#first

As he dropped the last grisly fragment of the dismembered and mutilated body into the small vat of nitric acid that was to devour every trace of the horrid evidence which might easily send him to the gallows, the man sank weakly into a chair and throwing his body forward upon his great, teak desk buried his face in his arms, breaking into dry, moaning sobs. ↗

— Edgar Rice Burroughs

#opening-lines #men

I call our world Flatland, not because we call it so, but to make its nature clearer to you, my happy readers, who are privileged to live in Space. ↗

— Edwin A. Abbott

#nature

The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth, whether it's scientific truth or historical truth or personal truth! It is the guiding principle on which Starfleet is based! If you can't find it within yourself to stand up and tell the truth about what happened, you don't deserve to wear that uniform! ↗

— Ronald D. Moore and Naren Shankar

#science-fiction #star-trek #the-first-duty #truth #science

His name was Rambo, and he was just some nothing kid for all anybody knew, standing by the pump of a gas station at the outskirts of Madison, Kentucky. ↗

— David Morrell

#first-lines #military #military

Right now I feel guilty to be alive. Why? Because I’m wasting it. I’ve been given this life and all I do is mope it away. What’s worse is, I am totally aware of how ridiculous I am. It would be a lot easier if I believed I was the center of the universe, because then I wouldn’t know any better NOT to make a big deal out of everything. I know how small my problems are, yet that doesn’t stop me from obsessing about them. I have to stop doing this. How do other people get happy? I look at people laughing and smiling and enjoying themselves and try to get inside their heads. How do Bridget, Manda, and Sara do it? Or Pepe? Or EVERYONE but me? Why does everything I see bother me? Why can’t I just get over these daily wrongdoings? Why can’t I just move on and make the best of what I’ve got? I wish I knew. ↗

— Megan McCafferty

#megan-mccafferty #sloppy-firsts #life

The first epics were intended for recitation; the literary epic is meant to be read. ↗

— Lascelles Abercrombie

#epics #first #intended #literary #meant

It just seems to be a human trait to want to protect the speech of people with whom we agree. For the First Amendment, that is not good enough. So it is really important that we protect First Amendment rights of people no matter what side of the line they are on. ↗

— Floyd Abrams

#amendment #amendment rights #enough #first #first amendment

I am lucky, I'm the first to admit that. ↗

— J. J. Abrams

#am #first #i #lucky

The first thing that I really understood politically and was old enough to get was the failed assassination attempt on Reagan. ↗

— Ben Affleck

#attempt #enough #failed #first #first thing

Well, I first started going to Europe in the late '70s. ↗

— Luther Allison

#first #going #i #late #started