One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

— The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien

I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery — air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, “This is what it is to be happy.”

— The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

How puzzling all these changes are! I’m never sure what I’m going to be, from one minute to another.

— Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

But stoops to conquer, and but kneels to rise.

— Letters to His Son by Lord Chesterfield, misquoting Amphitryon by John Dryden

The end is near. I hear a noise at the door, as of some immense slippery body lumbering against it.

— “The Whisperer in Darkness” by H. P. Lovecraft

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary…

— “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe