“Till this moment, I never knew myself.”

“Call me Ishmael.”

— Herman Melville《Moby-Dick》

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

— Charles Dickens《A Tale of Two Cities》

“O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.”

— William Shakespeare《Hamlet》

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

— F. Scott Fitzgerald《The Great Gatsby》

“The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young.”

— Oscar Wilde《The Picture of Dorian Gray》

“Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind and poisons us.”

— Oscar Wilde《The Picture of Dorian Gray》

“This above all: to thine own self be true;”

— William Shakespeare《Hamlet》

“His mind relieved from inquietude respecting his Sister, and his Spirits raised by the hope of soon restoring her to freedom, He now had time to give a few moments to love and to Antonia.”

— Matthew Gregory Lewis《The Monk》

“She had been deeply impressed with the idea of French spies at some time in her life; and the notion could never be fairly eradicated, but sprang up again from time to time.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell《Cranford》

“This gave me new life and spirits; and my heart burned within me, while I thought the time long till I obtained my freedom.”

— Olaudah Equiano《The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano》

“Your mother thought that as you and I, in a short time, have become, so to say, friends, and you have some confidence in me, I am in a position to give you good advice—and you would mind what I say.”

— Ivan Turgenev《The Torrents of Spring》

“DEAR DICK, At what time of life may a man think himself exempted from the necessity of sacrificing his repose to the punctilios of a contemptible world?”

— Tobias Smollett《The Expedition of Humphry Clinker》