Quotes about last
page 10

“He knelt by the bed and bent over her, draining their last moment to its lees; and in the silence there passed between them the word which made all clear.”

Edith Wharton book The House of Mirth

Source: The House of Mirth

Silence

“Suppose you were the last one left? Suppose you did that to yourself?”

Cormac McCarthy book The Road

Source: The Road

“I don't care what your nose says! The last time you smelled half-blood, it turned out to be a meatloaf sandwich!"
"Meatloaf sandwiches are good! But this is a half-blood scent, I swear. They are on board!"
"Bah, your brain isn't on board!”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

Time

“Yes, hope is a strange thing. Peace at last. But at what price?”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

Source: The Kite Runner

Peace, Hope

“And Finally I put down the last and the best advice I knew, on growing older. 'Stand up straight and try not to get fat.”

Diana Gabaldon book Voyager

Source: Voyager

“To make a deliberate falsification for personal gain is the last, worst depth to which either scholar or artist can descend in work or life.

(, 8 September 1935)”

Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957) English crime writer, playwright, essayist and Christian writer

Source: The Letters of Dorothy L. Sayers. Vol. 1, 1899-1936: The Making of a Detective Novelist

Life, Personality

“Here at last is her smile: burn it into your memory; you won't see it often.”

Junot Díaz book The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Source: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Smile, Memory

“Sex and a cocktail: they both lasted about as long, had the same effect, and amounted to the same thing.”

D.H. Lawrence book Lady Chatterley's Lover

Source: Lady Chatterley's Lover

Sex

“She wanted to ask him why they were all strangers who shared the same last name.”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie book Half of a Yellow Sun

Source: Half of a Yellow Sun

“it taught me, that when a woman lets herself love, she loses. it taught me that to survive, you rely on yourself first and last." -adrianne

"It should have also taught you that sometimes love has no threshold." -philip”

Nora Roberts (1950) American romance writer

Source: Sweet Revenge

Love

“Belief in mysteries, any manner of mysteries, is the only lasting luxury in life.”

Zilpha Keatley Snyder book The Witches of Worm

Source: The Witches of Worm

Life

“A mob's always made up of people, no matter what. Mr. Cunningham was part of a mob last night, but he was still a man. Every mob in every little Southern town is always made up of people you know--doesn't say much for them, does it?”

Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird

Source: To Kill a Mockingbird

People, Parting, Night

“Why spend the afternoon making a meal that will be gone in an hour," she'd ask us, "when in the same amount of time, I can do a painting that will last forever?”

Jeannette Walls book The Glass Castle

Source: The Glass Castle

Time, Painting

“The trouble with miracles is, they don't last long.”

Jerry Spinelli book Stargirl

Source: Stargirl

“You can choose to be free, but it's last decision you'll ever make”

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) author

Decision

“He thinks Goliath can end the war," Alek managed at last. "The man wants peace!"

"As do we all," Count Volger said. "But there are many ways to end a war. Some are more peaceful than others.”

Scott Westerfeld book Goliath

Source: Goliath

War, Peace, Way, Thinking

“Of any activity you do, ask yourself: If I were the last person on earth, would I still do it?”

Steven Pressfield (1943) United States Marine

Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

Personality

“Sometimes I think I won't ever feel safe until I can count my last days on one hand.”

Gillian Flynn book Sharp Objects

Source: Sharp Objects

Feeling, Thinking

“He realized that he had thought only about the first step, never imagined the last.”

Colum McCann book Let the Great World Spin

Source: Let the Great World Spin

Imagination

“I don't think you should die until you're ready. Until you've wrung out every last bit of living you can.”

Libba Bray Going Bovine

Source: Going Bovine

Thinking

“Got tight on absinthe last night. Did knife tricks.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

Night

“Stop running, you fools!" Kronos yelled. "Stand and ACKK!"
That last part was because a panicked Hyperborean giant stumbled backwards and sat on top of him. The lord of time disappeared under a giant blue butt.”

