I am a self-professed reading addict.

I will read almost anything you put in front of me. Old books, new books, children’s books, non-fiction books; if it has words on a page, I’ll read it. There isn’t a book that I didn’t like or at least appreciate (except What Maisie Knew, sorry Henry James). I think you can learn anything from books. One line from a great novel can teach you more life lessons than years of experience can. Words can inspire and devastate. They bring you joy or crushing sorrow. They have more power than people give them credit for.

As the wise Albus Dumbledore once said, “Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic, capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it.” While I love a good John Green quote as much as the next girl, my favorite lines are more from older and classic literature. The words and messages are beautiful but the way they transcend time add to their beauty. Here are some of the best lines from literature’s most timeless stories:

1. "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 that 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

2. “Whenever you feel like criticizing someone, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had”- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

3. “Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise”- Victor Hugo, Les Mis

4. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view...Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it."- Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

5. "It’s no use going back to yesterday because I was a different person then."- Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

6. "When you love something it loves you back in whatever way it has to love."- John Knowles, A Separate Peace

7. "So it goes”- Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

8. "Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt”- Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five

9. "and now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good"- John Steinbeck, East of Eden

10. “It was love at first sight, at last sight, at ever and ever sight.”- Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita

11. “And the rest is rust and stardust.”- Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita

12. “He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking.”- Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

13. "I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.”- Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

14.“I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be.” - Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

15. "Angry people are not always wise.”- Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

16. "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”- George Orwell, 1984

17. "It was a pleasure to burn"- Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

18. “If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger.” - Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights

19. "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."- Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan

20. " The moment you doubt your ability to fly, you cease forever to be able to do it"- J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan