Most emotionally powerful sentences you have experienced

[theorange]

What extraordinarily powerful sentences have most moved you emotionally? I don't mean just because they refer to some very sad or happy fact, but because of the extraordinary artistry of the writing.

[YesNo]

I am confused by the exclusion of very sad or very happy facts. Are you looking for sentences that move the reader only by the sound of the words and not their meaning?

For my part, I am often moved by poems written by Mary Oliver, but part of that experience includes the meaning of the words so I don't know if they count. Here's an example of one that I like: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poet...2/5#!/20603668

[theorange]

Sorry, that was confusing. I wasn't trying to exclude meaning at all. I just meant to say that I wasn't talking about sentences that simply reported a sad fact without any artistry...

[108 fountains]

Well, several emotionally charged scenes come to mind - the final scene of Herman Hesse's Siddhartha, Dickens' description of the death of Little Nell, and the entire chapter six of A Tale of Two Cities, but one passage does stand out for me - gave me chills when I read it - from Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge:
"Michael Henchard's Will.
"That Elizabeth-Jane Farfrae be not told of my death, or made to grieve on account of me.
"& that I be not bury'd in consecreated ground.
"& that no sexton be asked to toll the bell.
"& that nobody is wished to see my dead body.
"& that no mourners walk behind me at my funeral.
"& that no flours be planted on my grave.
"& that no man remember me.
"To this I put my name.
"Michael Henchard."

[Lokasenna]

I re-read Moby-Dick not all that long ago - and there are a heck of a lot of lines in that novel that send shivers up the spine. The one that stays with me the most, though, is:

'Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee.'

[Marcus1]

I don't recall sentences which I really like, but some books had more memorable lines than others. Among those are:

The Book of Disquiet - Fernando Pessoa
The Passion According to G.H. - Clarice Lispector
Snow Country - Yasunari Kawabata
Narcissus and Goldmund - Hermann Hesse
Zenzele - J. Nozipo Maraire
The Waves - Virginia Woolf
The Sickness Unto Death - Soren Kierkegaard

And poetry of course, especially portions from Akiko Yosano's River of Stars:

Swifter than hail
Lighter than a feather,
A vague sorrow
Crossed my mind.

Feeling you nearby,
how could I not come
to walk beneath
this evening moon rising
over flowering fields.

It was only
the thin thread of a cloud,
almost transparent,
leading me along the way
like an ancient sacred song.

I say his poem,
propped against this frozen wall,
in the late evening,
as bitter autumn rain
continues to fall.

And Kenji Miyazawa's poem 'The Morning of Last Farewell':

Now today you will part for ever
With the deep blue pattern on these bowls
So familiar to us as we grew up together
(I go as I go by myself)

That the snow you will eat from these two bowls
Will be transformed into heaven's ice-cream
And be offered to you and everyone as material that will be holy
On this wish I stake my very happiness.

[Goodman Brown]

Some people are so poor all they have is money,,,,,,