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http://www.pantagraph.com/news/article_a125216a-649f-5414-88b5-76a688ea3b6a.html>>(it's from 2006 - should any be added to the list?)
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>Truly bizarre. Item 22 is almost universally hailed as the worst first line in the history of writing. It is the line that gave rise to the contest that challenges entrants to write a first line to a badly written book.
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http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/I thought it was the most memorable first lines - in which case that one certainly qualifies. The author is certainly one of the most interesting people on the list.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bulwer-Lytton,_1st_Baron_Lytton
Charles Hankey
Though a good deal is too strange to be believed, nothing is too strange to have happened.
- Thomas Hardy
Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm-- but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.
-- T. S. Eliot
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.
- Ben Franklin
Pardon him, Theodotus. He is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.