Lord of the Flies Quotes

Quote 1: "'I don't care what [you] call me so long as...[it's not] what they used to call me in school...They used to call me Piggy!'" Chapter 1, pg. 11

Quote 2: "[There was] something dark...fumbling along....The creature was a party of boys, marching approximately in...two parallel lines...." Chapter 1, pg. 18

Quote 3: "[Jack was] tall, thin, and bony...his hair was red beneath the black cap. His face was...freckled, and ugly without silliness." Chapter 1, pg. 19

Quote 4: "'You're no good on a job like this.'" Chapter 1, pg. 22

Quote 5: "Ralph sat on a fallen trunk, his left side to the sun. On his right were most of the choir; on his left the larger boys who had not known each other before...before him small children squatted in the grass." Chapter 2, pg. 30

Quote 6: "'Have you got any matches?'" Chapter 2, pg. 38

Quote 7: "'We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages. We're English, and the English are best at everything.'" Chapter 2, pg. 40

Quote 8: "'You got your small fire all right.'" Chapter 2, pg. 41

Quote 9: "[Jack] tried to convey the compulsion to track down and kill that was swallowing him up." Chapter 3, pg. 47

Quote 10: "Then, amid the roar of bees in the afternoon sunlight, Simon found for [the littluns] the fruit they could not reach...[and] passed them back down to the endless, outstretched hands." Chapter 3, pg. 51

Quote 11: "The candle-buds opened their wide white flowers....Their scent spilled out into the air and took possession of the island." Chapter 3, pg. 52

Quote 12: "[T]here was a space round Henry, perhaps six yards in diameter, into which he [Roger] dare not throw. Here, invisible yet strong, was the taboo of the old life." Chapter 4, pg. 56

Quote 13: "He [Jack] began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling." Chapter 4, pg. 58

Quote 14: "[The hunters' thoughts were] crowded with memories...of the knowledge... that they had outwitted a living thing, imposed their will upon it, taken away its life like a long satisfying drink." Chapter 4, pp. 63-4

Quote 15: "'I painted my face--I stole up. Now you eat--all of you--and I--'" Chapter 4, pg. 67

Quote 16: "Piggy, for all his ludicrous body, had brains. Ralph was a specialist in thought now, and could recognize thought in another." Chapter 5, pg. 71

Quote 17: "'Life...is scientific....I know there isn't no beast...but I know there isn't no fear, either....Unless we get frightened of people.'" Chapter 5, pg. 76

Quote 18: "'[F]ear can't hurt you any more than a dream. There aren't any beasts to be afraid of on this island....Serve you right if something did get you, you useless lot of cry-babies!" Chapter 5, pg. 75

Quote 19: "'Daddy said they haven't found all the animals in the sea yet.'" Chapter 5, pg. 79

Quote 20: "'Maybe there is a beast....maybe it's only us.'" Chapter 5, pg. 80

Quote 21: "The world, that understandable and lawful world, was slipping away." Chapter 5, pg. 82

Quote 22: "Even the sounds of nightmare from the other shelters no longer reached him, for he was back to where came from, feeding the ponies with sugar over the garden wall." Chapter 6, pg. 89

Quote 23: "[Simon saw] the picture of a human at once heroic and sick....Other people could stand up and speak to an assembly...without...the pressure of personality; could say what they would as though they were speaking to only one person." Chapter 6, pg. 93

Quote 24: "'Shove a palm trunk under that and if an enemy came....'" Chapter 6, pg. 96

Quote 25: "'I'm chief. We've got to make certain [that there is no beast]....There's no signal showing [on the mountain]. There may be a ship out there.'" Chapter 6, pg 98

Quote 26: "'You'll get back to where you came from.'" Chapter 7, pg. 100

Quote 27: "'Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in!'" Chapter 7, pg. 104

Quote 28: "'Use a littlun...'" Chapter 7, pg. 104

Quote 29: "Ralph...was fighting to get near....The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering." Chapter 7, pg. 104

Quote 30: "'We musn't let anything happen to Piggy, must we?'" Chapter 7, pg. 106

Quote 31: "Ralph...would treat the day's decisions as though he were playing chess. The only trouble was that he would never be a very good chess player." Chapter 7, pg. 106

Quote 32: "'[Ralph is] like Piggy....He says things like Piggy. He isn't a proper chief.'" Chapter 8, pg. 115

Quote 33: "Piggy was...so full of pride in his contribution to the good of society, that he helped to fetch wood." Chapter 8, pg. 118

Quote 34: "'Right up her ass!'" Chapter 8, pg.123

Quote 35: "'This head is for the beast. It's a gift.'" Chapter 8, pg. 124

Quote 36: "[Simon's] eyes were half-closed as though he were imitating the obscene thing on the stick." Chapter 8, pg. 130

