The best book endings leave a mark on the reader long after he or she turns the final page. These famous last lines of books do everything from captivate to shock, satisfy, and even leave the reader yearning for more.
Here, we’ll explore some of the best last lines of books, from those that have stood the test of time and continue to charm readers today to more recent famous last lines of books that are bound to become classics.
Good book endings serve one or more functions that include:
- Conclude the story
- Foreshadow the future
- Show a major change in a character
- Shock the reader
- Provoke thought
- Evoke emotion
- Leave room for interpretation
- Make a bold statement
- Give a call-to-action
I was inspired to write this post after reading Anna Karenina over the course of several months and, getting to the end of the 800+ page Russian classic, couldn’t help but continuously wonder how a saga so epic would possibly end.
It reminded me of all those high school classes in which we ruminated on classic book endings, many of which you will find below.
First, I’ll share my personal favorites of these famous last lines of books and highlight what makes them so memorable. These are the famous last lines of books that have stayed with me so much that I have remembered them by heart ever since reading them. To me, that is the true hallmark of an excellent opening line.
Then, I’ll share all the best book endings for you to peruse. I focused on the most famous classics and the best-selling books of all-time, along with some memorable final sentences from popular newer titles and books referenced on Gilmore Girls (which readers of The Literary Lifestyle love to follow).
Lastly, I will answer frequently asked questions about the most famous lines of books.
(Note: I share all the best opening lines in books in alphabetical order of the book title.)
8 Great Famous Last Lines of Books
The Book Thief is a uniquely written narrative about the atrocities of World War II that’s memorable in its own right, but it’s the final sentence that sums everything up in a way the reader won’t ever forget:
“I am haunted by humans.”
-Marcus Zusak
The last sentence of A Christmas Carol is such a great quote from an author that it has become part and parcel of the holiday season:
“And so, as tiny Tim observed, god bless us, everyone.”
-Charles Dickens
East of Eden took me on a literary journey when I first read it, becoming one of my favorite novels of all time. From the epigraph on page one, I first began to question the nature of good and evil as I followed a very long and biblical family saga that left me with just as much to ponder:
“And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.”
-John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby just may have the most famous last line of all. If you read this classic in school, chances are you discussed this sentence, which is both beautifully written and conveys the very human struggle that plagued Gatsby, along with so many others:
“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
-F. Scott Fitzgerald
Little Women is such a long-standing gem of a novel, and the final line is utterly satisfying to the reader, who grows to know the March family deeply:
“Oh, my girls, however long you may live, I never can wish you a greater happiness than this.”
-Louisa May Alcott
The Lovely Bones, about a family’s hunt for a killer and struggles with grief after the death of one of their own, was the most impactful book I read in my 20s. As haunting and chilling as it begins, telling the reader of the teen’s death from her afterlife, so too does the ending leave the reader with the same feelings, albeit in a more hopeful way.
This is one of those famous last lines of books for which you may need the context of the entire book to fully experience the impact of such a simple statement:
“I wish you all a long and happy life.”
-Alice Sebold
The ending of The Polar Express is one that captivated me even as a child, and I’ve had it memorized since that time. It perfectly captures both the magic and nostalgia of Christmas:
“At one time, most of my friends could hear the bell, but as years passed, it fell silent for all of them. Even Sarah found one Christmas that she could no longer hear its sweet sound. Though I’ve grown old, the bell still rings for me, as it does for all who truly believe.”
-Chris Van Allsburg
The final line of Romeo and Juliet is as epic as the story of star-crossed lovers itself and, like me, generations of readers know it so well:
“For never was a story of more woe, / Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.”
