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Lord of the Flies Quotes

From Esther Lombardi,
Your Guide to Classic Literature.
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The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, was first published in 1954. This tale of schoolboys stranded on a desert island is the best-known work by Golding. The novel is now sometimes compared to The Cacher in the Rye as one of the popular books for high school and college students. Here are a few quotes from the novel.
  • "They used to call me Piggy!'"
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch. 1

  • "The creature was a party of boys, marching..."
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch. 1

  • "'You're no good on a job like this.'"
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch. 1

  • "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."
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch. 2

  • "'Have you got any matches?'" Ch. 2

  • "'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, Ch. 2

  • "'You got your small fire all right.'"
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch. 2

  • "Then, amid the roar of bees in the afternoon sunlight, Simon found for the fruit they could not reach... passed them back down to the endless, outstretched hands."
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch. 3

  • "The candle-buds opened their wide white flowers... Their scent spilled out into the air and took possession of the island."
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch.3

  • "Here, invisible yet strong, was the taboo of the old life."
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch. 4

  • "He began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling."
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch. 4

  • "'I painted my face--I stole up. Now you eat--all of you--and I--'"
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch. 4

  • "Piggy, for all his ludicrous body, had brains. Ralph was a specialist in thought now, and could recognize thought in another."
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch. 5

  • "Serve you right if something did get you, you useless lot of cry-babies!"
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch. 5

  • "Daddy said they haven't found all the animals in the sea yet."
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch. 5

  • "'Maybe there is a beast....maybe it's only us.'"
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch. 5

  • "The world, that understandable and lawful world, was slipping away."
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch. 5

  • "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."
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch. 6

  • "'You'll get back to where you came from.'"
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch. 7

  • "'Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in!'"
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch. 7

  • "The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering."
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch. 7

  • "'We musn't let anything happen to Piggy, must we?'"
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch. 7

  • "The only trouble was that he would never be a very good chess player."
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch. 7

  • "He says things like Piggy. He isn't a proper chief.'"
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch. 8

  • "Piggy was... so full of pride in his contribution to the good of society, that he helped to fetch wood."
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch. 8

  • "'This head is for the beast. It's a gift.'"
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch. 8

  • "'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, Ch. 8

  • "'You're not wanted..."
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch. 8

  • "'Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!'"
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch. 9

  • "They were glad to touch the brown backs of the fence that hemmed in the terror and made it governable."
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch. 9

  • "There were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws."
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch. 9

  • "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."
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch. 9

  • "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. 9

  • "We was on the outside. We never done nothing, we never seen nothing."
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch.10

  • "You can't tell what he might do."
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch. 10

  • "What could be safer than the bus center with its lamps and wheels?" Ch. 10

  • "'It's come... It's real!'"
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch. 10

  • "'This is 'jus talk... I want my glasses.'"
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch. 11

  • "'after all we aren't savages really...'"
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch. 11

  • "A single drop of water that had escaped Piggy's fingers now flashed on the delicate curve like a star."
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch. 11

  • "Behind them on the grass the headless and paunched body of a sow lay where they had dropped it."
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch. 11

  • "Ralph--remember what we came for. The fire. My specs."
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch. 11

  • "Samneric protested out of the heart of civilization"
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch. 11

  • "You're a beast and a swine and a bloody, bloody thief!"
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch. 11

  • "Which is better--to have laws and agree, or to hunt and kill?"
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch. 11

  • "The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist."
    - William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Ch. 11

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