Rick Riordan (1964) American writer

Fools, Time, Parting

“To my wonderful readers. Sorry about that apology for that last cliffhanger. I’ll try to avoid cliffhangers in this book. Well, except for maybe a few small ones… because I love you guys.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

Love, Books, Guy

“and yet she was leaving the world as a woman who had love and been loved back. she was leaving it as a friend, a companion, a guardian. a mother. a person of consequence at last.”

Khaled Hosseini book A Thousand Splendid Suns

Mariam, p. 370
A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)
Context: She was leaving the world as woman who had loved and been loved back. She was leaving it as a friend, a companion, a guardian. A mother. A person of consequence at last. No. It was not so bad, Mariam thought, that she should die this way. Not so bad.

Love, World, Personality

“Philosophy is, in the last instance, class struggle in the field of theory.”

Louis Althusser (1918–1990) French political philosopher

Source: Essays in Self-Criticism

“In one of his last newsletters, Mike Ranney wrote: "In thinking back on the days of Easy Company, I'm treasuring my remark to a grandson who asked, 'Grandpa, were you a hero in the war?'
No,'" I answered, 'but I served in a company of heroes.”

Stephen E. Ambrose (1936–2002) American historian

Source: Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest

War, Thinking

“We should enjoy this summer, flower by flower, as if it were to be the last one we’ll see.”

André Gide (1869–1951) French novelist and essayist

Flowers, Summer

“I couldn’t remember the last time I had stayed up into the squeaky hours of the night because I couldn’t put a book down, and that was a tragedy.”

Shannon Hale (1974) American fantasy novelist

Books, Time, Night

“Jem is nothing but goodness. That he struck you last night only shows how capable you are of driving even saints to madness.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Madness, Night

“In the United States, the last recorded clitoridectomy for curing masturbation was performed in 1948--on a five year old girl.”

Eve Ensler book The Vagina Monologues

Source: The Vagina Monologues

Girl

“We make families of our own, Travis whispered in my arms on the last night we spent together. It starts with you and me and then it spreads. And whatever happens, there’ll always be a part of me that’s part of you. No matter what.”

Steve Kluger book Almost Like Being in Love

Source: Almost Like Being in Love

Family, Parting, Night

“At last, the wheel comes full circle”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

Goodbye

“If a story is not about the hearer, he will not listen. And here I make a rule—a great and interesting story is about everyone or it will not last.”

John Steinbeck (1902–1968) American writer

“The deeds of men, as footprints in the desert.
Nothing under the circling moons is fated to last.
Even the sun goes down.”

Guy Gavriel Kay book The Lions of Al-Rassan

Source: The Lions of Al-Rassan

Men, Fate, Sun

“If there's one thing I've learned in the last few months, it's that sometimes you just have to close your eyes and jump.”

Sarah Dessen book Dreamland

Source: Dreamland (2000)

Learning

“Someone tells me: this kind of love is not viable. But how can you evaluate viability? Why is the viable a Good Thing? Why is it better to last than to burn?”

Roland Barthes book A Lover's Discourse: Fragments

Source: A Lover's Discourse: Fragments

Love

“Between the time the last train leaves and the first train arrives, the place changes: it's not the same as in daytime.”

Haruki Murakami book After Dark

Source: After Dark

Change, Time, Training

“Last year when my grandma fell and broke her hip she couldn't paint her toenails anymore. So my grandpa started doing it for her, even after he fell and broke his hip, too. For me, that's love.”

David Ebershoff book The 19th Wife

Source: The 19th Wife

Love, Grandma, Painting

“Sooner or later we all lose our loved ones. We all have to suffer, every last one of us.”

Tom Perrotta book The Leftovers

Source: The Leftovers

Love, Suffering

“Simple, genuine goodness is the best capital to found the business of this life upon. It lasts when fame and money fail, and is the only riches we can take out of this world with us.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Men

Source: Little Men

Life, Money, World, Business

“She shrieks above the din. "If you wish a battle, I shall give it. I am the last of my kind. I shall not lie down without a fight.”

