Favorite Lines from Novels

Recommendations, discussions, and odes to your favorites
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Marla Warren
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Favorite Lines from Novels

Post by Marla Warren » February 15th, 2010, 8:01 am

“To have Mother Mariana’s faith in divine protection is good, but even better if backed by the practical assistance heaven has the right to expect from sensible mortals.”
--From Dead Man’s Ransom, a Brother Cadfael mystery by Ellis Peters

“All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you…”
--From Watership Down by Richard Adams

“Mother taught me to be polite to dragons. Particularly polite, I mean; she taught me to be ordinary polite to everyone. But dragons are a special case. Always be polite to a dragon. It’s harder than it sounds. Dragon etiquette is incredibly complicated, and if you make a mistake, the dragon eats you.”
--From Talking to Dragons by Patricia C, Wrede
“Good writing should be smooth, clear and short, and the art of saying little in much must be avoided at all costs.”
--Benjamin Franklin

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taylormillgirl
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Re: Favorite Lines from Novels

Post by taylormillgirl » February 15th, 2010, 6:56 pm

I love the mantra from Frank Herbert's Dune series:
"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."

Another quote I love is from one of Jen Lancaster's memoirs. "Weight Watchers can kiss the fattest part of my ass." It's not deep, but it makes me giggle.
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hannah_dreamergirl_3
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Re: Favorite Lines from Novels

Post by hannah_dreamergirl_3 » February 16th, 2010, 12:22 pm

I'm a cheesy teen and love,
"And so the lion fell in love with the lamb."
"What a stubpid lamb"
"What an evil, massochistic lion!"'
Twilight

and

'Reach for the moon and you'll land with the stars"
From PS I love you :)

love

Hannah
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christi
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Re: Favorite Lines from Novels

Post by christi » February 16th, 2010, 1:32 pm

Watership Down and Dune in the same thread. I'm in good company. Two of my all time favorite books.

There's no way I could decide on a favorite part (and two have already been mentioned in this thread), but I will share something that happens to me quite randomly. Whenever my mind starts to wander, the words, "Einstein loved the park," pop into my head. It's a chapter segment beginning in Watchers, and for some reason its total simplicity resonates with me, though I've not read the book in ages. In those four words, I can already envision a landscape of freshly mowed grass, a blue sky, lots of trees, chirping squirrels, and a happy dog. That was all the set-up the scene required, and he did it in four words.
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Re: Favorite Lines from Novels

Post by Tzalaran » February 16th, 2010, 6:43 pm

"The machinery of government is always subordinate to the will of those operating that machinery." Herbert, taken from 'God Emperor of Dune'

"For can not the mind create a heaven of hell, and a hell of heaven." Milton, taken from 'Paradise Lost'

Those two quotes have been my signature in certain forums since i learned about the internet... The first because it seems to agree with my belief that it is not the form of government, but the the individuals in charge of that framework that determine effective or inept governance. The second because it founded my belief in the self determining the outlook for the future, that we are not a sum of our experiences, but that we shape our reality by how we perceive stimuli around us.

The 'litany against fear' of the Bene Gesserit is a great quote as well, but i prefer GEoD for quoting... So many powerful philosophical statements on government, religion, and the mixture of the two...
I'd rather hate myself for failing, than hate my life for never having tried.
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taylormillgirl
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Re: Favorite Lines from Novels

Post by taylormillgirl » February 16th, 2010, 7:10 pm

Tzalaran wrote:"The machinery of government is always subordinate to the will of those operating that machinery." Herbert, taken from 'God Emperor of Dune'

"For can not the mind create a heaven of hell, and a hell of heaven." Milton, taken from 'Paradise Lost'

Those two quotes have been my signature in certain forums since i learned about the internet... The first because it seems to agree with my belief that it is not the form of government, but the the individuals in charge of that framework that determine effective or inept governance. The second because it founded my belief in the self determining the outlook for the future, that we are not a sum of our experiences, but that we shape our reality by how we perceive stimuli around us.

The 'litany against fear' of the Bene Gesserit is a great quote as well, but i prefer GEoD for quoting... So many powerful philosophical statements on government, religion, and the mixture of the two...
Interesting, Tzalaran. GEoD was the last book in the series that I enjoyed. The last two were painful to read.
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cassandrabonmot
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Re: Favorite Lines from Novels

Post by cassandrabonmot » February 22nd, 2010, 10:18 am

"She was quite a doll. She wore a white belted raincoat, no hat, a well-cherished head of platinum hair, booties to mach the raincoat, a folding umbrella, a pair of blue-gray eyes that looked at me as if I had said a dirty word." - Playback by Raymond Chandler

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Re: Favorite Lines from Novels

Post by ThinkBlue » February 23rd, 2010, 2:48 am

Pretty much every single line of John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces, but to pick a few:

" 'Canned food is a perversion,' Ignatius said. 'I suspect that it is ultimately very damaging to the soul.' "

"Oh, Fortuna, you degenerate wanton!"

