Alex O'Brien

Books

20 most touching lines in literature

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

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