Libba Bray book The Sweet Far Thing

Source: The Sweet Far Thing

Lie, Fight

“Hey," he said. "It's someday." He said the last word in Greek.”

Ann Brashares book Sisterhood Everlasting

Source: Sisterhood Everlasting

“We’ve been here before, haven’t we? Last time you were starving, I gave you my blood. It was a little homoerotic, maybe, but I’m secure in my sexuality.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Jace Herondale and Simon Lewis, pg. 509
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Heavenly Fire (2014)
Context: "Why didn't you say something?"
"Because, it's not like there's animals I can feed on here."
"There's us."
"I don't want to feed on my friends' blood."
"Why not? We've been here before, haven't we? Last time you were starving, I gave you my blood. It was a little homoerotic, maybe, but I'm secure in my sexuality."

Time

“When the day shall come, that we do part," he said softly, and turned to look at me, "if my last words are not 'I love you'—ye'll ken it was because I didna have time.”

Diana Gabaldon book The Fiery Cross

Variant: When the day shall come that we do part," he said softly, and turned to look at me, "if my last words are not 'I love you'-ye'll ken it was because I didna have time.
Source: The Fiery Cross

Love, Time, Parting

“I, for one, am exhausted. I’ve been threatened, beaten, bitten and killed, and that was just in the last hour. (Jericho)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Dream Warrior

“I’ve named everything that I’ve ever owned. Real or inanimate, I have to give it a first and last name. Everything in my apartment comes alive at night.”

Amy Sedaris (1961) American comedian

Night

“Live everyday as if it were your last because someday you're going to be right.”

Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) African American boxer, philanthropist and activist

“My luck is getting worse and worse. Last night, for instance, I was mugged by a Quaker.”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician

Night

“Every day when I wake I tell myself that it will be my last. If you are not trying to hold on to time, you are not so afraid of losing it… And then, if you make it to bedtime, you feel the joy of cheating death out of one more day.”

Suzanne Collins book Gregor the Overlander

Variant: You see, I tired of constant fear, so I made a decision. Every day when I wake I tell myself that it will be my last. If you are not trying to hold on to time, you are not so afraid of losing it.
Source: Gregor the Overlander

Death, Feeling, Time, Joy

“Fanfiction isn't copying - it's a. One long party, from the first capital letter to the last full stop!”

Jasper Fforde book One of Our Thursdays Is Missing

Source: One of Our Thursdays Is Missing

“When at last I came upon the right book, the feeling was violent: it blew open a hole in me that made life more dangerous because I couldn't control what came through it.”

Nicole Krauss book Great House

Source: Great House

Life, Books, Feeling

“I refuse to believe that Hendrix had the last possessed hand,
that Joplin had the last drunken throat,
that Morrison had the last enlightened mind.”

Patti Smith (1946) American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist

“I tried to pick Nykyrian’s pocket last year. (Jana)
And you let him live? (Kiara)
I have an age requirement before I kill someone. (Nykyrian)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Born of the Night

Age

“When I die, don't come, I wouldn't want a leaf
to turn away from the sun -- it loves it there.
There's nothing so spiritual about being happy
but you can't miss a day of it, because it doesn't last.”

Frank O'Hara (1926–1966) American poet, art critic and writer

Love, Happiness, Sun

“So let me end with the wish that you find the same kind of happyiness, and laughter, and love, that I have found, and that you have the wisdon to make them last.”

Sherwood Smith (1951) American fantasy and science fiction writer

Source: Court Duel

Love, Laughter

“But sooner or later the last good time would come around. It does for all of us.”

Stephen King book Joyland

Source: Joyland

Time

“But the adjectives change,” said Jimmy. “Nothing’s worse than last year’s adjectives.”

Margaret Atwood book Oryx and Crake

Source: Oryx and Crake

Change

“Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.”

