A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare

"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind."

(A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, Act I, Scene 1)

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

"The scarlet letter ceased to be a stigma which attracted the world's scorn and bitterness, and became a type of something to be sorrowed over, and looked upon with awe, yet with reverence too."

(The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Chapter 24)

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

“There was a great contrast between his world pessimism and personal cheeriness.”

(A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway)

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

"A sudden understanding, a pity mixed with horror, welled up in Bilbo’s heart: a glimpse of endless unmarked days without light or hope of betterment, hard stone, cold fish, sneaking and whispering."

(The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, Chapter 5)

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck

“He had no articulate thought of anything; there was only this perfect sympathy of movement, of turning this earth of theirs over and over to the sun, this earth which formed their home and fed their bodies and made their gods.”

(The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck)

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

“Live in the present, make the most of it, it’s all you’ve got.”

(The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, Chapter 24)

The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy

"The qualifications which frequently invest the facade of a prison with far more dignity than is found in the facade of a palace double its size lent to this heath a sublimity in which spots renowned for beauty of the accepted kind are utterly wanting."

(The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy, Chapter 1)

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

“I thought the most beautiful thing in the world must be shadow, the million moving shapes and cul-de-sacs of shadow. There was shadow in bureau drawers and closets and suitcases, and shadow under houses and trees and stones, and shadow at the back of people’s eyes and smiles, and shadow, miles and miles and miles of it, on the night side of the earth.”

(The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, Chapter 12)

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

“The inexorable facts closed in on him like prison-warders handcuffing a convict. There was no way out – none. He was a prisoner for life, and now his one ray of light was to be extinguished.”

(Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, Chapter 8)

The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien

“It is useless to meet revenge with revenge; it will heal nothing.”

(The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien, Book VI, Chapter 8)

Night by Elie Wiesel

“I could hear only the violin, and it was as though Juliek’s soul were the bow. He was playing his life. The whole of his life was gliding on the strings—his lost hopes, his charred past, his extinguished future. He played as if he would never play again.”

(Night by Elie Wiesel, Section 6)

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

“It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.”

(Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling, Chapter 12)

Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

“Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal. Each man the image of every other; then all are happy, for there are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves against.”

(Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury)

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

“And I say to Sam now: ‘Sam—here’s the book.’ It’s so short and jumbled and jangled, Sam, because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. Everybody is supposed to be dead, to never say anything or want anything ever again. Everything is supposed to be very quiet after a massacre, and it always is, except for the birds. And what do the birds say? All there is to say about a massacre, things like ‘Poo-tee-weet?”

(Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, 19)

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

"What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title.

(Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Act II, Scene 2)

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

"This is our island. It’s a good island. Until the grown-ups come to fetch us we’ll have fun."

(Lord of the Flies by William Golding)

Silas Marner by George Eliot

"The past becomes dreamy because its symbols have all vanished, and the present too is dreamy because it is linked with no memories."

(Silas Marner by George Eliot, Chapter 1)

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

(Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Chapter 1)

Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton

“Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing, nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much.”

(Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton, Chapter 12)

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

“And I have by me, for my comfort, two strange white flowers - shriveled now, and brown and flat and brittle – to witness that even when mind and strength had gone, gratitude and mutual tenderness still lived on in the heart of man.”

(The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, Epilogue)