>>>>
http://www.pantagraph.com/news/article_a125216a-649f-5414-88b5-76a688ea3b6a.html>>>>(it's from 2006 - should any be added to the list?)
>>>
>>>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.
>>>
>>>
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.
>
>Nah. Only the first 7 words are truly memorable. Nobody really remembers the rest. And even then, I have to wonder how many people would be aware of that beginning phrase if it weren't for Snoopy.
>
>>
>>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bulwer-Lytton,_1st_Baron_LyttonYeah, but don't we have him to thank for Gina Lolabrigida ( if I remember right ) in Last Days of Pompeii ? ( my bad - Solomon and Sheba - but he did write LD of P and it has been made a movie at least 4 times )
( for lurkers - worth looking at his bio on the attached link. He also wrote some of the great best-sellers of his day, coined the phrases "pursuit of the almighty dollar" and the "pen is mightier than the sword" and wrote
Vril : the Coming Race which was one of the first sci-fi hits. )
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.