-William Shakespeare
All the Most Famous Last Lines of Books
“He loved Big Brother.” – 1984 by George Orwell
“I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can’t stand it. I been there before.” – Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
“Lastly, she pictured to herself how this same little sister of hers would, in the after-time, be herself a grown woman; and how she would keep, through all her riper years, the simple and loving heart of her childhood; and how she would gather about her other little children, and make their eyes bright and eager with many a strange tale, perhaps even with the dream of Wonderland of long ago; and how she would feel with all their simple sorrows, and find a pleasure in all their simple joys, remembering her own child-life, and the happy summer days.” – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.” – Animal Farm by George Orwell
“I shall go on in the same way, losing my temper with Ivan the coachman, falling into angry discussions, expressing my opinions tactlessly; there will be still the same wall between the holy of holies of my soul and other people, even my wife; I shall still go on scolding her for my own fright and being remorseful for it; I shall still be as unable to understand with my reason why I pray, and I shall still go on praying; but my life now, my whole life apart from anything that can happen to me, every minute of it is no more meaningless, as it was before, but it has the positive meaning of goodness, which I have the power to put into it.” – Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
“Ah Bartleby! Ah humanity!” – Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville
“The eyes and faces all turned themselves towards me, and guiding myself by them, as by a magical thread, I stepped into the room.” – The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
“Beloved.” – Beloved by Toni Morrison
“I am haunted by humans.” – The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
“An excellent year’s progress.” – Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding
“There was some open space between what he knew and what he tried to believe, but nothing could be done about it, and if you can’t fix it, you’ve got to stand it.” – Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx
“And, as you did back then, look me in the face, hold my gaze, and call me by your name.” – Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman
“We must cultivate our garden.” – Candide by Voltaire
“It’s funny. Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.” – The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
“If I were a younger man, I would write a history of human stupidity; and I would climb to the top of Mount McCabe and lie down on my back with my history for a pillow; and I would take from the ground some of the blue-white poison that makes statues of men; and I would make a statue of myself, lying on my back, grinning horribly, and thumbing my nose at You Know Who.” – Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
“It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both.” – Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
“And so, as tiny Tim observed, god bless us, everyone.” – A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
“But I don’t think us feel old at all. And us so happy. Matter of fact, I think this the youngest us ever felt.” – The Color Purple by Alice Walker
“‘Darling,’ replied Valentine, ‘has not the count just told us that all human wisdom is summed up in two words? — ‘Wait and hope.'” – The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
“But that is the beginning of a new story – the story of the gradual renewal of a man, the story of his gradual regeneration, of his passing from one world into another, of his initiation into a new unknown life. That might be the subject of a new story, but our present story is ended.” – Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
“A few light taps upon the pane made him turn to the window. It had begun to snow again. He watched sleepily the flakes, silver and dark, falling obliquely against the lamplight. The time had come for him to set out on his journey westward. Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.” – The Dead by James Joyce
“For Siddalee Walker, the need to understand has passed, at least for the moment. All that was left was love and wonder.” – Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
“I shall feel proud and satisfied to have been the first author to enjoy the full fruit of his writings, as I desired, because my only desire has been to make men hate those false, absurd histories in books of chivalry, which thanks to the exploits of my real Don Quixote are even now tottering, and without any doubt will soon tumble to the ground. Farewell.” – Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
“Later on he will understand how some men so loved her, that they did dare much for her sake.” – Dracula by Bram Stoker
“And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.” – East of Eden by John Steinbeck
“But, in spite of these deficiencies, the wishes, the hopes, the confidence, the predictions of the small band of true friends who witnessed the ceremony, were fully answered in the perfect happiness of the union” – Emma by Jane Austen (Read more quotes from Emma.)
“After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain.” – A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
“He was soon borne away by the waves, and lost in darkness and distance.” – Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
“I don’t have any thing else to add. I just wanted to make sure I had the last words. I think I’ve earned that.” – Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
“After all, tomorrow is another day.” – Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
“‘Rest assured, our father, rest assured. The land is not to be sold.’ But over the old man’s head they looked at each other and smiled.” – The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
“She looked up and across the barn, and her lips came together and smiled mysteriously.” – The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
“I took her hand in mine, and we went out of the ruined place; and, as the morning mists had risen long ago when I first left the forge, so, the evening mists were rising now, and in all the broad expanse of tranquil light they showed to me, I saw no shadow of another parting from her.” – Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” – The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
“Are there any questions?” – The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
“The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well.” – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
“They don’t know we’re not allowed to use magic at home. I’m going to have a lot of fun with Dudley this summer….” – Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
Within, walls continued upright, bricks met nearly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.” – The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
“The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed sombre under an overcast sky – seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness.” – Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
“But wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on the top of the Forest, a little boy and his Bear will always be playing.” – The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne
“And it is this which frightens me: Who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you?” – Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
