Quotes about last
page 13

“How long can we maintain? I wonder. How long before one of us starts raving and jabbering at this boy? What will he think then? This same lonely desert was the last known home of the Manson family. Will he make that grim connection..”

Hunter S. Thompson book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Source: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Family, Home, Boy, Thinking

“For the last year his grandma had been slipping in and out of reality. One minute she was as clear as a bell and the next she was calling him Simon. Who was Simon? He had no idea.”

Suzanne Collins book Gregor the Overlander

Source: Gregor the Overlander

Idea, Reality, Grandma

“Scout, I´m telling you for the last time, shut your trap or go home - I declare to the Lord you´re gettin´ more like a girl every day!”
With that, I had no option but to join them.”

Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird

Source: To Kill a Mockingbird

Home, Girl, Time, Scouting

“It’s good.’ She chirps the last bit as if that were all to say about a book: It’s good or it’s bad. I liked it or I didn’t. No discussions of the writing, the themes, the nuances, the structure. Just good or bad. Like a hot dog.”

Gillian Flynn book Gone Girl

Source: Gone Girl

Books, Dogs

“You are the music while the music lasts.”

T.S. Eliot (1888–1965) 20th century English author

Music

“The other day I went to a tourist information booth and asked, 'Tell me about some of the people who were here last year.”

Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author

People

“I believe in whatever gets you throught the night. […] Night is the hardest time to be alive. For me, anyway. It lasts so long, and four A. M. knows all my secrets.”

Poppy Z. Brite (1967) Novelist, short story writer, food writer

Secret, Time, Night

“It's love, not the Battle of Thermopylae. You don't have to treat everything like it's a last stand.”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

Love

“We wander, question. But the answer waits in each separate heart - the answer of our own identity and the way by which we can master loneliness and feel that at last we belong.”

Carson McCullers (1917–1967) American writer

Source: The Mortgaged Heart: Selected Writings

Way, Feeling, Question, Waiting

“We spent all those years talking about stuff we had in common, and the last few months noticing all the ways we were different and it broke both of our hearts.”

Nick Hornby (1957) English novelist

Way, Heart

“Aww, did we masturbate through the tears last night?”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Lothaire

Tear, Night

“She was experiencing the same odd happiness and odd sadness as then. The sadness meant: We are at the last station. The happiness meant: We are together. The sadness was form, the happiness content. Happiness filled the space of sadness.”

Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Happiness, Sadness

“Last time I saw a mouth like that, it had a hook in it.”

Rodney Dangerfield (1921–2004) American actor and comedian

Time

“She had been given a wonderful gift: life. Sometimes it was cruelly taken away too soon, but it's what you did with it that counted, not how long it lasted.”

Cecelia Ahern (1981) Irish novelist

Source: P.S. I Love You

Life

“Never think you've seen the last of anything.”

Eudora Welty (1909–2001) American author

Thinking

“To be capable of steady friendship or lasting love, are the two greatest proofs, not only of goodness of heart, but of strength of mind.”

William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English writer

Love, Friendship, Heart

“And I said, 'That last thing is what you can't get, Carlo. Nobody can get to that last thing. We keep on living in hopes of catching it once and for all.”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Source: On the Road

Hope

“He did not consider if or how or why he loved them. They were just love: they were the first evidence he ever had of love, and they would be the last confirmation of love when everything else fell away.”

Zadie Smith On Beauty

Source: On Beauty

Love

“Wounds heal. Love lasts. We remain.”

Kristin Hannah book The Nightingale

Source: The Nightingale

Love

“You can't argue with the dead, no matter what you say, they always have the last word.”

Jennifer Donnelly A Northern Light

Source: A Northern Light

Dead

“And you know, these things don't last forever.'

I know, Mandy. Nothing does.'

That's the spirit.”

Scott Westerfeld book So Yesterday

Source: So Yesterday

“How beautifully leaves grow old. How full of light and color are their last days.”

John Burroughs (1837–1921) American naturalist and essayist

Color, Light

“Did you ever dream you had a friend, Alec? Someone to last your whole life and you his. I suppose such a thing can’t really happen outside sleep.”

E.M. Forster book Maurice

Source: Maurice

Life, Dreams, Sleep

“Lightwoods,” Magnus said. “They always have to have the last word.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

“What's your favorite book?
"The last one I read.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Books, Reading

“He kissed me hard and I kissed him back harder, like it was the end of an era that had lasted all of my life.”

