Words have an understated power and persuasion that can burrow into our brains indelibly. As Margaret Atwood has said, “A word after a word after a word is power.” Literature is not the only source of beautiful language. Whether they appear in a memorable movie or as invaluable advice, words have the ability to texture our minds and influence our everyday lives.
Here are some of the greatest and most cherished passages from literature:
“A great sorrow, and one that I am only beginning to understand: we don’t get to choose our own hearts. We can’t make ourselves want what’s good for us or what’s good for other people. We don’t get to choose the people we are.”
-Donna Tartt, "The Goldfinch"
“I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be.”
-Charles Dickens, "Great Expectations"
“She wasn’t doing a thing that I could see, except standing there leaning on the balcony railing, holding the universe together.”
-J. D. Salinger, “A Girl I Knew”
“Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt.”
-Kurt Vonnegut, "Slaughterhouse-Five"
“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.”
-Jack Kerouac, "On the Road"
“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
-F. Scott Fitzgerald, "The Great Gatsby"
"His soul swooned softly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead."
-James Joyce, “The Dead”
“At times the world may seem an unfriendly and sinister place, but believe that there is much more good in it than bad. All you have to do is look hard enough. And what might seem to be a series of unfortunate events, may in fact, be the first steps of a journey.”
-Lemony Snicket, "A Series of Unfortunate Events"
“And the rest is rust and stardust.”
-Vladimir Nabokov, "Lolita"
“I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart; I am, I am, I am.”
-Sylvia Plath, "The Bell Jar"
“We cast a shadow on something wherever we stand, and it is no good moving from place to place to save things; because the shadow always follows. Choose a place where you won't do harm - yes, choose a place where you won't do very much harm, and stand in it for all you are worth, facing the sunshine.”
-E.M. Forster, "A Room With a View"
“I can't go back to yesterday because I was a different person then.”
-Lewis Carroll, "Alice in Wonderland"
