Fave one liner from a book?

"I lingered round them, under that benign sky; watched the moths fluttering among the heath, and hare-bells; listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass; and wondered how anyone could ever imagine unquiet slumbers, for the sleepers in that quiet earth."

-Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.

And agree with Mrscog the final lines of George Elliot's Middlemarch.

But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.

Long Dark Teatime of the Soul is the title of a Dirk Gently book, but the original (brilliant) passage is about Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged in Life, the Universe and Everything.

"Squirrel!"

"The year began with lunch"

Peter Mayle - a Year in Provence

Crikey?

I think you may mean this: "Ah!" said Mr Woodhouse, shaking his head and fixing his eyes on her with tender concern. -The ejaculation in Emma's ear expressed, "Ah! there is no end of the sad consequences of your going to South End. It does not bear talking of".

"crikey" Mr Knightley ejaculated into Emma's ear.

Or something similar. Had us all in stitches during English 'O' level, and still makes me titter today !

?And the English army, wheeling, started south at a gallop over the hill pass into Ettrick, followed by twenty men and eight hundred sheep in steel helmets.?
― Dorothy Dunnett, The Disorderly Knights

For whoever it was said "Started Early, Took My Dog" was a title - it comes from a poem by Emily Dickinson:

I started Early ? Took my Dog ?
And visited the Sea ?
The Mermaids in the Basement
Came out to look at me ?

etc

So many to choose from! Haven't read the whole thread so apologies if someone has beaten me to it but .....

"If we had a keen vision and feel of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar that lies on the other side of silence. As it is, the quickest of us walk about well wadded with stupidity."

Middlemarch - George Eliot

I love Pride and Prejudice can't decide who I like more Mr Bennett or Darcy
"An unhappy alternative is before you, Elizabeth. From this day you must be a stranger to one of your parents. Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do." (Mr Bennet, Ch. 20)

"In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you."(Mr Darcy)

?Helmer: I would gladly work night and day for you, Nora - bear sorrow and want for your sake. But no man would sacrafice his honor for the one he loves.
Nora: It is a thing hundreds of thousands of women have done.?

Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House

Near the end of Toni Morrison's "Beloved":
"You your best thing, Sethe. You are." His holding fingers are holding hers.
"Me? Me?"

"This tea looks strong, pull the curtains."

or alternatively

"Give me your teeth, I'll swill them."

Alan Bennett

I love that too wanderings - some of Adrian Mole is genius.

Adrian Mole's satirical poem about Mrs Thatcher:
"Do you weep, Mrs Thatcher, do you weep?
Do you wake, Mrs Thatcher, in your sleep?
Do you weep like a sad willow?
On your Marks and Spencer's pillow?
Are your tears molten steel, do you weep?
Do you wake with 'three million' on your brain?
Are you sorry that they'll never work again?
When you're dressing in your blue, do you see the waiting queue?
Do you weep, Mrs Thatcher, do you weep?"

"In the prison hospital, several times a day you would be asked 'Are you all right?'.

"The correct replies were always 'Yes thank you, Doctor', 'Yes thank you, Sister,' or 'Yes thank you, madam,' even though you might be dying on your feet. Indeed, it became so automatic that some prisoners would say 'yes thank you' before the question was even asked, thus throwing the whole conversation out of gear."

(Who lie in gaol)

"It's a funny time, three o' clock. Too late for lunch, but a bit early for tea." (Alan Bennett)

Many of Roald Dahl's books had a dramatic opening line.

"What a lot of hairy-faced men there are nowadays." (The Twits)

"In fairy tales, witches always wear silly black hats and black cloaks, and they ride on broomsticks. But this is not a fairy tale - this is about REAL witches." (The Witches)

And finally:

"It's a funny thing about mothers and fathers. Even when their offspring is the most disgusting little blister you can imagine, they still think he or she is wonderful." (Matilda)

"There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it. His parents called him Eustace Clarence, and his masters called him Scrubb. I can't tell you how his friends called him, because he had none." (Opening line of Voyage of the Dawn Treader, CS Lewis)

"There's only one thing worse than being talked about... and that's NOT being talked about!" (Oscar Wilde)

"Next time you threaten someone [a child] with good hiding, I suggest you pick on a person your own size, like me for instance." (Danny the Champion of the World, Roald Dahl)

"Miss Hardbroom, I am Ethel! Mildred Hubble turned me into a pig."
Nothing ever surprised Miss Hardbroom. Even this startling piece of news only caused her to raise one slanting eyebrow. (The Worst Witch, Jill Murphy)

"I am thirty-five today - which means I am officially middle-aged. A pathetic slide towards gum disease, wheelchair ramps and death." (Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction)

Ooh poetry.

It was the time of year
Pale lambs leap with thick leggings on
Over small hills that are not there
That I saw Eggardon.

• the start of A Prehistoric Camp by Andrew Young. It was a Poem on the Underground a few years back, and I quite liked it, and then I saw this Welsh film and blimey. This is EXACTLY what skittish shorn lambs do.

Also,

A young man wrote a poem about a rat.
It was the best poem ever written about a rat.

• The Rat (no!) by Don Paterson. I love it.

Whoever made Erebus knew all the charm of horizontal lines,

Apsley Cherry Garrard The Worst Journey in the World

freerange I agree. I've had that feeling all afternoon!

My two are not one-liners but hey ho.

The first is from That Lady by Kate O'Brian:

"He drew her hard against him, and kissed her mouth as if in first desire. Ana thought - this is the last embrace of my mortal life; people can't often know when they have reached the last. But I do know. Good-bye, she answered him now with her whole self, with all of strength and gratitude in her possession - good-bye to you, and also to that long-assuaged and quieted me that you alone commanded. Good-bye, dear past, dear sin, and go from me in peace. I loved you and I have atoned and will atone."

The second one is from The Farthest Shore :

"As Lookfar approached the islands Arren saw the dragons soaring and circling on the morning wind, and his heart leapt up with them with a joy, a joy of fulfilment, that was like pain. All the glory of mortality was in that flight. Their beauty was made up of terrible strength, and utter wildness, and the grace of reason. For these were thinking creatures with speech, and ancient wisdom: in the patterns of their flight there was a fierce, willed concord.

Arren did not speak, but he thought: I do not care what comes after; I have seen the dragons on the wind of morning"

May we, eventually, contemplate all this together.

And so, eventually, we contemplate this apart, years apart.

Moon Tiger, Penelope Lively.

Oh, and:

"But she was so very, very Glasgow, you know!"

"Housebound" by Winifred Peck