“Maybe there is a beast… maybe it's only us.”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies
“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.”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies
“The thing is - fear can't hurt you any more than a dream.”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies
“We did everything adults would do. What went wrong?”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies
“The greatest ideas are the simplest.”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies
“I think women are foolish to pretend they are equal to men, they are far superior and always have been.”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies
“Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill! 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?”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies
“What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages?”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies
“If faces were different when lit from above or below -- what was a face? What was anything?”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies
“The world, that understandable and lawful world, was slipping away.”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies
“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.”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies
“He found himself understanding the wearisomeness of this life, where every path was an improvisation and a considerable part of one's waking life was spent watching one's feet.”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies
“They looked at each other, baffled, in love and hate.”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies
“The mask was a thing on it's own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-conciousness.”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies
“Maybe," he said hesitantly, "maybe there is a beast." [...] "What I mean is, maybe it's only us.”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies
“His voice rose under the black smoke before the burning wreckage of the island; and infected by that emotion, the other little boys began to shake and sob too. And in the middle of them, with filthy body, matted hair, and unwiped nose, Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of mans heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy.”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies
“They walked along, two continents of experience and feeling unable to communicate.”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies
“Which is better--to have laws and agree, or to hunt and kill?”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies
“The rules!" shouted Ralph, "you're breaking the rules!"
"Who cares?”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies
“I know there isn't no beast—not with claws and all that, I mean—but I know there isn't no fear, either."
Piggy paused.
"Unless—"
Ralph moved restlessly.
"Unless what?"
"Unless we get frightened of people.”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies
“There have been so many interpretations of the story that I'm not going to choose between them. Make your own choice. They contradict each other, the various choices. The only choice that really matters, the only interpretation of the story, if you want one, is your own. Not your teacher's, not your professor's, not mine, not a critic's, not some authority's. The only thing that matters is, first, the experience of being in the story, moving through it. Then any interpretation you like. If it's yours, then that's the right one, because what's in a book is not what an author thought he put into it, it's what the reader gets out of it.”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies
“People don't help much.”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies
“He lost himself in a maze of thoughts that were rendered vague by his lack of words to express them. Frowning, he tried again.”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies
“the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist.”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies
“Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood.”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies
“I'm scared of him," said Piggy, "and that's why I know him. If you're scared of someone you hate him but you can't stop thinking about him. You kid yourself he's all right really, an' then when you see him again; it's like asthma an' you can't breathe...”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies
“What I mean is... maybe it's only us...”
― William Golding , Lord of the Flies
“His mind was crowded with memories; memories of the knowledge that had come to them when they closed in on the struggling pig, knowledge that they had outwitted a living thing, imposed their will upon it, taken away its life like a long satisfying drink.”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies
