[suupaabaka]

This might be similar to the One-Liners thread in the Fantasy forum, but I'd like to widen the scope to prose or specific sentences/paragraphs that have a powerful effect upon the reader.

The one that inspired me to start this thread is taken from I Am Legend, which I just acquired the other day. It reads thus:

"In a week the dog was dead."

Doesn't seem like much, but after the events of the chapter it hit me like a truck. Simply tragic.

What are some examples of writing that has really moved you?

[Oscuro]

From Steppenwolf, by Herman Hesse...

In the course of time I was more and more conscious, too, that this affliction was not due to any defects of nature but rather to a profusion of gifts and powers which had not attained to harmony.

In other words, it's not me, it's THEM!:D

[TwilitOne]

I loved this one; it really speaks to me about the way the world is today. Especially the last part.

"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. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play yet, for good or ill before this is over. The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many.";

"I wish The Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had ever happened.";

"So do all who live to face 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 to us.";

- Gandalf to Frodo, in the Mines of Moria
(Lord of the Rings)

[Shehzad]

"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. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play yet, for good or ill before this is over. The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many.";


I love that one. Also, from Dune...

"O you who know what we suffer here, do not forget us in your prayers."