Quotes about last
page 11

“I knew that it wouldn’t last. It was just a moment, a perfect moment, as time stood still and fleetingly everything fell back into its proper place.”

Sarah Dessen book That Summer

Source: That Summer

Time, Perfection

“Don't ever forget the words on a postcard that my father sent me last year: "If you win the rat race, you're still a rat.”

Anna Quindlen (1952) journalist, Novelist

Source: A Short Guide to a Happy Life

Forgetting

“Does it matter how long they were together that night? To lovers, an hour can last a century. But even for lovers, every hour ends.”

Scott Snyder (1976) American writer

Source: American Vampire, Vol. 1

Lovers, Night

“Are you happy here?" I said at last.
He considered this for a moment. "Not particularly," he said. "But you're not very happy where you are, either.”

Donna Tartt book The Secret History

Source: The Secret History

Happiness

“physical beauty should have no importance in a lasting relationship.”

Julie Garwood (1946) American writer

Source: Gentle Warrior

Beauty

“As sure as time, history is repeating itself, and as sure as man is man, history is the last place he’ll look for his lessons.”

Harper Lee book Go Set a Watchman

Source: Go Set a Watchman

History, Time

“Who… who are you?' I asked at last. It was true. I had left a body in the park, but seriously, what was I supposed to do? Drag him back to my hotel and tell my bellhop my friend had had too much to drink?”

Richelle Mead Blood Promise

Source: Blood Promise

Drink

“Every student, Shadowhunter and mundane alike, knew the name Herondale. It was Jace’s last name. It was the name of heroes.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: The Lost Herondale

“No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck.”

Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman

Speech at Civil Rights Mass Meeting, Washington, D.C. (22 October 1883).
1880s, Speech at the Civil Rights Mass Meeting (1883)
Variant: No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck.

“His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.”

James Joyce book The Dead

Dubliners (1914)
Variant: His soul swooned softly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.
Source: "The Dead"
Context: Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.

Soul, Universe, Dead

“Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee.”

Herman Melville book Moby-Dick

Source: Moby Dick

Hate, Hell, Heart

“Just because something doesn't last forever, it doesn't mean it wasn't meaningful while it did last. It doesn't mean it wasn't important.”

Candace Bushnell book Summer and the City

Source: Summer and the City

“I'll bet I'm as old as you are."
"I'm older than Sanskrit."
"Well, I was waitress at the Last Supper."
"I'm so old I remember when McDonald's had only sold a hundred burgers."
"You win.”

Tom Robbins book Still Life with Woodpecker

Source: Still Life with Woodpecker

“At long last he was unencumbered, emancipated from the stifling world of his parents and peers, a world of abstraction and security and material excess, a world in which he felt grievously cut off from the raw throb of existence.”

Jon Krakauer book Into the Wild

Source: Into the Wild

World, Parent

“Only that man who has offered up himself entire to the blood of war, who has been to the floor of the pit and seen the horror in the round and learned at last that it speaks to his inmost heart, only that man can dance. - The judge”

Cormac McCarthy (1933) American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter

Source: Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West

War, Learning, Heart, Dance

“The task of art is to transform what is continuously happening to us, to transform all of these things into symbols, into music, into something which can last in man’s memory. That is our duty. If we don’t fulfill it, we feel unhappy.”

Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish language literature

Art, Music, Feeling, Memory

“You mistake me, my dear. I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends. I have heard you mention them with consideration these last twenty years at least.”

Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice

Source: Pride and Prejudice

“So tomorrow we disappear into the unknown. This account I am transmitting down the river by canoe, and it may be our last word to those who are interested in our fate.”

Arthur Conan Doyle book The Lost World

Source: The Lost World

Fate

“If pregnancy were a book they would cut the last two chapters.”

Nora Ephron (1941–2012) Film director, author screenwriter

Books

“Oh, try not to sound so much like Mom—you don’t have the ovaries" (Monica Morrell - Last Breath)”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Last Breath

Moms

“I've spent the last decade learning to stand firm and face my problems… or at least batter them until they're unrecognizable.”

Kelley Armstrong book Frostbitten

Source: Frostbitten

Problem, Learning

“Roads go ever ever on
Under cloud and under star,
Yet feet that wandering have gone
Turn at last to home afar”

Christopher Tolkien (1924–2020) British book editor

Source: The Hobbit

Home, Star

“It was an odd friendship, but the oddnesses of friendships are a frequent guarantee of their lasting texture.”

Ford Madox Ford (1873–1939) English writer and publisher

Source: Some Do Not ... & No More Parades

Friendship

“The truth is, some relationships are supposed to last forever, and some are only supposed to last a few days. That’s the way life is.”

Sophie Kinsella book Can You Keep a Secret?

Source: Can You Keep a Secret?

Life, Truth, Way

“The seat received him in a loose and distant kind of way, like an aunt who disapproves of the last fifteen years of your life and will therefore furnish you with a basic sherry, but refuses to catch your eye.”

Douglas Adams book Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

Source: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (1987)

Life, Way, Distant

“Upon this crown my pledge I give,
To my last breath, I hold this choice,
I will your unjust deaths avenge,
All here who died without a voice.”

Suzanne Collins Gregor and the Marks of Secret

Source: Gregor and the Marks of Secret

Death

“And why had Deb's last boyfriend dumped her?
I dumped him.
Maybe you didn't French-kiss him enough.
I promise you that wasn't it.
Tell me how many times a day you kissed, and I'll say if it was enough.
Four hundred.
Not enough.”

Miranda July (1974) American performance artist, musician and writer

Source: No One Belongs Here More Than You

Kiss, Time

“I love the solitude of reading. I love the deep dive into someone else's story, the delicious ache of a last page.”

