The Happy Prince (1888) Oscar Wilde
"My courtiers called me the Happy Prince, and happy indeed I was, if pleasure be happiness. So I lived, and so I died. And now that I am dead they have set me up here so high that I can see all the ugliness and all the misery of my city, and though my heart is made of lead yet I cannot choose but weep."
The Sniper (1923) Liam O'Flaherty
"On a rooftop near O'Connell Bridge, a Republican sniper lay watching. Beside him lay his rifle and over his shoulders was slung a pair of field glasses. His face was the face of a student, thin and ascetic, but his eyes had the cold gleam of the fanatic. They were deep and thoughtful, the eyes of a man who is used to looking at death."
There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) Ray Bradbury
"Ten o'clock. The sun came out from behind the rain. The house stood alone in a city of rubble and ashes. This was the one house left standing. At night the ruined city gave of a radioactive glow which could be seen for miles."
Mirrorball (2009) Mary Gaitskill
"She should not have shown him her soul. She flashed it again and again, as if it were a bauble meant to entice him, or a hand mirror flashing signals from a dark and lonely place.”
Eleonora (1842) Edgar Allan Poe
"They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night. In their gray visions they obtain glimpses of eternity, and thrill, in awakening, to find that they have been upon the verge of the great secret. In snatches, they learn something of the wisdom which is of good, and more of the mere knowledge which is of evil."
The Gift of the Magi (1906) O. Henry
"Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest."
The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1938) Ernest Hemingway
" 'I think we might make it as easy as we can until the plane comes.'
'Or until the plane doesn't come.'
'Please tell me what I can do. There must be something I can do.'
'You can take the leg off and that might stop it, though I doubt it. Or you can shoot me. You're a good shot now. I taught you to shoot, didn't I?' "
A Good Man Is Hard To Find (1955) Flannery O'Connor
" 'She would of been a good woman,' The Misfit said, 'if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.' "
A Horseman in the Sky (1889) Ambrose Bierce
"The father lifted his leonine head, looked at the son a moment in silence, and replied: 'Well, go, sir, and whatever may occur do what you conceive to be your duty. Virginia, to which you are a traitor, must get on without you. Should we both live to the end of the war, we will speak further of the matter.' "
The Door in the Wall (1911) H. G. Wells
"Three times in one year the door has been offered me--the door that goes into peace, into delight, into a beauty beyond dreaming, a kindness no man on earth can know. And I have rejected it, Redmond, and it has gone--"
The Lost Decade (1939) F. Scott Fitzgerald
"Mr. Trimble’s been away a long time. Or he feels it’s a long time — almost twelve years. Some people would consider themselves lucky to’ve missed the last decade."
Cathedral (1983) Raymond Carver
"Imagine a woman who could never see herself as she was seen in the eyes of her loved one. A woman who could go on day after day and never receive the smallest compliment from her beloved.”
The Fall of the House of Usher (1839) Edgar Allan Poe
"Having deposited our mournful burden upon tressels within this region of horror, we partially turned aside the yet unscrewed lid of the coffin, and looked upon the face of the tenant. A striking similitude between the brother and sister now first arrested my attention; and Usher, divining, perhaps, my thoughts, murmured out some few words from which I learned that the deceased and himself had been twins, and that sympathies of a scarcely intelligible nature had always existed between them."
The Bet (1889) Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
" 'I'll bet you two millions you wouldn't stay in solitary confinement for five years.'
'If you mean that in earnest,' said the young man, 'I'll take the bet, but I would stay not five but fifteen years.'
'Fifteen? Done!' "
With Morning Comes Mistfall (1973) George R. R. Martin
" 'The sun,' he said. 'As it rises, the heat drives the mists back into the valleys, forces them to surrender the mountains they've conquered during the night. The mists sink, and one by one the peaks come into view. By noon the whole range is visible for miles and miles. There's nothing like it on Earth, or anywhere else.' "
The Story About a Bus Driver Who Wanted to be God (2001) Etgar Keret
"This is the story about a bus driver who would never open the door of the bus for people who were late. Not for anyone."
