Great Lines from Literature (&/or Pulp Fiction)

[Kuciwalker]

If we're going into TV shows, the Firefly writers were good at coming up with just the right lines.

[Aeson]

My favorite is in my sig. I first read it in "War and Peace". (Though it seems to be a common phrase.)

There are a lot of good ones in Catch-22, though they don't make especially good quotes in general...

Yossarian sat up in the bed and shouted: "I see everything twice!"
The leader of this team of doctors held up one finger and demanded: "How many fingers do you see?"
"Two," said Yossarian.
"How many fingers do you see now?" asked the doctor, holding up two.
"Two," said Yoassarian.
"How many now?" asked the doctor, holding up none.
"Two," said Yossarian.
The doctor's face wreathed with a smile. "By Jove, he's right," he declared jubilantly. "He does see everything twice.
The soldier who saw everything twice nodded weakly and sank back on his bed. Yossarian knew he was in the presence of a master. His talented roomate was obviously a person to be studied and emulated. During the night, the talented roomate died, and Yossarian decided that he had followed him far enough.
"I see everything once!" he cried quickly.
A new group of specialists came to find out if it was true. "How many fingers do you see?" asked the leader, holding up one.
"One."
The doctor held up two fingers. "How many fingers do you see now?"
"One."
The doctor held up ten fingers. "And how many now?"
"One."

The doctor turned to the other doctors with amazement. "He does see everything once!" he exclaimed. "We made him all better."

[CrONoS]

Not my favorite one, but one I have never forget, since it's was wrote many times in the books, and it was.... like a music to my ears.

Odyssey - Homer:
"Now when the child of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn, appeared
Telemachus rose and dressed himself."

French:
"Quand Eôs aux doigts rosés, née au matin, apparut, le cher fils d'Odysseus quitta son lit.

Edit: It sound so better in french...

[Harry Tuttle]

Count Rugen: [Inigo stands up after getting stabbed by a knife thrown by Count Rugen] Good heavens. Are you still trying to win?
Count Rugen: [Inigo falls back against the wall] You've got an overdeveloped sense of vengeance. It's going to get you into trouble someday.
Count Rugen: [Rugen draws his sword and lunges at Inigo who then forces the blade to his left shoulder. Again Rugen lunges at Inigo and the blade is deflected to Inigo's right arm]
Inigo Montoya: [Rugen swings his sword but Inigo blocks it and then begins advancing] Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father prepare to die.
Inigo Montoya: [He falls on a table. Rugen attacks and Inigo blocks four times before he continues to advance on Rugen]
Inigo Montoya: Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father prepare to die.
Count Rugen: [Now Rugen attacks five times and Inigo blocks every single one]
Inigo Montoya: [Louder] Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father prepare to die.
Count Rugen: Stop saying that!
Inigo Montoya: [Rugen attacks and Inigo blocks it and then stabs Rugen in the shoulder. Then Rugen swings his sword. Inigo ducks and stabs Rugen in the other shoulder. Then he advances quickly and they fight] Hello! My name is Inigo Montoya! You killed my father prepare to die!
Count Rugen: [Rugen gets his sword knocked away and Inigo slices his cheek] No!
Inigo Montoya: Offer me money
Count Rugen: Yes
Inigo Montoya: Power too promise that!
[he slices Rugen's other cheek]
Count Rugen: All that I have and more. Please.
Inigo Montoya: Offer me everything I ask for.
Inigo Montoya: Anything you want.
Count Rugen: [Rugen attacks but Inigo grabs his arm and stabs Rugen in the stomach]
Inigo Montoya: I want my father back you son of a *****.
[Inigo plunches the sword into Rugen's gut and he falls down dead]

[BeBMan]

"Hereupon this is what ensued." -- Herodotus

[Hueij]

The Big Sleep again:

"You're not very tall, are you?"
"No, but I try to be..."

[Kuciwalker]

Vizzini: HE DIDN'T FALL? INCONCEIVABLE.
Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

[FrostyBoy]

Kuci


From Kill Bill 2:

As you know, l'm quite keen on comic books. Especially the ones about superheroes. I find the whole mythology surrounding superheroes fascinating. Take my favorite superhero, Superman. Not a great comic book. Not particularly well-drawn. But the mythology... The mythology is not only great, it's unique. Now, a staple of the superhero mythology is, there's the superhero and there's the alter ego. Batman is actually Bruce Wayne, Spider-Man is actually Peter Parker. When that character wakes up in the morning, he's Peter Parker. He has to put on a costume to become Spider-Man. And it is in that characteristic Superman stands alone. Superman didn't become Superman. Superman was born Superman. When Superman wakes up in the morning, he's Superman. His alter ego is Clark Kent. His outfit with the big red "S", that's the blanket he was wrapped in as a baby when the Kents found him. Those are his clothes. What Kent wears - the glasses, the business suit - that's the costume. That's the costume Superman wears to blend in with us. Clark Kent is how Superman views us. And what are the characteristics of Clark Kent. He's weak... he's unsure of himself... he's a coward. Clark Kent is Superman's critique on the whole human race.

[Dis]

Does Penthouse forum letters count as literature?

[MarkG]

The Wolf: That's thirty minutes away. I'll be there in ten.

Pumpkin: Garçon! Coffee!
[the waitress approaches the table and refills Pumpkin's cup]
Waitress: Garçon means boy.

Butch: I think I have a broken rib.
Fabienne: From giving me oral pleasure?

Captain Koons: The way your dad looked at it, this watch was your birthright. He'd be damned if any of the slopes were gonna get their greasy yellow hands on his boy's birthright. So he hid it in the one place he knew he could hide something: his ass. Five long years, he wore this watch up his ass. Then when he died of dysentery, he gave me the watch. I hid this uncomfortable piece of metal up my ass for two years. Then, after seven years, I was sent home to my family. And now, little man, I give the watch to you.

[Fake Boris]

L'amour, c'est l'infini mis à la portée des caniches.

Il avait lu dans les recueils que ces lourdes horreurs représentaient en fait de bêtes ce qu'il y avait de plus vieux au monde. Elles dataient, prétendait-il, de la seconde période géologique! "Quand nous viendrons nous autres d'aussi loin qu'elles mon ami que ne puerons-nous pas?" Tel quel.

(L-F Céline)

[bipolarbear]

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly
"I don't mind if you don't like my manners. I don't like 'em myself. They're pretty bad. I grieve over them long winter evenings."
-- Philip Marlowe, The Big Sleep

I just watched this yesterday and thought for sure I had a winner for this thread that nobody would beat me to.

"Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it."
-Thoreau

"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on."
-Frost

Because it's not technically literature, by honorable mention Heinlen's/Hanlon's Razor.
"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity."

[Pekka]

If so - well, we'll just have to
cut his head off and bury him
somewhere. Because it goes without
saying that we can't turn him loose.
He'd report us at once to some kind
of outback Nazi law enforcement
agency, and they'll run us down
like dogs...

(out loud to himself)
Jesus! Did I say that?

Or just think it? Was I talking?
Did they hear me?

It's okay. He's admiring the shape
of your skull.

[Spec]

Arnold: (With the Arnold accent) : Between my glock and your faith, I choose my glock.

Spec.

[BeBMan]

"Yes!" -- various