Cheryl Strayed book Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Source: Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Life, Kiss

“I don't know. But Iknow that I'm at the stage of my life where I want, not.

I know that the first person I kissed won't be nearly as important as the last person I kiss.

And I also know better than to dream about things that can't happen.”

Jodi Picoult book Sing You Home

Source: Sing You Home

Life, Dreams, Kiss, Personality

“Still clutching each other by the arm, they turned to watch the last stones plummet over the edge.

“I don't know how many times a day I can stand to watch you almost die,” Seregil gasped.

“Twice is my limit,” croaked Alec, sinking to his knees.”

Lynn Flewelling Luck in the Shadows

Source: Luck in the Shadows

Time

“I want to know that I've accomplished something. I want to feel that it had some meaning. At the last summing up, I want to be sure it wasn't all-for nothing.”

Ayn Rand book The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

Feeling

“Yeah and it's over before you know it.
It all goes by so fast.
Yeah, the bad nights last forever,
And the good nights don't ever seem to last”

Tom Petty (1950–2017) American musician

The Best of Everything
Lyrics, Southern Accents (1985)

Night

“The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The new order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.”

Bob Dylan book Chronicles: Volume One

Source: Chronicles, Vol. 1

Time, Past

“An untied shoelace can be dangerous,' he said.
'I could have tripped.'
She stared at him. A moment dragged by.
'I'm joking,' he said at last.
She relaxed. 'Really?'
'Absolutely. I would never have tripped. I'm far too graceful.”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Source: Playing with Fire

“"I've got a sort of idea," said Pooh at last, "but I don't suppose it's a very good one."
"I don't suppose it is either," said Eeyore.”

A.A. Milne book The House at Pooh Corner

Source: The House at Pooh Corner (1928), Chapter Six.

Idea

“It's not easy being so frightened of everything. And when I think of how much I've improved in the last year, I wonder when I'll ever get finished with making changes and be really grown up.”

Paula Danziger book There's a Bat in Bunk Five

Source: There's a Bat in Bunk Five

Thinking, Change

“Death, only death, can break the lasting chain;
And here, ev'n then, shall my cold dust remain”

Alexander Pope Eloisa to Abelard

Source: Eloisa to Abelard

Death

“Sometimes I think I won't ever feel safe until I can count my last days on one hand. Three more days to get through until I don't have to worry about life anymore.”

Gillian Flynn book Sharp Objects

Source: Sharp Objects

Life, Feeling, Thinking

“Listen, child—if you’re at a party with a hundred people and one of them is the devil, he’ll be the last one you’d suspect.”

Dean Koontz book Deeply Odd

Source: Deeply Odd

People

“National identity is the last bastion of the dispossessed. But the meaning of identity is now based on hatred, on hatred for those who are not the same.”

Umberto Eco book The Prague Cemetery

Source: The Prague Cemetery

“He pulls the hood over my head. I try to pull back. I'm not trying to run away. I just want to see her… One last time…”

Malorie Blackman Noughts & Crosses

Source: Noughts & Crosses

Time

“I think when you are truly stuck, when you have stood still in the same spot for too long, you throw a grenade in exactly the spot you were standing in, and jump, and pray. It is the momentum of last resort.”

Renata Adler (1938) American author, journalist and film critic

Source: Speedboat

Thinking

“The doctor says there are such boys springing up amongst us—boys of a sort unknown in the last generation—the outcome of new views of life. They seem to see all its terrors before they are old enough to have staying power to resist them. He says it is the beginning of the coming universal wish not to live.”

Thomas Hardy book Jude the Obscure

Jude the Obscure

Life, Spring, Boy, Universe

“As exits go, that's a good one." It was pretty hard to have the last word with a vampire.”

Charlaine Harris book All Together Dead

Source: All Together Dead

“Now at last I can look at you in peace, I don't eat you anymore.”

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) author

Comment to a fish, after becoming a vegetarian, p. 74 http://books.google.com/books?id=6TNVWo7S6n8C&pg=PA74&dq=kafka+look+peace+eat#PPA74,M1 <br class="br">Franz Kafka: A Biography (1960)

Peace

“Here at last
We shall be free;
the Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:
Here we may reign secure, and in my choice
To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.”

John Milton (1608–1674) English epic poet

Hell, Envy

“She'd secretly had a crush on him since they were twelve years old. Last summer, she'd fallen for him hard.”

