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Tale of Two Cities:

IT WAS the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way -- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

Yes, that was a whole paragraph. And yes, that is one sentence.

I don't really know many other interesting book openers, I'll keep searching my bookshelves for more interesting first sentences.

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Ah yes, Charles Dickens was good at that. Here's another one from him, but quite on the other side of the spectrum

A Christmas Carol:

MARLEY was dead; to begin with.

edit: forgot to capitalize the first word :P

Edited by LJayden
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David Eddings opens the first book, The Diamond Throne, of his first trilogy, The Elenium, with:

"It was raining."

Robert Jordan opens every book with:

“The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend.”

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The beginning of Dante Alighieri's The Inferno:

"Midway through our life's journey, I went astray from the straight road and woke to find myself alone in a dark wood."

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"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." (Genesis 1:1)

Actually the word is 'elohim' which is the plural of 'el'. The Torah started out in polytheism (multiple Gods) and became monotheistic later chronologically, so the word Elohim changed from being plural to being "plural intensive" allowing it to be a single God

edit: in other words the originally first sentence was "In the beginning the Gods created the heaven and the earth."

Edited by unreality
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And the book Snow Crash is full of hilarious/amazing quotes. Its first sentence is: "The Deliverator belongs to an elite order, a hallowed subcategory". But there are so many good lines in that book... like, just flipping through randomly, we've got "These are slum housing, 5-by-10s and 10-by-10s where Yanoama tribespersons cook beans and parboil fistfuls of coca leaves over heaps of burning lottery tickets".

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"Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun." - HHGTTG

haha I was just going to post that :P

Also, from Digital Fortress by Dan Brown:

"It is said that in death, all things become clear; Ensei Tankado now knew it was true"

his books may be incredibly formulaic but Digital Fortress is still one of my all-time faves

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Actually the word is 'elohim' which is the plural of 'el'. The Torah started out in polytheism (multiple Gods) and became monotheistic later chronologically, so the word Elohim changed from being plural to being "plural intensive" allowing it to be a single God

edit: in other words the originally first sentence was "In the beginning the Gods created the heaven and the earth."

perhaps elohim refers to the three-in-one nature of God. I say i believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; or i can say i believe in God...they're pretty much the same...

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Prologue of Dan Brown's Deception Point:

"Death, in this forsaken place, could come in countless forms."

Chapter 1. of Deception Point:

"Toulos Restaurant, adjacent to Capitol Hill, boasts a politically incorrect menu of baby veal and horse carpaccio, making it an ironic hotspot for the quintessential Washingtonian power breakfast."

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"The world is everything that is the case."

Ludwig Wittgenstein:

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

re: concise case in point(s):

propositions, sub levels, pictures, thought, language and more...

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Here's a really interesting one:

First sentence of :

"Wants pawn term, dare worsted ladle gull hoe lift wetter murder inner ladle cordage, honor itch offer lodge dock florist.

:lol:

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The first few sentences in Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams.

Anything that happens, happens.

Anything that, in happening, causes something else to happen, causes something else to happen.

Anything that, in happening, causes itself to happen again, happens again.

It doesn't necessarily do it in chronological order, though.

And for the official first sentence:

The history of the Galaxy has got a little muddled, for a number of reasons: partly because those who are trying to keep track of it have got a little muddled, but also because some very muddling things have been happening anyway.

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Actually the word is 'elohim' which is the plural of 'el'. The Torah started out in polytheism (multiple Gods) and became monotheistic later chronologically, so the word Elohim changed from being plural to being "plural intensive" allowing it to be a single God

edit: in other words the originally first sentence was "In the beginning the Gods created the heaven and the earth."

Wow was that from the original Aramaic or the Hebrew lexicon you got that info?

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