Alex O'Brien
Books

20 most touching lines in literature

The best books are the ones that leave an impression, that change the way you see the world and that provoke a genuine emotional response. Here are 20 of the most beautiful and touching lines in literature.

  1. “A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
  2. “...sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I'm not living.” – Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
  3. "I could tell you my adventures — beginning from this morning,' said Alice a little timidly; 'but it's no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then." – Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
  4. “When so many are lonely as seem to be lonely, it would be inexcusably selfish to be lonely alone.” – Tennessee Williams, Camino Real
  5. “A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.” – Roald Dahl, The Twits
  6. “So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I’m still trying to figure out how that could be.” – Stephen Chbosky, Perks of Being a Wallflower
  7. “She wasn’t doing a thing that I could see, except standing there leaning on the balcony railing, holding the universe together.” – J. D. Salinger, A Girl I Knew
  8. “He stepped down, trying not to look at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, without even looking.” – Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
  9. “There are darknesses in life and there are lights, and you are one of the lights, the light of all lights.” – Bram Stoker, Dracula
  10. “He was unheeded, happy, and near the wild heart of life.” – James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
  11. “In spite of everything, I still believe people are really good at heart.” – Anne Frank, The Diary of Anne Frank
  12. “You don’t have to live forever, you just have to live.” – Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting
  13. “Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it yet.” – L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
  14. “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
  15. “Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering.” – Nicole Krauss, The History of Love
  16. “And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.” – John Steinbeck, East of Eden
  17. “Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and, above all, those who live without love.” – J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
  18. “You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget.” – Cormac McCarthy, The Road
  19. “If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you.” – A. A. Milne, Winnie The Pooh
  20. “You live and learn. At any rate, you live.” – Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless

Related links:

Top 13 love quotes from poetry

15 great opening lines in literature

Very inspiring quotes to live by in 2016

Tags:
books, Reading, beautiful, quotes, Literature