Rick Riordan The Mark of Athena

Source: The Mark of Athena

Summer

“The habit of reading is the only one I know in which there is no alloy. It lasts when all other pleasures fade. It will be there to support you when all other resources are gone. It will be present to you when the energies of your body have fallen away from you. It will make your hours pleasant to you as long as you live.”

Anthony Trollope (1815–1882) English novelist (1815-1882)

As quoted in Forbes (April 1948), p. 42
Variant: The habit of reading is the only one I know in which there is no alloy. It lasts when all other pleasures fade. It will be there to support you when all other resources are gone. . . . It will make your hours pleasant to you as long as you live.

Pleasure, Support, Reading

“He rose to his feet and padded down the last few steps silently, came up behind Kim, and leaned over her to say, “I vant to drink your blood” in a heavy, fake Dracula accent. She shrieked, flailed, and a zombie ate her brains on-screen."!”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Fade Out

Drink

“I can’t believe Sadie’s going to let me have the last word. Our experience together must’ve really taught her something. Ow, she just hit me. Never mind.”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

“All aboard for one last trip.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

“The first of the
line is tied to a tree and the last is being eaten by the ants.”

Gabriel García Márquez book One Hundred Years of Solitude

Source: One Hundred Years of Solitude

Tree

“Measured against eternity, our time on earth is just a blink of an eye, but the consequences of it will last forever.”

Rick Warren (1954) Christian religious leader

Source: The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here for?

Time

“my candle burns at both ends it will not last the night but arh my friends and oh my foes it gives a lovely light”

Roald Dahl book Boy

Edna St. Vincent Millay, in "First Fig" from A Few Figs from Thistles (1920); said to be a motto Roald Dahl lived by.
Misattributed
Variant: My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But, ah, my foes, and, oh, my friends —
It gives a lovely light.
Source: Boy: Tales of Childhood

Love, Light, Night

“I'm bored with it all.

- Last Words”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

“If a story is not about the hearer he [or she] will not listen… A great lasting story is about everyone or it will not last. The strange and foreign is not interesting--only the deeply personal and familiar.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

Personality

“You've changed," he said. "You're-uh-"
"Yes?"
"Taller."
"I hope so. I was ten the last time you saw me."
"And your hair's really dark now-and short," he added.”

Elizabeth Chandler (1954) writer

Source: Don't Tell

Hope, Change, Time

“I've had good moments scattered since then, times when I thought I was better, but that was the last day I felt triumphant.”

Ned Vizzini book It's Kind of a Funny Story

Source: It's Kind of a Funny Story

Time

“Mine first --mine last-- mine even in the grave!”

Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888) American novelist

“That's the last order I'll ever give you Captain. Don't you dare ignore it.”

Eoin Colfer (1965) Irish author of children's books

Source: The Opal Deception

“You have no idea about presents or what they mean. The last
present you gave me was a stick.”
“You wanted a weapon.”
“It was a stick.”
“It had a bow on it.”
“It was a stick.”
“I thought you liked the stick. You laughed.”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Source: Kingdom of the Wicked

Idea

“And once we reach the city, my stylist will dictate my look for the opening ceremonies tonight anyway. I just hope I get one who doesn't think nudity is the last word in fashion.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

Hope, Fashion, Thinking

“Rachel?” came Ivy’s voice from her room. “Where’s my sword?”
“In the foyer where you left it last week when the evangelists were canvassing the neighborhood”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Source: A Perfect Blood

“Utopia was here at last: its novelty had not yet been assailed by the supreme enemy of all Utopias—boredom.”

Arthur C. Clarke book Childhood's End

Source: Childhood's End

“Better than chocolate, being with you last night. Silly me, I thought that nothing was better than chocolate.”

E. Lockhart book We Were Liars

Source: We Were Liars

Night

“You just said you were sorry."

…

"I was only apologizing," he said stiffly, "for startling you. The applause was to compliment you on the improvement in your life-saving techniques since the last time you-”

Meg Cabot (1967) Novelist

Source: Abandon

Life, Time

“The last time I was at a supernatural shindig, I got poisoned and then everything there tried to kill me. So I burned the whole place to the ground.”

Jim Butcher book Cold Days

Source: Cold Days

Time

“I'd rather argue with you, angel, than laugh with anyone else."

Jesus. It took me a minute to be able to swallow the last bite in my mouth.

"You know… I love you madly."

