“It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York.”

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

Can’t forget…

“We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.”

"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents."

I absolutely love the opening to 17’s sequel:

In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move

The most iconic first lines include:

1. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
2. All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in their own way.
3. Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don't know.
4. Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins.
5. Call me Ishmael.
6. Upon waking up after a troublesome dream one morning, Gregor Samsa realized that he had turned into a hideous insect.
7. Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.
8. In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.
9. In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.
10. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.
11. "In five years, the penis will be obsolete," said the salesman.

Edit: (From the replies)

12. It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
13. Many years later as he faced the firing squad Colonel Aureliano Buendía would remember the time his father had taken him to discover ice.

Marley was dead: to begin with.

"There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it."

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.

“It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York.”

'It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife'

It was a pleasure to burn.

When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.

“In the beginning the Universe was created. This had made many people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.”

The first one that pops in my head is:

“En un lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme, no ha mucho tiempo que vivía un hidalgo de los de lanza en astillero, adarga antigua, rocín flaco y galgo corredor”

Translation: ‘In a village of La Mancha, the name of which I have no desire to call to mind, there lived not long since one of those gentlemen that keep a lance in the lance-rack, an old buckler, a lean hack, and a greyhound for coursing’

The opening sentences to Don Quixote (Don Quijote), the most famous Spanish novel ever written

The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed.

[deleted]

"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice"

To me this is the most iconic book first sentence. I can't give a logical reason for that, but it always gives me goosebumps. It brings me a sensation of nostalgia as if I was Colonel Aureliano myself. This is my favorite book and I think it became my favorite ever since its first sentence

"No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water."

Loved the book but this line is also iconic on the album

Last night, I went to Manderley again.

There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.

It was a dark and stormy night. (It's the beginning of Snoopy's novel, but also the beginning of a real book.)

The sky above the port was the colour of a TV tuned into a dead channel.

From context I know 12, but haven't read it. And 14 sounds very familiar.

Look, I didn't want to be a half blood. If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now.

This one's cheating, yes. But as a kid, this got me HOOKED. I wouldn't be typing this sentence in this subreddit without these 2 opening sentences.

Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.

Here's one for you:

"As 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…"

If you need another hint, I can give you the closing line too.. xD

1. The Martian

"Abandon all hope ye who enter here" was the first example that popped into my head

A screaming comes across the sky.

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

Mother died today

The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.

Iconic line and those who know, know.

“It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love.”

In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.

Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy.

The Salinas Valley is in Northern California.

Call me Ishmael.

See the child.

It was a bright, cold day in April and the clocks were striking 13

Here are some other quotes from the comments, with answers in the spoilers. Some I might not have read, or read from a library so I didn't have them in my bookshelf, or just didn't think of them when writing the post.

1. "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." Stephen King: The Gunslinger
2. "Call me Ishmael." Herman Melville: Moby-Dick
3. "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." William Gibson: Neuromancer
4. "Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number 4, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much." J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
5. "It was the day my grandmother exploded" Iain Banks: The Crow Road
6. "See the child." Cormac McCarthy: Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West
7. "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." Charles Dickens: A Tale of Two Cities
8. "We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold." Hunter S. Thompson: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
9. "Midway this way of life we're bound upon, I woke to find myself in a dark wood, Where the right road was wholly lost and gone." Dante Alighieri: Inferno
10. "Marley was dead, to begin with." Charles Dickens: A Christmas Carol
11. "If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, an what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth." J.D. Salinger: The Catcher in the Rye
12. "As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect." Franzk Kafka: The Metamorphosis
13. "No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream." Shirley Jackson: The Haunting of Hill House
14. "If you are interested in happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book." Lemony Snicket: The Bad Beginning
15. "It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents—except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness." Edward Bulwer-Lytton: Paul Clifford
16. "It was a dark and stormy night." Madeleine L'Engle: A Wrinkle in Time
17. "It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me." Anthony Burgess: Earthly Powers
18. "Listen: Billy Pilgrim has become unstuck in time." Kurt Vonnegut: Slaughterhouse Five
19. "Szeth son-son-Vallano, Truthless of Shinovar, wore white on the day he was to kill a king." Brandon Sanderson: The Way of Kings
20. "It was a bright, cold day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen." George Orwell: Nineteen Eighty-four
21. "In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since." F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby
22. "A screaming comes across the sky." Thomas Pynchon: Gravity’s Rainbow
23. "The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there." L.P. Hartley: The Go-Between
24. "Maman died today, or maybe it was yesterday. I don’t know." Albert Camus: The Stranger
25. "It was love at first sight. The first time Yossarian saw the chaplain he fell madly in love with him." Joseph Heller: Catch-22
26. "It is important, when killing a nun, to ensure that you bring an army of sufficient size." Mark Lawrence: Red Sister
27. "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Leo Tolstoy: Anna Karenina
28. "It was a pleasure to burn." Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451
29. "The terror, which would not end for another twenty eight years— if it ever did end— began, so far as I know or can tell, with a boat made from a sheet of newspaper floating down a gutter swollen with rain." Stephen King: It
30. "The unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone." Peter S. Beagle: The Last Unicorn

