Top 10 First Lines

10. Call me Ishmael. (Moby Dick, Herman Melville)
9. It was love at first sight. (Catch-22, Joseph Heller)
8. You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, If on a Winter's Night a Traveler. (If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, Italo Calvino)
7. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. (Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen)
6. Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. (Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone, J.K. Rowling)
5. There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it. (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, C.S. Lewis)
4. Two households, both alike in dignity,/ In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,/ .../ Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;/ The which, if you with patient ears attend,/ What here shall miss our toil shall strive to men. (Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare)
3. 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 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. (A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens)
2. Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. (Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy)
1. This is the saddest story I have ever heard. (The Good Soldier, Ford Madox Ford)

I seriously considered "It was a dark and stormy night" from Bulwer-Lytton's Paul Clifford, as it is probably the most imitated line in history. But then I realized that, aside from being super famous, it's not that interesting. Melville's line from Moby Dick actually beat him out because I see added humor in it from reading Lemony Snicket's book 13. Sad, but true. As far as number 6 goes, don't be hatin'. You have to admit it's a good first line for the madness that follows.