Lord of the Flies
Important Quotations
Chapter 1: The Sound of the Shell
P to R: “Didn’t you hear what the pilot said? About the atom bomb? They’re all dead.”
“’I ought to be chief,’ said Jack with simple arrogance, ‘because I’m chapter chorister and head boy. I can sing C sharp.’”
Chapter 2: Fire on the Mountain
R: “There aren’t any grownups. We shall have to look after ourselves.”
“This is our island. It’s a good island. Until the grownups come to fetch us we’ll have fun.”
“Something he had not known was there rose in him and compelled him to make the point, loudly and again.”
Chapter 3: Huts on the Beach
“His sandy hair, considerably longer than it had been when they dropped in, was lighter now;”
“They walked along, two continents of experience and feeling, unable to communicate.
‘If I could only get a pig!’
‘I’ll come back and go on with the shelter.’
They looked at each other, baffled, in love and hate.”
“Holding his breath he cocked a critical ear at the sounds of the island. Evening was advancing toward the island; the sounds of the bright fantastic birds, the bee-sounds, even the crying of the gulls that were returning to their roosts among the square rocks, were fainter. The deep sea breaking miles away on the reef made an undertone less perceptible than the susurration of the blood.”
Ch. 4: Painted Faces and Long Hair
“Roger gathered a handful of stones and began to throw them. Yet there was a space around Henry, perhaps six yards in diameter, into which he dare not throw. Here, invisible yet strong, was the taboo of the old life. Round the squatting child was the protection of parents and school and policemen and the law. Roger’s arm was conditioned by a civilization that knew nothing of him and was in ruins.”
“He was the only boy on the island whose hair never seemed to grow.”
“Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood.”
“There was a ship.”

“I got you meat.”
Ch. 5: Beast From Water
“’Too many things.’”
“’Things are breaking up. I don’t understand why. We began well; we were happy. And then—‘“
“’What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages? What’s grownups going to think?
Going off—hunting pigs—letting fires out—and now!’”
Ch. 6: Beast From Air
“Simon mumbled confusedly: ‘I don’t believe in the beast.’”
“The clamor broke out. Some of the boys wanted to go back to the beach. Some wanted to roll more rocks.”
Ch. 7: Shadows and Tall Trees
“If you could shut your ears to the slow suck down of the sea and boil of the return, if you could forget how dun and unvisited were the ferny coverts on either side, then there was a chance you might put the beast out of mind and dream for a while.”
“… the brute obtuseness of the ocean” “the heave and suck of the blinding sea”
“Ralph too was fighting to get near, to get a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh. The desire to squeeze and hurt was overmastering.”
Ch. 8: Gift for the Darkness
“’Who thinks Ralph oughtn’t to be chief?’”
“’We got no fire on the mountain. But what’s wrong with a fire down here? A fire could be built on them rocks. On the sand even. We’d make smoke just the same.’”
“Beyond the screen of leaves the sunlight pelted down and the butterflies danced in the middle their unending dance. He knelt down and the arrow of the sun fell on him. That other time the air had seemed to vibrate with heat; but now it threatened.”
“Then Jack found the throat and the hot blood spouted all over his hands. The sow collapsed under them and they were heavy and fulfilled upon her.”
“’Fancy thinking the beast was something you could hunt and kill!’ said the head. For a moment or two the forest and all the other dimly appreciated places echoed with the parody of laughter. ‘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?’”

Ch. 9: A View to a Death
“Piggy and Ralph, under the threat of the sky, 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 and made it governable.”
“This was the throb and stamp of a single organism.”
“The blue-white scar was constant, the noise unendurable. Simon was crying out something about a dead man on a hill.”
“The great wave of the tide moved farther along the island and the water lifted. Softly, surrounded 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.”
Ch. 10: The Shell and the Glasses
“The fragile white conch still gleamed by the polished seat.”
“From his left hand dangled Piggy’s broken glasses.”
Ch. 11: Castle Rock
“They understood only too well the liberation into savagery that the concealing paint brought.”
“The painted group moved round Samneric nervously and unhandily. Once more the silvery laughter scattered.
Samneric protested out of the heart of civilization.”
“Then the sea breathed again in a long, slow sigh, the water boiled white and pink over the rock; and when it went, sucking back again, the body of Piggy was gone.”
Ch. 12: Cry of the Hunters
“They were savages it was true; but they were human, and the ambushing fears of the deep night were coming on.”
“Roger sharpened a stick at both ends.”
“’Fun and games,’ said the officer.”
“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.”
“… the trim cruiser in the distance.”