![]() Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. You just have to know what he means and why the past is important to him.” ![]() The American Book Review ranked it Number 78 on its classic list of “The 100 Best First Lines from Novels,” and writer Colin Falconer ranked it Number 20 on his 2013 list of “The Best 43 Opening Lines in Novel Writing History.” About it, Falconer wrote: “Wonderful metaphor, and so many questions arise from this simple sentence. Hartley’s elegant observation is also regarded as one of the best opening lines in literary history. Many quotation lovers-including me-consider it one of the very best things ever written about the subject of the past. QUOTE NOTE: Some opening lines go on to enjoy a life of their own as quotations, and this one has long held an honored place in The Big Three quotation anthologies: Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, The Oxford Book of Quotations, and the Yale Book of Quotations (in each one, it is Hartley’s only entry). Hartley, the opening line of The Go-Between (1953) The past is a foreign country they do things differently there.
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