" 'Well, what do you expect? The human body when confined, produces certain odors which we tend to forget in this age of deodorants and other perversions. Actually, I find the atmosphere of this room rather comforting. Schiller needed the scent of apples rotting in his desk in order to write. I ,too, have my needs. You may remember that Mark Twain preferred to lie supinely in bed while composing those rather dated and boring efforts which contemporary scholars try to prove meaningful. Veneration of Mark Twain is one of the roots of our current intellectual stalemate.' "

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Re: Favorite Lines from Novels

Post by Rhonda » February 26th, 2010, 12:14 pm

A line I love comes from Chuck Palahniuk"s Choke. Unfortunately, I can't find it now, and I don't have the book here anymore. It was from a woman on an airplane and was about how she's so smart she can talk herself out of any plan. I'm going to have to find that again. There are lots of great lines in his books, but this one struck me. Profound isn't the right word, but it's the first word that comes to mind. ; )

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Re: Favorite Lines from Novels

Post by BlancheKing » February 26th, 2010, 5:13 pm

"Me, I'm dishonest, and you can always trust a dishonest man to be dishonest. Honestly, it's the honest ones you want to watch out for, 'cause you can never predict if they're going to do something incredibly stupid."

-Pirate of the Caribbean

not quite a novel exert, but I think it's good enough to be one =)

That, and most Holmes-isms: "I think you want a little unofficial help. Three undetected murders in one year won't do, Lestrade. But you handled the Molesey Mystery with less than your usual -- that's to say, you handled it fairly well."
Last edited by BlancheKing on February 26th, 2010, 9:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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dementedtinkerbell
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Re: Favorite Lines from Novels

Post by dementedtinkerbell » February 26th, 2010, 8:33 pm

All of my favourite lines come from Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels!

Let's just say that if complete and utter chaos was lightning, he'd be the sort to stand on a hilltop in a thunderstorm wearing wet copper armour and shouting 'All gods are bastards' - The Color of Magic

The duke had a mind that ticked like a clock and, like a clock, it regularly went cuckoo. - Wyrd Sisters

Prisoner: I get it, good cop, bad cop, eh?
Vimes: If you like, but we’re a bit short-staffed today, so if I give you a cigarette, would you mind kicking yourself in the teeth? - Night Watch

Smoke was coming out of the stricken piano. The Librarian's hands were walking through the keys like Casanunda in a nunnery. - Soul Music

Getting an education was a bit like a communicable sexual disease. It made you unsuitable for a lot of jobs and then you had the urge to pass it on. - Hogfather
Me to my girl: You're grounded until you're dead
Her: You mean 'til you're dead right?
Me: No, I'll enforce it from beyond the grave
Her: *gulp*

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Re: Favorite Lines from Novels

Post by miahayson » February 26th, 2010, 8:49 pm

dementedtinkerbell wrote:
All of my favourite lines come from Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels!

Let's just say that if complete and utter chaos was lightning, he'd be the sort to stand on a hilltop in a thunderstorm wearing wet copper armour and shouting 'All gods are bastards' - The Color of Magic
LOL, those novels contain some of my favourite ones too!

Also, a great deal of my lines come from Douglas Adams too. That man could write :~)

"There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened." The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

"There are of course many problems connected with life, of which some of the most popular are - Why are people born? Why do they die? Why do they spend so much of the intervening time wearing digital watches?" The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Oh, I could go on for hours... those books always make me smile

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Re: Favorite Lines from Novels

Post by Kniki » February 27th, 2010, 4:32 pm

I like "Never tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody."

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Re: Favorite Lines from Novels

Post by PaulWoodlin » March 1st, 2010, 4:30 am

We dream much of Paradise, or rather of a number of Paradises, but each of them is, long before we die, a Paradise Lost, in which we should feel ourselves also lost.

Marcel Proust, "In Search of Lost Time" or "Remembrance of Things Past" depending upon your translation.

Since we're not quite restricted to novels:

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.

Theodore Roethke

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Marla Warren
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Re: Favorite Lines from Novels

Post by Marla Warren » March 10th, 2010, 11:49 am

“…few creatures on earth are so paranoid as the writer who believes, deep in his heart, that he is slumming…”

“If anyone was negligent that night, Mr. Farrell, it was your client. He believed too much in nothing.”

--From the short story “1408” in the collection Everything’s Eventual by Stephen King
“Good writing should be smooth, clear and short, and the art of saying little in much must be avoided at all costs.”
--Benjamin Franklin

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