Notable Quotes
Passages worth revisiting from classic literature.
Frankenstein; or, the modern prometheus
This passage establishes Walton's Romantic idealism, contrasting the common perception of the Arctic as a wasteland with his vision of it as a paradise of etern...
Wuthering Heights
The narrative of Wuthering Heights is driven by a force as wild and unyielding as the moors themselves. It is a story of a love that refuses to die, and a reven...
The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People
Oscar Wilde's trivial comedy for serious people operates through a single, devastating mechanism: the inversion. Every moral certainty is turned inside out, eve...
Romeo and Juliet
The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is driven by a relentless velocity. The play begins not with love, but with a street brawl that establishes the lethal stakes of...
Meditations
The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius is a unique document in the history of philosophy: a private notebook of a Roman Emperor, written on the frontiers of war, re...
Moby Dick; Or, The Whale
This iconic opening line establishes the narrator's persona and sets the existential tone for the entire novel. It immediately signals a retreat from society an...
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
This opening line establishes Alice's character and the book's thematic rejection of dry, didactic learning in favor of imagination and engagement. It highlight...
The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Establishes Mr. Utterson's character as austere yet tolerant, defining his 'Cain's heresy' philosophy and his role as the last reputable influence for downgoing...
The City of God, Volume I
This passage establishes the immediate historical catalyst for the entire treatise: the sack of Rome in 410 A.D. Augustine clarifies that his motivation was not...
The Great Gatsby
This establishes the narrator's moral compass and his attempt at tolerance, a stance that defines his role as a passive observer throughout the novel's tragic e...