He smiled. "Yes, I know.”

Sylvia Day (1973) American writer

Source: Reflected in You

Love, Smile, Angels

“So I lied to you last night. I said that I just wanted one night with you. But I want every night with you.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

Night

“Catch that last episode of Doctor Who? Oh, right. You were trudging through the Pit of Eternal Damnation!”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

“At best, love is simply the slipping of a hand in another's, of knowing you are where you belong at last, and of exchanging through the eyes that all-consuming regard which ignores everybody else on earth.”

Laurie Lee (1914–1997) British writer

Source: I Can't Stay Long

Love

“A poem by Margot Bickel

A little peace
within the last hours of the almost bygone day
a little silence
between the days
so that the nascent yesterday does not get in the past
and tomorrow is lived for today”

Margot Bickel (1958) German poet

Peace, Silence, Past

“If you want to keep people subjugated, the last thing you place in their hands is a Bible. There's nothing more radical, nothing more revolutionary, nothing more subversive against injustice and oppression than the Bible.”

Desmond Tutu (1931) South African churchman, politician, archbishop, Nobel Prize winner

People

“Perhaps all romance is like that; not a contract between equal parties but an explosion of dreams and desires that can find no outlet in everyday life. Only a drama will do and while the fireworks last the sky is a different colour.”

Jeanette Winterson book The Passion

Source: The Passion

Life, Dreams

“Whatever games are played with us, we must play no games with ourselves, but deal in our privacy with the last honesty and truth.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Illusions
1860s, The Conduct of Life (1860)
Source: The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson

Truth, Game

“Watch it." he said at last. "I can make your life miserable." I gave him an icy smile. "You already have, and that's why i've got the advantage. You've done your worst but you haven't seen what i can do yet.”

Richelle Mead Bloodlines

Source: Bloodlines

Life, Smile

“It goes without saying that a civilization which leaves so large a number of its participants unsatisfied and drives them into revolt neither has nor deserves the prospect of a lasting existence.”

Sigmund Freud book The Future of an Illusion

Es braucht nicht gesagt zu werden, daß eine Kultur, welche eine so große Zahl von Teilnehmern unbefriedigt läßt und zur Auflehnung treibt, weder Aussicht hat, sich dauernd zu erhalten, noch es verdient.
Source: 1920s, The Future of an Illusion (1927)

“Last night I danced with a stranger, but she just reminded me you were the one.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Song lyrics, Time Out of Mind (1997), Standing In The Doorway

Dance, Night

“I don't believe in fate," she said at last. "But I do believe in… loopholes. I think a lot of what keeps the world going is the result of accidents — happy or otherwise — and taking advantage of these.”

Robin McKinley book Sunshine

Source: Sunshine

Fate, Happiness, World, Thinking

“Violence,” came the retort, “is the last refuge of the incompetent.”

Isaac Asimov book Foundation

Variant: Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.
Source: Part II, The Encyclopedists, section 5; This also appears three times in "Bridle and Saddle" which is titled "The Mayors" within Foundation. It is derived from the famous phrase by Samuel Johnson: "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel" and from the words of Lady Anne Bellamy in H. Rider Haggard's Dawn, “I do not believe in violence; it is the last resource of fools.” Asimov is usually quoted simply with "Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent."

“Well, sometime Mr —— git on me pretty hard. I have to talk to Old Maker. But he my husband. I shrug my shoulders. This life soon be over, I say. Heaven last all ways.

You ought to bash Mr —— head open, she say. Think bout heaven later.”

Alice Walker book The Color Purple

Source: The Color Purple

Life, Way, Thinking

“Yet what keeps me from dissolving right now into a complete fairy-tale shimmer is this solid truth, a truth which has veritably built my bones over the last few years--I was not rescued by a prince; I was the administrator of my own rescue.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

Truth

“I finished your song, she said. Our last song. And I want to play it for you.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Last Song

Source: The Last Song

“The saddest thing about love, Joe, is that not only the love cannot last forever, but even the heartbreak is soon forgotten.”

William Faulkner (1897–1962) American writer

Love, Heartbreaking

“Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.”

Lance Armstrong book It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life

"Back in the Saddle - An Essay by Lance Armstrong", as quoted in The Book of Action (2006) by Jeramy L. Patrick and Justin L. Helms, p. 68
Source: Armstrong, Lance. It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life. New York: Berkley Books, 2001

Pain, Motivational