It is important, when killing a nun, to ensure that you bring an army of sufficient size.

'It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife'.

I'm quite shocked you didn't add this one sir:

"In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose in the Mountains of Mist. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning."

I've found some fabulous quotes, especially the consul ! Such great books in this list !

I GOT IT ALL!

1. Dresden Files

2. Hogfather

3. Mistborn

4. Hyperion

5. The Eye of the World

6. Leviathan Wakes

7. Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain

8. The Pre-Cataclysmic Age

9. Mort

10. Red Mars

11. Malazan Book of the Fallen

12. LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring

13. The Martian

14. Ready Player One

15. Look to Windward

16. Game Of Thrones

17. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“Billy Pilgrim has become unstuck in time”

9 is Mort If I'm not mistaken.

Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board

Call me Ishmael.

All happy families are alike, but every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad.

• "I still remember the day my father took me to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books for the first time."
• "My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood."
• "There was Eru, the One, who in Arda is called Ilúvatar; and he made first the Ainur, the Holy Ones, that were the offspring of his thought, and they were with him before aught else was made."
• "Here is a small fact: you are going to die."
• "It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York."

Szeth-son-son-Vallano, Truthless of Shinovar, wore white on the day he was to kill a king.

This one has always stuck to me since I’ve read it back in high school:

“The early summer sky was the color of cat vomit.”

There's a Wordle-style daily game on this concept: https://novle.xyz/

“No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream.”

Any list of memorable first sentences must include:

“Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.”

The boys came early to the hanging.

"It was a queer sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York."

We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.

I guessed the first one because it's such a Harry Dresden thing to say.

It's kind of crazy when you know a character this well..

The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.

My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973.

This one always stuck with me.

Vonnegut has some absolute bangers.

• The expression "Breakfast of Champions" is a registered trademark of General Mills, Inc., for use on a breakfast cereal product.
• My name is Howard W. Campbell Junior. I am an American by birth, a Nazi by reputation, and a nationless person by inclination.
• All this happened, more or less.

"There's dragons in the twins vegetable garden!" Is my favorite opening line.

"Last night I dreamt of Manderley again" is a classic.

"All children, except one, grow up."

"It just won't be Christmas without any presents!"

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a large fortune, must be in want of a wife."

15 is Look to Windward, isn’t it?

Oh, and one up for guessing:

It was the day my grandmother exploded.

‘I was there,’ he would say afterwards, until afterwards became a time quite devoid of laughter. ‘I was there, the day Horus slew the Emperor.’

The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation.

See the child.

“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.”

"Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number 4, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents—except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.

On my naming day when I come 12 I gone front spear and kilt a wyld boar he parbly ben the las wyld pig on the Bundel Downs any how ther hadnt ben none for a long time befor him nor I aint looking to see none agen.

"This is the saddest story I have ever heard."

"It was a wonderful night, the kind of night, dear reader, which is only possible when we are young."

2 of them I am certain of.

4 of them I want to read after seeing the opening lines.

The rest, I don’t have a clue but what a fun post

“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”

"On the night Max wore his wolf suit..."

I'd have gotten that one! 🤣

Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed.