#opening

Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. ↗

— Charles Dickens

#opening-lines #life

There are only two kinds of people in our town. The stupid and the stuck." ↗

— Kami Garcia

#first-lines #opening-lines #beauty

No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. ↗

— H.G. Wells

#first-sentence #opening-lines #business

All great discoveries are made by opening up the changing room door ↗

— Josh Stern

#discoveries #humor #opening #room #change

Congratulations. The fact that you're reading this means you've taken one giant step closer to surviving until your next birthday. ↗

— James Patterson

#opening-lines #warning #experience

Grandfather recently died. He died alone on a trip away from home in a town where no one expected him to be ↗

— Téa Obreht

#fiction #opening-lines #home

My life might have been so different, had I not been known as the girl whose grandmother exploded. And had I not been born in Bad Munstereifel. If we had lived in the city -- well, I"m not saying the event would have gone unnoticed, but the fuss would probably only have lasted a week before public interest moved elsewhere. Besides, in a city you are anonymous; the chances of being picked out as Kristel Kolvenbach's granddaughter would be virtually zero. But in a small town -- well, small towns everywhere are rife with gossip, but in Germany they raise it to an art form. ↗

— Helen Grant

#opening-lines #small-towns #art

People need not fear the unknown if they are capable of achieving what they need and want. ↗

— Paulo Coelho

#inspirational #inspirational

From 1971 onwards, the Memorial Day holiday was officially observed on the last Monday in May and became the unofficial start of the summer, with barbecues, blockbuster movie openings and mattress sales. ↗

— Allen West

#became #blockbuster #day #holiday #last

The things sane societies loved, it hated. The things sane societies hated, it loved; the things sane societies tried to do, it tried to avoid; the things sane societies tried to avoid, it did with relish. It pursued chaos and hated order, it worshipped ugliness and loathed beauty. If sane people wished to dress as neatly and well as they could, these people were persuaded to dress as hideously and grotesquely as possible; if sane people wanted music to be melodious, these people (whether we are speaking of their "popular" or their "serious" music) were cozened into believing they liked raucous and tuneless noise. If women had been feminine, if home life had been secure, if children had been innocent, if men had been gallant, if art had been beautiful, if love had been romantic, then all these things must be stood on their heads. Of course, life was not always like that. Of course things had often fallen short of their ideals, or even of their minimal norms; but at least most people tried to do things properly and at least the surrounding civilisation encouraged them to try. Never before had the deliberate aim been an inverted parody of all that should be. Everywhere, in every area of life, a single principle reigned: inversion; the worship of chaos; the creed of the madhouse. ↗

— Alice Lucy Trent

#art