Naomi Shihab Nye (1952) American writer

Love, Solitude, Reading

“I hate it when people let me down, when things are temporary. I think that's why I want to be an architect."
"To build something permanent," I said. "A monument to last a thousand years.”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

Hate, People, Thinking

“Keep fighting until the last buzzer sounds.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Source: The World As I See It

Fight

“Now I understand,” said the last man.”

Arthur C. Clarke book Childhood's End

Source: Childhood's End

Understanding

“The little pig began to pray
But Wolfie blew his house away.
He shouted, "Bacon, Pork, and Ham!
Oh what a lucky wolf I am!"
And though he ate the pig quite fast,
He carefully kept the tail till last.”

Roald Dahl book Revolting Rhymes

Source: Revolting Rhymes

Wolf, Housing

“At long last, she gasped out, "It’s Seth."
"What happened?" I demanded. "Is he okay?"
"He ended it." Her crying renewed. "He broke the engagement and told me it was over.”

Richelle Mead (1976) American writer

Source: Succubus Shadows

Cry

“Stories never really end… even if the books like to pretend they do. Stories always go on. They don't end on the last page, any more than they begin on the first page.”

Cornelia Funke Inkheart trilogy

Source: Inkspell

Books

“In short, over the last ten years the Negro decided to straighten his back up, realizing that a man cannot ride your back unless it is bent.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

1960s, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (1967)

“All that you touch
You Change.

All that you Change
Changes you.

The only lasting truth
Is Change.

God
Is Change.”

Octavia E. Butler book Parable of the Sower

Source: Parable of the Sower (1993), Chapter 1 (p. 3)

God, Truth, Change

“Beauty without wit offers nothing but the enjoyment of its material charms, whilst witty ugliness captivates by the charms of the mind, and at last fulfils all the desires of the man it has captivated.”

Giacomo Casanova (1725–1798) Italian adventurer and author from the Republic of Venice

Source: The Story of My Life

Beauty

“Life is tragic simply because the earth turns and the sun inexorably rises and sets, and one day, for each of us, the sun will go down for the last, last time.”

James Baldwin (1924–1987) (1924-1987) writer from the United States

Life, Time, Sun

“We each die countless little deaths on our way to the last. We die out of shame as humiliation. We perish from despair. And, of course, we die for love.”

Clive Barker book Absolute Midnight

Source: Absolute Midnight

Love, Death, Way, Despair

“Cats are the lap-dancers of the animal world. Soon as you stop shelling out, they move on, find another lap. They're furry little sociopaths. Pretty and slick -- in love with themselves. When's the last time you saw a seeing-eye cat?”

Andrew Vachss (1942) American writer and lawyer

Source: Safe House

Love, World, Cats, Time

“This club is for members only. But once you join, membership lasts for an eternity.”

Ellen Schreiber (1967) American writer

Source: The Coffin Club

“I feel myself shriveling along with my world, getting smaller and harder. I'm turning into a rock, and in some ways that's good, because rocks last forever.
But if this is how I'm going to last forever, then I don't want to.”

Susan Beth Pfeffer book Life As We Knew It

Source: Life As We Knew It

World, Way, Feeling

“She had been a teenager once, and she knew that, despite the apparent contradictions, a person's teenage years lasted well into their fifties.”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Source: Mortal Coil

Personality

“Beseeching is a true, gracious, lasting will of the soul, oned and fastened into the will of our Lord by the sweet inward work of the Holy Ghost.”

Julian of Norwich book Revelations of Divine Love

The Fourteenth Revelation, Chapter 41
Source: Revelations of Divine Love

Soul

“The bitterness of joy lies in the knowledge that it cannot last. Nor should joy last beyond a certain season, for, after that season, even joy would become merely habit.”

Tanith Lee book Delusion's Master

Source: Delusion's Master

Knowledge, Joy, Season

“You never know when it will be the last time you'll see your father, or kiss your wife, or play with your little brother, but there's always a last time. If you could remember every last time, you'd never stop grieving.”

Jonathan Tropper (1970) American writer

Source: This is Where I Leave You

Kiss, Time

“For years now, I've wanted to fall asleep. The sort of slipping off, the giving up, the falling part of sleep. Now sleeping is the last thing I want to do.”

Chuck Palahniuk Fight Club

Source: Fight Club

Sleep, Parting

“Its best to live as if it were the first and last day of my life.”

Paulo Coelho book Eleven Minutes

Source: Eleven Minutes

Life

“The first thing you learn in life is you’re a fool. The last thing you learn in life is you’re the same fool.”

Ray Bradbury book Dandelion Wine

Source: Dandelion Wine (1957), p. 62

Life, Fools, Learning

“Last night it had been my father who had finally said it: "She’s never coming home." A clear and easy piece of truth that everyone who had ever known me had accepted. But he needed to say it, and she needed to hear him say it.”

Alice Sebold book The Lovely Bones

Source: The Lovely Bones

Truth, Home, Night

“Life turns on a dime. Sometimes towards us, but more often it spins away, flirting and flashing as it goes: so long, honey, it was good while it lasted, wasn’t it?”

Stephen King book 11/22/63

Source: 11/22/63

Life

“The music, while it lasted, brought a new world into being.”

Wendell Berry (1934) author

Source: Jayber Crow

World, Music

“We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over. So in a series of acts of kindness there is, at last, one which makes the heart run over.”

James Boswell book The Life of Samuel Johnson

(19 September 1777)
The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1791)
Variant: We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses there is at last one which makes the heart run over.

Friendship, Heart