“I ran with the wind blowing in my face, and a smile as wide as the valley of Panjsher on my lips. I ran.” – The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
“Very few castaways can claim to have survived so long at sea as Mr. Patel, and none in the company of an adult Bengal tiger.” – Life of Pi by Yann Martel
“Oh, my girls, however long you may live, I never can wish you a greater happiness than this.” – Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
“I am thinking of aurochs and angels, the secret of durable pigments, prophetic sonnets, the refuge of art. And this is the only immortality you and I may share, my Lolita.” – Lolita by Vladimor Nobokov
“‘It isn’t fair, it isn’t right,’ Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her.” – The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
“I wish you all a long and happy life.” – The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
“But now I know that our world is no more permanent than a wave rising on the ocean. Whatever our struggles and triumphs, however we may suffer them, all too soon they bleed into a wash, just like watery ink on paper.” – Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
“But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.” – Middlemarch by George Eliot
“For there she was.” – Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
“But this is how Paris was in the early days when we were very poor and very happy.” – A Movable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
“I just waited a bit, then turned back to the car, to drive off to wherever it was I was supposed to be.” – Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
“Congratulations! Today is your day. You’re off to Great Places! You’re off and away!” – Oh, The Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss
“Up the road, in his shack, the old man was sleeping again. He was still sleeping on his face and the boy was sitting by him watching him. The old man was dreaming about the lions.” – The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
“Before reaching the final line, however, he had already understood that he would never leave that room, for it was foreseen that the city of mirrors (or mirages)would be wiped out by the wind and exiled from the memory of men at the precise moment when Aureliano Babilonia would finish deciphering the parchments, and that everything written on them was unrepeatable since time immemorial and forever more, because races condemned to one hundred years of solitude did not have a second opportunity on earth.” – One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
“I think of Dean Moriarty, I even think of Old Dean Moriarty the father we never found, I think of Dean Moriarty.” – On the Road by Jack Kerouac
“When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home.” – The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
“So, if this does end up being my last letter, please believe that things are good with me, and even when they’re not, they will be soon enough. And I will believe the same about you. Love always, Charlie.” – The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
“When they entered, they found hanging upon the wall a splendid portrait of their master as they had last seen him, in all the wonder of his exquisite youth and beauty. Lying on the floor was a dead man, in evening dress, with a knife in his heart. He was withered, wrinkled, and loathsome of visage. It was not till they had examined the rings that they recognized who it was.” – The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
“At one time, most of my friends could hear the bell, but as years passed, it fell silent for all of them. Even Sarah found one Christmas that she could no longer hear its sweet sound. Though I’ve grown old, the bell still rings for me, as it does for all who truly believe.” – The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
“With the Gardiners, they were always on the most intimate terms. Darcy, as well as Elizabeth, really loved them; and they were both even sensible of the warmest gratitude towards the person who, by bringing her into Derbyshire, had been the means of uniting them.” – Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
“He runs. Ah: runs. Runs.” – Rabbit Run by John Updike
“And the ashes blew towards us with the salt wind from the sea.” – Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
“In the deep glens where they lived all things were older than man and they hummed of mystery.” – The Road by Cormac McCarthy
“For never was a story of more woe, / Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.” – Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
“‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Isn’t it pretty to think so?'” – The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.” – A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
“She called in her soul to come and see.” – Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
“He is coming, and I am here.” – The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
“He turned out the light and went into Jem’s room. He would be there all night, and he would be there when Jem waked up in the morning.” – To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
“But the hands of one of the partners were already at K’s throat, while the other thrust the knife into his heart and turned it there twice. With failing eyes, K could still see the two of them, cheek leaning against cheek, immediately before his face, watching the final act. ‘Like a dog!’, he said; it was as if he meant the shame of it to outlive him.” – The Trial by Franz Kafka
“Max stepped into his private boat and waved goodbye and sailed back over a year and in and out of weeks and through a day and into the night of his very own room where he found his supper waiting for him – and it was still hot.” – Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
“I’m so glad to be at home again.” – The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum
“I lingered round them, under that benign sky; watched the moths fluttering among the heath, and hare-bells; listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass; and wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth.” – Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Frequently Asked Questions
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain concludes as follows: “I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can’t stand it. I been there before.”
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen concludes as follows: “With the Gardiners, they were always on the most intimate terms. Darcy, as well as Elizabeth, really loved them; and they were both even sensible of the warmest gratitude towards the person who, by bringing her into Derbyshire, had been the means of uniting them.”
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens concludes as follows: “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë concludes as follows: “I lingered round them, under that benign sky; watched the moths fluttering among the heath, and hare-bells; listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass; and wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth.”
Conclusion
As you have now seen, the power of the most famous last lines of books cannot be underestimated. These final words excelled at leaving their mark on the reader long after the final page. They have done everything from giving closure to provoking thought and even foreshadowing the future.
So the next time you finish a book, take a moment to savor the final line and consider why the author chose it and whether it’s one of the most famous last lines of books.
Read More: Best Opening Lines in Books
