Best Quotes from Lord Of The Flies by William Golding with Page Numbers

"This is an island. At least I think it’s an island."

"No grownups!"

"We got to do something."

"It’s ever so valuable—"

"Ralph—please!"

"That’s why Ralph made a meeting. So as we can decide what to do."

"We may stay here till we die."

"This belongs to us."

"We’ll make sure later, but I think it’s uninhabited."

"All ours."

We’re on an island. We’ve been on the mountaintop and seen water all round. We saw no houses, no smoke, no footprints, no boats, no people.

There aren’t any grownups. We shall have to look after ourselves.

This is our island. It’s a good island.

We want to have fun. And we want to be rescued.

And we shall be rescued.

We must make smoke on top of the mountain. We must make a fire.

Who would see smoke at nighttime, anyway?

We got to let that burn out now.

But the first time Ralph says ‘fire’ you goes howling and screaming up this here mountain.

How can you expect to be rescued if you don’t put first things first and act proper?

The silence of the forest was more oppressive than the heat.

The best thing we can do is get ourselves rescued.

He took a few rapid steps toward the beach, then came back.

We need shelters as a sort of—home.

You can hear ’em. Have you been awake at night?

They’re frightened.

If you’re hunting sometimes you catch yourself feeling as if you’re not hunting, but—being hunted.

Well, I don’t know.

That’s how you can feel in the forest.

We could steal up on one—paint our faces so they wouldn’t see.

They accepted the pleasures of morning, the bright sun, the whelming sea and sweet air, as a time when play was good and life so full that hope was not necessary and therefore forgotten.

The fire was dead.

He became absorbed beyond mere happiness as he felt himself exercising control over living things.

The world of longing and baffled commonsense.

You said you’d keep the fire going and you let it out!

He had not moved. Ralph’s final word was an ingracious mutter.

I’ll bring ’em back.

Even Piggy and Ralph were half-drawn in.

Jack, recovering, could not bear to have his story told.

I’m calling an assembly.

This meeting must not be fun, but business.

We need an assembly. Not for fun. Not for laughing and falling off the log.

I’ve been alone. By myself I went, thinking what’s what. I know what we need: an assembly to put things straight.

The fire is the most important thing on the island. How can we ever be rescued except by luck, if we don’t keep a fire going?

You hunters! You can laugh! But I tell you the smoke is more important than the pig, however often you kill one.

We’ve got to make smoke up there—or die.

Things are breaking up. I don’t understand why. We began well; we were happy.

But that’s littluns’ talk. We’ll get that straight.

Maybe it’s only us.

I wish my father… Oh, what’s the use?

"The rays of the sun that were fanning upwards from below the horizon swung downward to eye-level."

"The darkness was full of claws, full of the awful unknown and menace."

"What good did Simon do speaking, or Bill, or Walter?"

"Don’t you all want to be rescued?"

"Hasn’t anyone got any sense?"

"You can’t have an ordinary hunt because the beast doesn’t leave tracks."

"You’re always scared."

"This is more than a hunter’s job... and don’t you want to be rescued?"

"I suppose you aren’t pulling our legs?"

"What’s the matter?"

Be sucking my thumb next—

You’ll get back to where you came from.

All the same. You’ll get back all right. I think so, anyway.

I hit him! The spear stuck in—

Kill him! Kill him!

Just a game,

We ought to have a drum,

You want a real pig,

I don’t mind going,

Of course.

"The greatest ideas are the simplest."

"What else is there to do?"

"We can do without Jack Merridew. There’s others besides him on this island."

"The most important thing on the island is the smoke and you can’t have no smoke without a fire."

"I mean I’m scared of that too. But nobody else understands about the fire."

"If someone threw you a rope when you were drowning... you would, wouldn’t you?"

"If we do not hold on to the fire, how will we be rescued?"

"We’ll have to stay close to the platform; there’ll be less need of him and his hunting. So now we can really decide on what’s what."

"This head is for the beast. It’s a gift."

"We are going to have fun on this island!"

What else is there to do?

The beast was harmless and horrible; and the news must reach the others as soon as possible.

He walked with a sort of glum determination like an old man.

The fire—rescue.

Has everybody eaten as much as they want?

That was your job.

The conch counts here too.

Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!

Even in the rain they could see how small a beast it was.

Then it turned gently in the water.

“What we going to do?”

“I’m frightened. Of us. I want to go home. Oh God, I want to go home.”

“We got to forget this. We can’t do no good thinking about it, see?”

“Don’t you understand, Piggy? The things we did—”

“It was an accident,” said Piggy stubbornly, “and that’s that.”

“Piggy, come outside. I want you, Piggy.”

“We’ve got to keep the fire going.”

“What’s the good of wishing for radios and boats?”

“There’s only one thing we can do to get out of this mess.”

“I mean it,” whispered Piggy. “If we don’t get home soon we’ll be barmy.”

"Now we got no fire."

"They stole it!"

"Just an ordinary fire. You’d think we could do that, wouldn’t you? Just a smoke signal so we can be rescued."

"We ought to take spears... because we may need them."

"What’s grownups going to think?"

"It’s the one thing he hasn’t got."

"What’s right’s right. Give me my glasses, I’m going to say—you got to!"

"We aren’t savages really and being rescued isn’t a game."

"We’ll be like we were. We’ll wash—"

"Listen. We’ve come to say this. First you’ve got to give back Piggy’s specs."

"The breaking of the conch and the deaths of Piggy and Simon lay over the island like a vapor."

"He was licking his bruised knuckles and looking at the bare stick, while the skull lay in two pieces, its grin now six feet across."

"The thing to do was to try again. And anyway, he couldn’t stay here all night in an empty shelter by the deserted platform."

"They were savages it was true; but they were human, and the ambushing fears of the deep night were coming on."

"Listen, Ralph. Never mind what’s sense. That’s gone—"

"What have I done? I liked him—and I wanted us to be rescued—"

"The fools! The fools! The fire must be almost at the fruit trees—what would they eat tomorrow?"

"The officer inspected the little scarecrow in front of him. The kid needed a bath, a haircut, a nose-wipe and a good deal of ointment."

"He 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 officer grinned cheerfully at Ralph. 'We saw your smoke. What have you been doing? Having a war or something?'"