MOMENTS EXPRESSED

Need help.

Thanks all answerers.
I was thinking more like how at the end of a Harry Potter book the school year ends and everyone goes home until next summer, something along those lines. Just an example, I am not a fan of the Harry Potter series.

There is a site http://www.corsinet.com/braincandy/dying.html which has a bunch of last words of various famous people. Would that be among the final moments quotes you’d be interested in finding?

I have a book like that, too, called Famous Last Words, Fond Farewells, Deathbed Diatribes, and Exclamations Upon Expiration by Ray Robinson. Amazon has it available: http://www.amazon.com/Farewells-Deathbed-Diatribes-Exclamations-Expiration/dp/0761126090/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219642478&sr=1-2

There is the famous ending of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, which is quoting what Sydney Carton would have said before his death had he voiced his thoughts: "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."

If I am misunderstanding your question, I apologize. I’ll check again later (or tomorrow) to see if you’ve expanded upon your question.

Any book that has to do with students could have that type of ending – whether the end of the summer vacation or the end of the school year. Even in Goodbye, Mr. Chips by James Hilton there are many endings and beginnings as this teacher says goodbye to one set of boys and hello to the next when school begins again. At the end, Mr. Chips dies – after looking back at his long and successful career. That’s definitely an ending. (end of the book: "He seemed so peaceful that they did not disturb him to say goodnight; but in the morning, as the School bell sounded for breakfast, Brookfield had the news. ‘Brookfield will never forget his lovableness,’ said Cartwright, in a speech to the School. Which was absurd, because all things are forgotten in the end. But Linford, at any rate, will remember and tell the tale: ‘I said good-bye to Chips the night before he died…’ ")

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is another series of books that have endings. In other words, each of the books takes place after the ending of a school year and beginning of summer vacation. I don’t have the books here, so no quotes.

Most books have some kind of ending in some way (I don’t mean "the end…finis" on the last page).

You could say that Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery (the first in the series) has the end of childhood. Anne is about to truly embark on her career as a teacher at the end of the book. (This is the very end of the book: "Anne’s horizons had closed in since the night she had
sat there after coming home from Queen’s; but if the path
set before her feet was to be narrow she knew that flowers
of quiet happiness would bloom along it. The joy of
sincere work and worthy aspiration and congenial friendship
were to be hers; nothing could rob her of her birthright
of fancy or her ideal world of dreams. And there was always
the bend in the road!

"`God’s in his heaven, all’s right with the world,’"
whispered Anne softly.") Anne had planned to go to college, but Marilla – the woman who adopted her – needed her, so Anne made the decision to start her career and stay with Marilla to help her with the farm.

In A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, you could say that you see the end of the miser Scrooge and the beginning of the new man. (From the last chapter: "Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him.")

In the first book in The Chronicles of Narnia – The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – you see the end of the blitz in London at the end of the book (that’s why they leave the professor). At the same time, it is the end of their first journey into Narnia. (end of the book: "And that is the very end of the adventure of the wardrobe. But if the Professor was right it was only the beginning of the adventures of Narnia.")

In Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, you see the end and final moments of the South; the end of that entire way of life. Obviously a good side effect was the ending of slavery. NovelGuide http://www.novelguide.com/GonewiththeWind/toptenquotes.html has some good quotes from Gone with the Wind which might help.

In Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan (an 1898 novella written by Morgan Robertson which was a work of fiction that was uncannily similar to what – in true life – happened to the Titanic), you see the end of a supposedly unsinkable ship. It’s almost eerily prophetic concerning the real end of a true ship fourteen years later! For quotes from this novella, you can read it online or download it at http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/24880 Gutenberg.

In A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett, you see the end of Sara Crewe’s drudgery in the boarding school where she used to be the prize student until her father died, supposedly leaving her penniless. (Here’s a quote from the last chapter: "Thank you," said Sara. "You see, I know what it is to be hungry, and it is very hard when one cannot even pretend it away."

"Yes, yes, my dear," said the Indian gentleman. "Yes, yes, it must be. Try to forget it. Come and sit on this footstool near my knee, and only remember you are a princess."

And another quote from the same chapter: "The next morning, Miss Minchin, in looking out of her window, saw the things she perhaps least enjoyed seeing. The Indian gentleman’s carriage, with its tall horses, drew up before the door of the next house, and its owner and a little figure, warm with soft, rich furs, descended the steps to get into it. The little figure was a familiar one, and reminded Miss Minchin of days in the past. It was followed by another as familiar–the sight of which she found very irritating. It was Becky, who, in the character of delighted attendant, always accompanied her young mistress to her carriage, carrying wraps and belongings. Already Becky had a pink, round face." – Miss Minchin was the head of the school, Becky was a servant at the school who had befriended Sara.)

In The Lost Prince, also by Frances Hodgson Burnett, you see the end of exile for the monarch of a small nation. (A quote from the last chapter goes like this: "The King had the eyes he had longed to see–the King’s hands were those he had longed to feel again upon his shoulder–the King was his father! the "Stefan Loristan" who had been the last of those who had waited and labored for Samavia through five hundred years, and who had lived and died kings, though none of them till now had worn a crown!

"His father was the King!")

In The Taking by Dean Koontz, you see the end of the world (and the beginning of the new one). In the second from the last chapter, second paragraph: "In the early weeks of this new life, they had little time for contemplation, for puzzling out what had happened to them and to the world." and then, 4th paragraph: "Remarkably (or perhaps not), the only adult survivors, the tutelaries, proved to be diverse lot with a surprising breadth and depth of knowledge and experience for such a small number. They were doctors, dentists, nurses, engineers, architects, carpenters, skilled mechanics…. When a complete directory was compiled of those living on this immediate section of the coast, it seemed as though every surviving adult had been chosen (*chosen is in italics, which I don’t know how to do here) not just to save the children but for the talents he or she could bring to this larger purpose."

I could go on and on with stuff like this, but I’m still not sure if these fit what you need.