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Literature's best closing lines

With these short statements of hopeful irony, Hermann Hesse concluded his magical narrative of a self-loathing intellectual struggling to comprehend his place in the universe:
Der Steppenwolf said:
Einmal würde ich das Figurenspiel besser spielen. Einmal würde ich das Lachen lernen. Pablo wartete auf mich. Mozart wartete auf mich.
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The Steppenwolf said:
One day I would play the game better. One day I would learn to laugh. Pablo waited for me. Mozart waited for me.
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Take a look here.


My personal favorite, number 11 from the above:

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. –James Joyce, “The Dead” in Dubliners (1914)
 
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"but we must cultivate our garden."

"[...] I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate."
 
Damien Evans said:
I was hoping no one would post that. It's a decent final line, and a great book, but I really don't think it belongs on a great closing lines list.
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I can understand your sentiment; out of context it's a rather mundane line. However, I recall it being incredibly satisfying for me when I finished the book for the first time, so I'm compelled to give it props.

I hadn't read the books in years by the time The Return Of The King Came out, and I remember the first thought that came to mind as I sat myself down in my theater seat was "is he gonna say it???" :D
 
Two from Arthur C. Clarke (spoilerized because they are kinda twist endings), a novel and a short story.

Rendezvous With Rama:
When Norton had glimpsed Rama for the last time, a tiny star hurtling outward beyond Venus, he knew that part of his life was over. He was just fifty-five, but he felt he had left his youth down there on the curving Central Plain, among mysteries and wonders now receding inexorably beyond the reach of man. Whatever honors and achievements the future brought him, for the rest of his life he would be haunted by a sense of anticlimax and the knowledge of opportunities missed.

So he told himself; but even then, he should have known better.

And on far-off Earth, Dr. Carlisle Perera had as yet told no one of how he had wakened from a restless sleep with the message from his subconscious echoing in his brain:

The Ramans do everything in threes.


The Nine Billion Names of God:
"Look," whispered Chuck, and George lifted his eyes to heaven. (There is always a last time for everything.)

Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out.
 
Because I loved the juxtaposition of the narrative, I'm partial to:

"Everyone ends up with the devil he deserves."
 
Boycotting this thread as I don't see any spoiler tags. I'd like to see a list of books whose end lines people liked, with the lines hidden so I don't see end lines in books I have not yet read.
 
Schrodinger's Cat said:
Oh my gosh I haven't thought about that story in years. Just reading this almost brought tears to my eyes.
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Ditto.

Seriously, can we get it put into the forum rules that no one is allowed to post that without spoiler tags that say "WARNING: This is the ending line to Flowers For Algernon!" in big red letters? I haven't read that story in forever, but man...

Anyway. I also have to give a shout-out to The Nine Billion Names of God, 1984, Animal Farm and Moby-Dick. All great endings. And a lot of Terry Pratchett's would qualify (though that might just be my fanboy-ism kicking in).

After all of that, though, I still consider the ending to Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light to be one of the most powerful and moving that I have ever read. The book as a whole is the single greatest novel that I have ever read, as well; I highly recommend it.

EDIT: Found it.

Lord of Light said:
As the wearers of the saffron robe still meditate upon the Way of Light, and the girl who is named Murga visits the Temple daily, to place before her dark one in his shrine the only devotion he receives, of flowers.
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EDIT AGAIN: Ah, one more. This one is more of a novella, but I always loved The Call of Cthulhu.

Who knows the end? What has risen may sink, and what has sunk may rise. Loathsomeness waits and dreams in the deep, and decay spreads over the tottering cities of men. A time will come - but I must not and cannot think! Let me pray that, if I do not survive this manuscript, my executors may put caution before audacity and see that it meets no other eye.
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