The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

“Live in the present, make the most of it, it’s all you’ve got.”

(The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, Chapter 24)

The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy

"The qualifications which frequently invest the facade of a prison with far more dignity than is found in the facade of a palace double its size lent to this heath a sublimity in which spots renowned for beauty of the accepted kind are utterly wanting."

(The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy, Chapter 1)

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

“I thought the most beautiful thing in the world must be shadow, the million moving shapes and cul-de-sacs of shadow. There was shadow in bureau drawers and closets and suitcases, and shadow under houses and trees and stones, and shadow at the back of people’s eyes and smiles, and shadow, miles and miles and miles of it, on the night side of the earth.”

(The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, Chapter 12)

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

“The inexorable facts closed in on him like prison-warders handcuffing a convict. There was no way out – none. He was a prisoner for life, and now his one ray of light was to be extinguished.”

(Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, Chapter 8)

The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien

“It is useless to meet revenge with revenge; it will heal nothing.”

(The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien, Book VI, Chapter 8)

Night by Elie Wiesel

“I could hear only the violin, and it was as though Juliek’s soul were the bow. He was playing his life. The whole of his life was gliding on the strings—his lost hopes, his charred past, his extinguished future. He played as if he would never play again.”

(Night by Elie Wiesel, Section 6)

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

“It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.”

(Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling, Chapter 12)

Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

“Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal. Each man the image of every other; then all are happy, for there are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves against.”

(Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury)

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

“And I say to Sam now: ‘Sam—here’s the book.’ It’s so short and jumbled and jangled, Sam, because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. Everybody is supposed to be dead, to never say anything or want anything ever again. Everything is supposed to be very quiet after a massacre, and it always is, except for the birds. And what do the birds say? All there is to say about a massacre, things like ‘Poo-tee-weet?”

(Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, 19)

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

"What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title.

(Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Act II, Scene 2)

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

"This is our island. It’s a good island. Until the grown-ups come to fetch us we’ll have fun."

(Lord of the Flies by William Golding)

Silas Marner by George Eliot

"The past becomes dreamy because its symbols have all vanished, and the present too is dreamy because it is linked with no memories."

(Silas Marner by George Eliot, Chapter 1)

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

(Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Chapter 1)

Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton

“Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing, nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much.”

(Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton, Chapter 12)

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

“And I have by me, for my comfort, two strange white flowers - shriveled now, and brown and flat and brittle – to witness that even when mind and strength had gone, gratitude and mutual tenderness still lived on in the heart of man.”

(The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, Epilogue)

The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene

“There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.”

(The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene, Part I, Chapter 1)

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

“To me, beauty is the wonder of wonders. It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances.”

(The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, Chapter 2)

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

"She was a rut in the road. Plenty of life beneath the surface but it was kept beaten down by the wheels."

(Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston)

The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy

"Fair prospects wed happily with fair times; but alas,
if times be not fair! Men have oftener suffered from,
the mockery of a place too smiling for their reason than
from the oppression of surroundings oversadly tinged."

(The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy, Chapter 1)

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

"His childhood was dead or lost and with it his soul capable of simple joys, and he was drifting amid life like the barren shell of the moon.”

(A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce, Chapter 2)

Animal Farm by George Orwell

"Do not imagine, comrades, that leadership is a pleasure. On the contrary, it is a deep and heavy responsibility. No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?"

(Animal Farm by George Orwell, Chapter 5)

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

"A person who has not done one half his day's work by ten o'clock, runs a chance of leaving the other half undone."

(Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, Chapter 7)

Hamlet by William Shakespeare

"To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them?

(Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Act III, Scene 1)

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us."

(A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, Chapter 1)

In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens by Alice Walker

"And so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than not anonymously, handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped to see: or like a sealed letter they could not plainly read."

(In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens by Alice Walker)

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

"My spirits were elevated by the enchanting appearance of nature; the past was blotted from my memory, the present was tranquil, and the future gilded by bright rays of hope and anticipations of joy."

(Frankenstein by Mary Shelley)

Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott

"Pride and jealousy there was in his eye, for his life had been spent in asserting rights which were constantly liable to invasion; and the prompt, fiery, and resolute disposition of the man, had been kept constantly upon the alert by the circumstances of his situation."

(Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott, Chapter 3)

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

"I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will."

(Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, Chapter 23)

The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne

"The aspect of the venerable mansion has always affected me like a human countenance, bearing the traces not merely of outward storm and sunshine, but expressive also, of the long lapse of mortal life, and accompanying vicissitudes that have passed within."

(The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Chapter 1)

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."

(The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Chapter 9)