“I am astonished at the ease with which uninformed persons come to a settled, a passionate opinion when they have no grounds for judgment.”

“Yet I was wound up. I tick. I exist. I am poised eighteen inches over the black rivets you are reading, I am in your place, I am shut in a bone box and trying to fasten myself on the white paper. The rivets join us together and yet for all the passion we share nothing but our sense of division.”

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

“I am here; and here is nowhere in particular.”

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

“Which is better -- to be a pack of painted Indians like you are, or to be sensible like Ralph is?Which is better -- to have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill?Which is better, law and rescue, or hunting and breaking things up?”

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