Quote 37: "'You knew, didn't you? I'm part of you? Close, close, close! I'm the reason why it's no go? Why things are what they are?'" Chapter 8, pg. 130

Quote 38: "'You're not wanted....on this island!...So don't try [to take] it on...or else....we shall do you. See? Jack and Roger and Maurice and Robert and Bill and Piggy and Ralph.'" Chapter 8, pg. 131

Quote 39: "'Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!'" Chapter 9, pg. 138

Quote 40: "[The boys] found themselves eager to take a place in this demented but partly secure society. They were glad to touch the brown backs of the fence that hemmed in the terror [of the makeshift beast] and made it governable." Chapter 9, pg. 138

Quote 41: "There were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws." Chapter 9, pg. 139

Quote 42: "The water rose farther and dressed Simon's coarse hair with brightness. The line of his cheek silvered and the turn of his shoulder became sculptured marble." Chapter 9, pg. 140

Quote 43: "[S]urrounded by a fringe of inquisitive bright creatures, itself a silver shape beneath the steadfast constellations, Simon's dead body moved out toward the open sea." Chapter 9, pg. 140

Quote 44: "'We was on the outside. We never done nothing, we never seen nothing.'" Chapter 10, pg. 143

Quote 45: "'We'd better keep on the right side of [the beast]....You can't tell what he might do.'" Chapter 10, pg. 146

Quote 46: "What could be safer than the bus center with its lamps and wheels?" Chapter 10, pg. 150

Quote 47: "'It's come...It's real!'" Chapter 10, pg. 151

Quote 48: "'This is 'jus talk....I want my glasses.'" Chapter 11, pg. 155

Quote 49: "'[We should be] looking like we used to, washed and hair brushed -- after all we aren't savages really....'" Chapter 11, pg. 155

Quote 50: "A single drop of water that had escaped Piggy's fingers now flashed on the delicate curve [of the shell] like a star." Chapter 11, pg. 156.

Quote 51: "[Jack and the two hunters] weremasked in black and green." Chapter 11, pg. 160

Quote 52: "Behind them on the grass the headless and paunched body of a sow lay where they had dropped it." Chapter 11, pg. 160

Quote 53: "'Ralph -- remember what we came for. The fire. My specs.'" Chapter 11, pg. 161

Quote 54: "Samneric protested out of the heart of civilization, 'Oh, I say!' '-honestly!'" Chapter 11, pg. 163

Quote 55: "'You're a beast and a swine and a bloody, bloody thief!'" Chapter 11, pg. 163

Quote 56: "'Which is better -- to be a pack of painted Indians like you are, or to be sensible like Ralph is....Which is better -- to have laws and agree, or to hunt and kill?'" Chapter 11, pg. 164

Quote 57: "The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist." Chapter 11, pg. 164

Quote 58: "Piggy's arms and legs twitched a bit, like a pig's after it has been killed." Chapter 11, pg. 165

Quote 59: "Roger advanced...as one wielding a nameless authority." Chapter 11, pg. 166

Quote 60: "'They're not as bad as that. It was an accident.'" Chapter 12, pg. 168

Quote 61: "Then there was that indefinable connection between himself and Jack; who therefore would never let him alone...." Chapter 12, pg. 168

Quote 62: "A star appeared...and was momentarily eclipsed by some movement." Chapter 12, pg. 170

Quote 63: "[Samneric had] 'to be careful and throw...spears like at a pig.'" Chapter 12, pg. 172

Quote 64: "[The boulder was] half as big as a cottage, big as a car, a tank." Chapter 12, pg. 176

Quote 65: "[Ralph] showed his teeth at the wall of branches....snarled a little, and waited." Chapter 12, pg. 177

Quote 66: "Ralph launched himself like a cat; stabbed, snarling, with the spear, and the savage doubled up." Chapter 12, pp. 177-8

Quote 67: "What was the sensible thing to do? There was no Piggy to talk sense." Chapter 12, pg. 179

Quote 68: "Couldn't a fire outrun a galloping horse?" Chapter 12, pg. 180

Quote 69: "You'll get back." Chapter 12, pg. 181

Quote 70: "He [Ralph] saw a shelter burst into flames and the fire flapped at his right shoulder...." Chapter 12, pg. 182

Quote 71: "her bows [were] hauled up and held by two ratings. In the stern-sheets another rating held a sub-machine gun." Chapter 12, pg. 182

Quote 72: "[They were] a semi-circle of little boys, their bodies streaked with colored clay, sharp sticks in their hands...." Chapter 12, pg. 182-3

Quote 73: "'I should have thought that a pack of British boys...would have been able to put up a better show than that....'" Chapter 12, pg. 184

Quote 74: "Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy." Chapter 12, pg. 184