Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Mumsnet classics

Relive the funniest, most unforgettable threads. For a daily dose of Mumsnet’s best bits, sign up for Mumsnet's daily newsletter.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Original poster

Fave one liner from a book?

360 replies

judgejudyandexecutioner · 02/05/2013 15:45

"It's lipless mouth quivered and slathered"
War of the Worlds - H G Wells
Grin

OP posts:
MariefromStMoritz · 05/05/2013 03:30

From Nicky Haslam's memoirs, "Redeeming Features". Nicky asks some society lady just back from Machu Picchu if she climbed the steps. Her answer:

"Oh no dear, I didn't get out of the limousine".

TheDoctrineOfSnatch · 05/05/2013 02:04

I see there's been a fair bit of Harriet and LPW. How about "Tu m'enivres."?

TheDoctrineOfSnatch · 05/05/2013 01:42

When the Dark comes rising, six shall turn it back...

"The Dark Is Rising", Susan Cooper

KingCrimson · 05/05/2013 01:15

"Charlotte Street runs north from Oxford Street, and who can blame it?"

Len Deighton, Funeral in Berlin

thatsalovelyhat · 05/05/2013 01:08

There's a great line in one of Anthony Burgess's Enderby novels, which I can't be arsed to go and look up properly, which ends perfectly logically '... onions) onions, onions.'

CatOfTheDay · 05/05/2013 00:41

?Only the poor knew the meaning of life; the rich and safe had to guess.?

Charles Bukowski, The Most Beautiful Woman in Town

garlicyoni · 05/05/2013 00:32

"Those are pearls that were his eyes. Look!" - The Wasteland & The Tempest

"The horror! The horror!" - Heart of Darkness

"All morons hate it when you call them a moron." - The Catcher in the Rye

Wuldric · 05/05/2013 00:16

It gives my DCs the rage now. I'm not sure that's a bad thing.

AintNobodyHereButUsKittens · 05/05/2013 00:11

I'd be careful with that one Wulfric - my DM overused it in my childhood, and to this day it gives my DB The Rage.

OrangeLily · 05/05/2013 00:05

"He had the strangest feeling that there was someone standing right behind the veil on the other side of the archway. Gripping his wand very tightly, he edged around the dais, but there was nobody there; all that could be seen was the other side of the tattered black veil."

Harry Potter and the order of the Phoenix

Grabbed me as such a clever, eloquent way of explaining this. Our house currently is dealing with unexpected grief and the 'so close but so far feeling is awful.

GinAndaDashOfLime · 05/05/2013 00:04

"Everybody shits"

The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood

BollyGood · 05/05/2013 00:01

Three quotes from The Name Of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. One of my absolute favourite books

?Words are pale shadows of forgotten names. As names have power, words have power. Words can light fires in the minds of men. Words can wring tears from the hardest hearts.?

?The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind"

?It's like everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story.?

Wuldric · 04/05/2013 23:56

Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.

Cannot believe I forgot this one - it is brilliant whenever I have to say NO to the DCs insane requests.

ParkerTheThief · 04/05/2013 23:39

But some women only require an emergency to make them fit for one.
Thomas Hardy, Far from the madding crowd.

But if course, once in every lifetime tomorrow never comes.
Antonia Forest, The Thuggary Affair

KenDoddsDadsDog · 04/05/2013 23:29

*puking not piling

KenDoddsDadsDog · 04/05/2013 23:29

"There is nothing like piling with somebody to make you into old friends" Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

VioletGoesVintage · 04/05/2013 23:29

"...now is now. It can never be a long time ago."

Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House In The Big Woods

FriedSprout · 04/05/2013 23:25

"Eowyn, do you not love me, or will you not?"

Faramir to Eowyn, Return of the King - Tolkien

Whitershadeofpale · 04/05/2013 23:21

Can't believe nobody has mentioned:

?I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.?

Charlotte Bronte- Jane Eyre

TwllBach · 04/05/2013 23:09

Nowhere near as high brow as the rest of you, but Cody McFadyens

"Broken things still catch the light"

Still haunts me.

cuppateaanyone · 04/05/2013 23:08

'Et tu Brute?'
'Thank Lewis for me'

MothershipG · 04/05/2013 23:03

Winter is coming.

Wuldric · 04/05/2013 22:59

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way

Can't abide Dickens normally, but he is worth wading through for this line alone

strongandlong · 04/05/2013 22:57

The Captain looked at Fermina Daza and saw on her eyelashes the first glimmer of wintry frost. Then he looked at Florentino Ariza, his invincible power, his intrepid love, and he was overwhelmed by the belated suspicion that it is life, more than death, that has no limits.
Gabriel García Márquez- Love in the Time of Cholera

stainesmassif · 04/05/2013 22:53

'…and he drank all the milk, and all the orange juice, and all Daddy’s beer, and all the water in the tap.'