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer

April 7, 1775, p. 253
Boswell's full mention of this statement reads:
:Patriotism having become one of our topicks, Johnson suddenly uttered, in a strong determined tone, an apophthegm, at which many will start: "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." But let it be considered, that he did not mean a real and generous love of our country, but that pretended patriotism which so many, in all ages and countries, have made a cloak of self-interest.
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol II

“In the pool, on that last night of the last summer, we said we’d always come back. It’s scary how easy promises were broken. Just like that.”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

Source: It's Not Summer Without You

Summer, Night

“The thing about leaving something behind for the last time is that you rarely realize you're doing it.”

Wendy Mass (1967) American children's writer

Source: The Candymakers

Time

“He who laughs last laughs the laughiest.”

Louise Rennison (1951–2016) British writer

Source: Dancing in My Nuddy-Pants

“Take it from me: love has all the lasting permanence of a rainbow- beautiful while it's there, and just as likely to have disappeared by the time you blink.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Variant: Love has all the lasting permanence of a rainbow — beautiful while it’s there, and just as likely to have disappeared by the time you blink.
Source: My Sister's Keeper

Love, Beauty, Time

“People who prefer to believe the worst of others will breed war and religious persecutions while the world lasts.”

Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957) English crime writer, playwright, essayist and Christian writer

Source: The Letters of Dorothy L. Sayers. Vol. 1, 1899-1936: The Making of a Detective Novelist

War, People, World

“We do survive every moment, after all, except the last one.”

John Updike (1932–2009) American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic

“It's easier to start over than to work to make something last.”

Rachel Hawthorne (1950) American author

Source: Thrill Ride

“For a minute there it was really good. It was really, really good. Wasn't it good? Maybe really, really good things aren't meant to last for too long; maybe that's what makes them all the more sweet, the temporariness of them.”

Jenny Han book P.S. I Still Love You

Source: P.S. I Still Love You

“I can't hate people that much. Don't get me wrong. I want to murder every last Keeper I can find. But that's not hate. That's vengeance.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Slays

Hate, People

“The days hardened with cold and boredom like last year's loaves of bread. One began to cut them with blunt knives without appetite, with a lazy indifference.”

Bruno Schulz book The Street of Crocodiles

Source: The Street of Crocodiles

Indifference

“Love can touch us one time
And last for a life time
And never let go till
We're gone.”

Céline Dion (1968) Canadian singer

Love, Life, Time

“I saw thousands of pumpkins last night
come floating in on the tide,
bumping up against the rocks and
rolling up on the beaches;
it must be Halloween in the sea”

Richard Brautigan (1935–1984) American novelist, poet, and short story writer

Source: The Pill vs. the Springhill Mine Disaster

Sea, Night

“How would you know if you were the last man on Earth? He said.
I don't guess you would know it. You'd just be it.
Nobody would know it.
It wouldn't make any difference. When you die it's the same as if everybody else died too.”

Cormac McCarthy book The Road

Source: The Road

“Don’t tell me your name. It’s likely to awaken my conscience, and that’s the last thing we want.”

Julia Quinn (1970) American novelist

Source: Ten Things I Love About You

“it was going to be all right.
at last.
for a while.”

Charles Bukowski book Notes of a Dirty Old Man

Source: Notes of a Dirty Old Man

“Today is the last day of some of your life. Don't waste it." quote from Tara Daniels”

Jill Shalvis (1963) American writer

Source: The Sweetest Thing

Life, Quotes

“Each time I wake, I think, At last, this is over, but it isn't.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games trilogy, The Hunger Games (2008), p. 194
Context: I enter a nightmare from which I wake repeatedly only to find a greater terror awaiting me. All the things I dread most, all the things I dread for others manifest in such vivid detail I can’t help but believe they're real. Each time I wake, I think, At last, this is over, but it isn't. It's only the beginning of a new chapter of torture. How many ways do I watch Prim die? Relive my father's last moments? Feel my own body ripped apart? This is the nature of the tracker jacker venom, so carefully created to target the place where fear lives in your brain.

Thinking, Time

“The Cyclopes growled, "I don't see very well since the last hero poked my eye out, but you're… NO… LADY… CYCLOPES!”

Rick Riordan book The Sea of Monsters

Source: The Sea of Monsters