“Life's scientific, but we don't know, do we? Not certainly, I mean.”

“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.”

“We think we know.""Know? That's worse than an atom bomb, and always was.”

“I don't like the word 'allegorical', I don't like the word 'symbolic' - the word I really like is 'mythic', and people always think that means 'full of lies', whereas of course what it really means is 'full of truth which cannot be told in any other way but a story'.”

“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.”

“We did everything adults would do. What went wrong?”

“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.”