Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen
“ She was a woman of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper. When she was discontented, she fancied herself nervous. The business of her life was to get her daughters married; its solace was visiting and news.
Daniel Deronda
George Eliot
“ However, she had the charm, and those who feared her were also fond of her; the fear and the fondness being perhaps both heightened by what may be called the iridescence of her character—the play of various, nay, contrary tendencies.
Frankenstein
Mary Shelley
“ It was thus that I was to be taught to associate evil with their prosecution, happiness with their disregard. It was a strong effort of the spirit of good, but it was ineffectual. Destiny was too potent, and her immutable laws had decreed my utter and terrible destruction.
Siddhartha
Hermann Hesse
“ As he slowly left on stiff legs in the first light of day the still quiet town, a shadow rose near the last hut, who had crouched there, and joined the pilgrim—Govinda. "You have come," said Siddhartha and smiled. "I have come," said Govinda.
Anne of Green Gables
L.M. Montgomery
“ The yard was quite dark as they turned into it and the poplar leaves were rustling silkily all round it. “Listen to the trees talking in their sleep,” she whispered, as he lifted her to the ground. “What nice dreams they must have!” Then, holding tightly to the carpet-bag which contained “all her worldly goods,” she followed him into the house.
The War of the Worlds
H.G. Wells
“ They must have bolted as blindly as a flock of sheep. Where the road grows narrow and black between the high banks the crowd jammed, and a desperate struggle occurred. All that crowd did not escape; three persons at least, two women and a little boy, were crushed and trampled there, and left to die amid the terror and the darkness.
The Souls of Black Folk
W.E.B. Du Bois
“ How many heartfuls of sorrow shall balance a bushel of wheat? How hard a thing is life to the lowly, and yet how human and real! And all this life and love and strife and failure,—is it the twilight of nightfall or the flush of some faint-dawning day? Thus sadly musing, I rode to Nashville in the Jim Crow car.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde
“ The thoroughly well-informed man—that is the modern ideal. And the mind of the thoroughly well-informed man is a dreadful thing. It is like a bric-a-brac shop, all monsters and dust, with everything priced above its proper value.
The Sun Also Rises
Ernest Hemingway
“ I could picture it. I have a rotten habit of picturing the bedroom scenes of my friends. We went out to the Café Napolitain to have an apéritif and watch the evening crowd on the Boulevard.
Heart of Darkness
Joseph Conrad
“ I wasn’t very interested in him. No. Still, I was curious to see whether this man, who had come out equipped with moral ideas of some sort, would climb to the top after all and how he would set about his work when there.
The Wizard of Oz
L. Frank Baum
“ The Tin Woodman knew very well he had no heart, and therefore he took great care never to be cruel or unkind to anything. "You people with hearts," he said, "have something to guide you, and need never do wrong; but I have no heart, and so I must be very careful."
Little Women
Louisa May Alcott
“ "I declare, it really seems like being a fine young lady, to come home from the party in a carriage, and sit in my dressing-gown, with a maid to wait on me," said Meg, as Jo bound up her foot with arnica, and brushed her hair. "I don't believe fine young ladies enjoy themselves a bit more than we do, in spite of our burnt hair, old gowns, one glove apiece, and tight slippers that sprain our ankles when we are silly enough to wear them." And I think Jo was quite right.
The Prophet
Kahlil Gibran
“ You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth. The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far. Let your bending in the Archer’s hand be for gladness; For even as he loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Arthur Conan Doyle
“ “You may remember the old Persian saying, ‘There is danger for him who taketh the tiger cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.’ There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much knowledge of the world.”
Metamorphosis
Franz Kafka
“ One side of his body lifted itself, he lay at an angle in the doorway, one flank scraped on the white door and was painfully injured, leaving vile brown flecks on it, soon he was stuck fast and would not have been able to move at all by himself, the little legs along one side hung quivering in the air while those on the other side were pressed painfully against the ground.
The Quest of the Silver Fleece
W.E.B. Du Bois
“ Stamping one foot angrily, he strode jauntily out of the wood toward the big road. But ever and anon he glanced curiously back. Had he seen a haunt? Or was the elf-girl real? And then he thought of her words: "We'se known us all our lives."
Twelve Years a Slave
Solomon Northup
“ The more I contemplated my situation, however, the more I became confirmed in my suspicions. It was a desolate thought, indeed. I felt there was no trust or mercy in unfeeling man; and commending myself to the God of the oppressed, bowed my head upon my fettered hands, and wept most bitterly.
A Negro Explorer at the North Pole
Matthew A. Henson
“ Two caches of provisions were made ashore in the event of an overland retreat, and the small boats were fully provisioned as a precaution against the loss of the ship. We did not dwell on the thought of losing it, but we took no chances.