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I know that some snobby people like to dismiss fiction as not serious or lesser-than, but anyone who is a fan (or an author) knows that’s wrong all the way to its core – just because characters and a story aren’t real doesn’t mean the life inside of it is false, after all.
Which is why so much good fiction hits so hard – like these 16 lines, which people say have always stuck with them no matter how much time has passed.
16. So are we all.
“There’s… triplets in my mind. The woman I am. the woman I must be. The woman I long to be. Like all sisters, they tend to be at odds with one another. From time to precious time. ” Divinity original sin 2 – Sebille.
15. It’s funny because it’s true.
“This is the worst day of your life….. So far”
Homer Simpson
14. It doesn’t work for everyone.
“You can ask any doctor, sometimes it seems like patients just hang on until everyone’s had a chance to say goodbye.” – JD, Scrubs.
By coincidence, I first watched that episode with that particular quote in it the night after my Grandmum died. She died whilst I was on the plane to see her and say my goodbyes, and I missed her by mere hours. That particular line had me on the floor weeping like a baby.
13. Suddenly applicable.
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
12. Extremely wise words.
“Money doesn’t change people. It just makes it easier for them to be who they are.” -Grandpa Abraham Simpson
Oddly enough, the one that stuck with me was also with Abe. I used to be with it, but they changed what it was. What I was with, isn’t it, and whats it, is strange and scary.
11. Even the wise.
Frodo: It’s a pity Bilbo didn’t kill him when he had the chance.
Gandalf: Pity? It was pity that stayed Bilbo’s hand. Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends.
10. Just keep swimming.
“Sucking at something is the first step towards being sorta good at something” – Jake the Dog
9. Right out from under you.
“It is a curious thing, the death of a loved one. We all know that our time in this world is limited, and that eventually all of us will end up underneath some sheet, never to wake up. And yet it is always a surprise when it happens to someone we know.
It is like walking up the stairs to your bedroom in the dark, and thinking there is one more stair than there is. Your foot falls down, through the air, and there is a sickly moment of dark surprise as you try and readjust the way you thought of things.” – Lemony Snicket
8. Mighty is the mind.
A pen isn’t mightier than a sword. Pens do not do battle, nor swords poetry. Mighty is the HAND that knows when to pick up the pen, or pick up the sword.” -Wiegraf Folles
7. It hurts your heart.
“Do you remember the last time we had a quiet drink together, just the two of us? I had a milkshake.”
Indiana Jones to his father in the Last Crusade
6. That was you all along.
“My first time, Afghanistan. We were moving through a house and… suddenly a man was there and I shot him in the stomach. Yeah, that’s a real war story. There are never any good stories like in movies – they’re s*%t.
A man was there, boom… stomach. I was so scared I didn’t pull the trigger again for the rest of the day. I thought, well, that’s it, Bacho. You put a bullet in someone. You’re not you anymore. You’ll never be you again.
But then you wake up the next morning and you’re still you. And you realize: that was you all along. You just didn’t know.”
From the fourth episode of Chernobyl.
5. Easier said than done.
“Don’t waste your time looking back. We’re not going that way.”
Ragnar Lothbrok in Vikings
4. That’s religion.
Big fan of Granny Weatherwax for this one.
“You say that you people don’t burn folk and sacrifice people anymore, but that’s what true faith would mean, y’see? Sacrificin’ your own life, one day at a time, to the flame, declarin’ the truth of it, workin’ for it, breathin’ the soul of it. That’s religion. Anything else is just . . . is just bein’ nice. And a way of keepin’ in touch with the neighbors.” ― Terry Pratchett, Carpe Jugulum
3. They never quite shine.
“When a child first catches adults out — when it first walks into his grave little head that adults do not always have divine intelligence, that their judgments are not always wise, their thinking true, their sentences just — his world falls into panic desolation.
The gods are fallen and all safety gone. And there is one sure thing about the fall of gods: they do not fall a little; they crash and shatter or sink deeply into green muck.
It is a tedious job to build them up again; they never quite shine. And the child’s world is never quite whole again. It is an aching kind of growing” -East of Eden, John Steinbeck
2. It’s not complicated.
“There’s no grays, only white that’s got grubby. I’m surprised you don’t know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people like things. Including yourself. That’s what sin is.”
“It’s a lot more complicated than that–”
“No. It ain’t. When people say things are a lot more complicated than that, they means they’re getting worried that they won’t like the truth. People as things, that’s where it starts.”
“Oh, I’m sure there are worse crimes–”
“But they starts with thinking about people as things…”
1. One day at a time.
“Its only after we have lost everything that we are free to do anything” – Tyler Durden
This helped me get through methamphetamine addiction. Because I indeed lost everything and the first step into my recovery was finally hitting the very bottom.
These are fantastic, and I’ve added some new titles to my read and watch lists.
What’s a line from fiction that you’ll always love? Share it with us in the comments!
