12 Of The Most Beautiful Paragraphs Or Sentences You Will Ever Read

1. 100 Ways To Improve Your Writing by Gary Provost

Gary Provost – Crafting Elegant Excerpts

“This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals–sounds that say listen to this, it is important.”

2. The Complete Tales Of Winnie-The-Pooh by A. A. Milne

A.A. Milne – Timeless Sentences from Winnie-the-Pooh

“What day is it?” “It’s today”, squeaked Piglet. “My favorite day”, said Pooh.

3. The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Douglas Adams – Uniquely Striking Quotes in Sci-Fi

“The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don’t.”

4. A Farewell To Arms by Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway – Memorable Lines of Love and Despair

“Maybe…you’ll fall in love with me all over again.”
“Hell,” I said, “I love you enough now. What do you want to do? Ruin me?”
“Yes. I want to ruin you.”
“Good,” I said. “That’s what I want too.”

5. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Antoine de Saint-Exupery – Poetic Phrases from The Little Prince

“A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.”

6. Hell’s Angels by Hunter S. Thompson

Hunter S. Thompson – Exhilarating Prose in Action

“Faster, faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death.

7. The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri

Dante Alighieri – Profound Passages from The Divine Comedy

“There is no greater sorrow than to recall our times of joy in wretchedness.”

8. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

F. Scott Fitzgerald – Captivating Sentences in American Literature

“It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And then one fine morning—”

9. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami – Evocative Lines on Lost Love

“She is the 100% perfect girl for me.
He is the 100% perfect boy for me.
But the glow of their memories was far too weak, and their thoughts no longer had the clarity of fourteen years earlier. Without a word, they passed each other, disappearing into the crowd. Forever.”

10. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens – Powerful Prose on Human Condition

“I looked at the stars, and considered how awful it would be for a man to turn his face up to them as he froze to death, and see no help or pity in all the glittering multitude.”

11. Sandman by Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman – Emotional Phrases from Sandman

“Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn’t it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses. You build up a whole armor, for years, so nothing can hurt you, and then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life… You give them a piece of you. They didn’t ask for it. They did something dumb one day, like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life isn’t your own anymore.

Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so simple a phrase like ‘maybe we should be just friends’ or ‘how very perceptive’ turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It’s a soul hurt, a body hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. Nothing should be able to do that. Especially not love. I hate love.”

12. White Fang by Jack London

Jack London – The Evolution of Emotion in Literature

“As the days went by, the evolution of like into love was accelerated. White Fang himself began to grow aware of it, though in his consciousness he knew not what love was. It manifested itself to him as a void in his being—a hungry, aching, yearning void that clamored to be filled. It was a pain and unrest, and it received easement only by the touch of the new god’s presence. At such times love was joy to him, a wild, keen-thrilling satisfaction. But when away from his god, the pain and the unrest returned; the void in him sprang up and pressed against him with its emptiness, and the hunger gnawed and gnawed unceasingly.”