

 

 

Because those of us who carry guns,

 

 

 

Can't always be a saint.

 

 

 

I've had to work most Sundays,

 

 

 

And at times my talk was tough,

 

 

 

And sometimes I've been violent,

 

 

 

Because the world is awfully rough.

 

 

 

But, I never took a penny

 

 

 

That wasn't mine to keep...

 

 

 

Though I worked a lot of overtime

 

 

 

When the bills got just too steep,

 

 

 

And I never passed a cry for help,

 

 

 

Though at times I shook with fear,

 

 

 

And sometimes, God forgive me,

 

 

 

I've wept unmanly tears.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know I don't deserve a place

 

 

 

Among the people here,

 

 

 

They never wanted me around,

 

 

 

Except to calm their fears.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you've a place for me here, Lord,

 

 

 

It needn't be so grand,

 

 

 

I never expected or had too much,

 

 

 

But if you don't, I'll understand."

 

 

 

There was a silence all around the throne,

 

 

 

Where the saints had often trod,

 

 

 

As the soldier waited quietly,

 

 

 

For the judgment of his God.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Step forward now, you soldier,

 

 

 

You've borne your burdens well,

 

 

 

Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,

 

 

 

You've done your time in Hell."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sgt. Joshua Helterbran

 

 

 

224th Engineer Battalion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a awesome poem. After reading this topic, I feel bad for not reading literature except for books. And I feel bad for being too lazy to read the quotes everyone else posted here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hmm... here's one from Harry Potter that I liked...

 

 

 

For some, death is like the next great adventure

 

 

 

Or something like that...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But, my friend, death is but life's next great adventure...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*cool music, flash of lightning, wizardy guy disappears with a bang*

[np_tyler]

Also, in the Sorcerer's Stone (or Philosophers, I think), Dumbledore says something like, "To the well prepared, death is but the next great adventure." Talking about the guy that owned the sorcerer's stone. (I've got to re-read that series sometime...)

[Viktorkrum77]

Ad astra per alia porci.

 

 

 

~John Steinbeck

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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