William Golding

“My yesterdays walk with me. They keep step, they are gray faces that peer over my shoulder.”

“-Iti spun un lucru. Ce este mai apropiat decat fratele de frate, mama de copil?Ce este mai apropiat decat mana de gura, gandul de minte? E viziunea, Roger. Nu ma astept ca tu sa intelegi asta...-Dar pricep,mai incape vorba!Jocelin isi inalta chipul si deodata zambi:-Chiar intelegi?-Dar vine clipa in care viziunea nu mai e decat jocul copilului de-a-sa-zicem.-Aha!Clatina din cap, incet, atent; si luminile plutira.-Atunci nu intelegi deloc. Deloc.”

“If I blow the conch and they don't come back; then we've had it. We shan't keep the fire going. We'll be like animals. We'll never be rescued.""If you don't blow, we'll soon be animals anyway.”

“The rules!" shouted Ralph, "you're breaking the rules!""Who cares?”

“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.”

“The trouble was, if you were a chief you had to think, you had to be wise.”

“This is our island. It's a good island. Until the grownups come to fetch us we'll have fun.”

“Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood.”

“The mask was a thing on it's own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-conciousness.”

“Grownups know things, said Piggy. They ain't afraid of the dark. They'd meet and have tea and discuss. Then things 'ud be alright---They wouldn't set fire to the island. Or lose---They'd build a ship---The three boys stood in the darkness, striving unsuccessfully to convey the majesty of adult life.They wouldn't quarrel---Or break my specs---Or talk about a beast---If only they could get a message to us, cried Ralph desperately. If only they could send us something grownup. . . a sign or something.”

“He lost himself in a maze of thoughts that were rendered vague by his lack of words to express them. Frowning, he tried again.”

“He became absorbed beyond mere happiness as he felt himself exercising control over living things. He talked to them, urging them, ordering them. Driven back by the tide, his footprints became bays in which they were trapped and gave him the illusion of mastery.”

“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.”

“The air was heavy with unspoken knowledge. Sam twisted and the obscene word shot out of him. "--dance?"Memory of the dance that none of them had attended shook all four boys convulsively.”

“-Nem nagyon segítenek az emberek!Azt akarta mondani, hogy az emberek sohasem pontosan olyanok, mint amilyennek elképzeljük őket.”

“Out of the firelight everything was black and silver, black island, rocks and trees carved cleanly out of the sky and silver river with a flashing light rippling back and forth along the lip of the fall.”

“Lok was running as fast as he could. His head was down and he carried his thorn bush horizontally for balance and smacked the drifts of vivid buds aside with his free hand.”

“The moon was through to the sunset side of the gap, but its light was hardly noticeable on the earth for the ruddy brilliance of the firelight.”

“I was the only boy in our school what had asthma," said the fat boy with a touch of pride. "And I've been wearing specs since I was three.”

“I'm warning you. I'm going to get waxy. D'you see? You're not wanted. Understand? We are going to have fun on this island. Understand? We are going to have fun on this island! So don't try it on, my poor misguided boy, or else---" Simon found he was looking into a vast mouth. There was blackness within, a blackness that spread.”

“Are we savages or what?”

“What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages?”

“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...”

“The writer probably knows what he meant when he wrote a book, but he should immediately forget what he meant when he's written it.”

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

“Maybe there is a beast… maybe it's only us.”

“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.”

“Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in!”

“Which is better--to have laws and agree, or to hunt and kill?”

“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.”

“We musn't let anything happen to Piggy, must we?”

“The flames, as though they were a kind of wild life, crept as a jaguar creeps on its belly toward a line of birch-like saplings that fledged an outcrop of the pink rock.”

“The officer grinned cheerfully at Ralph.'We saw your smoke. What have you been doing? Having a war or something?'Ralph nodded.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.'Nobody killed, I hope? Any dead bodies?''Only two. And they've gone.'The officer leaned down and looked closely at Ralph.'Two? Killed?'Ralph nodded again. Behind him, the whole island was shuddering with flame. The officer knew, as a rule, when people were telling the truth. He whistled softly.”

“People don't help much.”

“If faces were different when lit from above or below -- what was a face? What was anything?”

“I am by nature an optimist and by intellectual conviction a pessimist.”

“the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist.”

“They walked along, two continents of experience and feeling unable to communicate.”

“The skull regarded Ralph like one who knows all the answers but won't tell.”

“You'll get back to where you came from.”

“Roger stooped, picked up a stone, aimed and threw it at Henry-threw it to miss. The stone, that token of preposterous time, bounced five yards to Henry's right and fell in the water. Roger gathered a handful of stones and began to throw them. Yet there was a space round 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 was conditioned by a civilization that knew nothing of him and was in ruins.”

“They looked at each other, baffled, in love and hate.”

“We're not savages. We're English.”

“The world, that understandable and lawful world, was slipping away.”

“The pile of guts was a black blob of flies that buzzed like a saw. After a while these flies found Simon. Gorged, they alighted by his runnels of sweat and drank. They tickled under his nostrils and played leapfrog on his thighs. They were black and iridescent green and without number; and in front of Simon, the Lord of the Flies hung on his stick and grinned. At last Simon gave up and looked back; saw the white teeth and dim eyes, the blood—and his gaze was held by that ancient, inescapable recognition.”

“Percival was mouse-coloured and had not been very attractive even to his mother.”

“This toy of voting was almost as pleasing as the conch. Jack started to protest but the clamor changed from the general wish for a chief to an election by acclaim of Ralph himself. None of the boys could have found good reason for this; what intelligence had been shown was traceable to Piggy while the most obvious leader was Jack. But there was a stillness about Ralph as he sat that marked him out: there was his size, and attractive appearance; and most obscurely, yet most powerfully, there was the conch. The being that had blown that, had sat waiting for them on the platform with the delicate thing balanced on his knees, was set apart.”

“I was an estructuralist at the age of seven, which is about the right age for it.”

“Perhaps the various burnings of the Alexandria Library were necessary, like those Australian Forest Fires without which the new seeds cannot burst their shells and make a young, healthy forest.”

“Maybe, he said hesitantly, maybe there is a beast. The assembly cried out savagely and Ralph stood up in amazement. You, Simon? You believe in this? I don't know, said Simon. His heartbeats were choking him. [...]Ralph shouted. Hear him! He's got the conch! What I mean is . . . maybe it's only us. Nuts! That was from Piggy, shocked out of decorum.”