Lord of the Flies Quotes with Page Numbers
by William Golding

The following Lord of the Flies quotes are not explained here, though most of their meanings are fairly evident. Some quotes do have a brief explanation in front of them. If the quote is spoken, the speaker is identified before the quote it. If the quote is simply third person narration no speaker is identified. All of these quotes deal with theme or symbolism. Although many printings of this novel exist, the most prevalent seems to be the Perigee Book paper-back (with the drawing of a boy with leaves in his hair on the cover) published by the Berkley Publishing Group and all page numbers refer to this printing.

Page 15:

Here at last was the imagined but never fully realized place leaping into real life.

Page 21:

For a moment the boys were a closed circuit of sympathy with Piggy on the outside...

Page 29:

Eyes shining, mouths open, triumphant, they savored the right of domination.

Page 31:

They knew very well why he hadn't [killed the piglet]: because of the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood.

Page 37:

About Ralph's feeling of the beast:
He felt himself facing something ungraspable.

Page 38:

Then, with the martyred expression of a parent who has to keep up with the senseless ebullience of the children, he [Piggy] picked up the conch, turned toward the forest, and began to pick his way over the tumbled scar.

Page 42:

Jack: I agree with Ralph. 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. So we've got to do the right things.

Page 51:

About Jack:
He tried to convey the compulsion to track down and kill that was swallowing him up.

Page 53:

Jack: If you're hunting sometimes... you can feel as if you're not hunting, but -- being hunted, as if something's behind you all the time in the jungle.

Page 61:

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

Page 62:

On Roger throwing stones:
...there was a space around 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's arm was conditioned by a civilization that knew nothing of him and was in ruins.

Page 64:

On Jack's 'mask':
...the mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness.

Page 70:

Jack's thoughts of his first kill:
His mind was crowded with memories; memories of the knowledge that had come to them when they closed in on the struggling pig, knowledge that they had outwitted a living thing, imposed their will upon it, taken away its life like a long satisfying drink.

Page 71:

About Jack and Ralph:
There was the brilliant world of hunting, tactics, fierce exhilaration, skill; and there was the world of longing and baffled commonsense.

Page 73:

After the ship passes:
Not even Ralph knew how a link between him and Jack had been snapped and fastened elsewhere.

Page 76:

Ralph's thoughts:
He found himself understanding the wearisomeness of this life, where every path was an improvisation and a considerable part of one's waking life was spent watching one's feet.

Page 78:

Ralph's thoughts:
If faces where different when lit from above or below -- what was a face? What was anything?

Page 81:

Ralph: But I tell you that smoke is more important than the pig, however often you kill one.

Page 82:

Ralph: Things are breaking up. I don't understand why. We began well; we were happy. And then -- ...Then people started getting frightened.

Page 84:

Piggy: I know there isn't no beast -- not with claws and all that, I mean -- but I know there isn't no fear either...Unless--...Unless we get frightened of people.

Page 89:

Simon, On The Beast:
"What I mean is... Maybe it's only us."... Simon became inarticulate in his efforts to express mankind's essential illness.

Page 91:

The world, that understandable and lawful word, was slipping away. Once there was this and that; and now -- and the ship had gone.

Page 93:

Piggy, On Jack
I'm scared of him, 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.

Page 103:

However Simon thought of the beast, there rose before his inward sight the picture of a human at once heroic and sick.

Page 115:

On Ralph's first "dance":
Ralph too was fighting to get near, to get a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh. The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering.

Page 117:

By now, Ralph had no self-consciousness in public thinking but 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.

Page 126:

Jack, On The Beast:
The beast is a hunter... we couldn't kill it.

Page 127:

Jack, Upon leaving the group:
I'm not going to play any longer. Not with you.

Page 137:

Describing the Lord of the Flies:
The half-shut eyes were dim with the infinite cynicism of adult life. They assured Simon that everything was a bad business.

Page 139:

Ralph, On the fire:
We can't keep one fire going. And they don't care. And what's more, I don't sometimes.

Page 142:

The Lord of the Flies: There isn't anyone to help you. Only me. And I'm the Beast... Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!... 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 the way they are?

Page 142:

Simon's knowledge:
The beast was harmless and horrible; and the news must reach the others as soon as possible.

Page 152:

During Simon's death:
Piggy and Ralph, under the threat of the sky, found themselves eager to take a place in this demented but partly secure society. They were glad to touch the brown backs of the fence that hemmed in the terror and made it governable.

Page 163:

Ralph's thoughts:
There was something good about a fire. Something overwhelmingly good.

Page 170:

Ralph's thoughts:
After all we aren't savages really and being rescued isn't a game.

Page 178:

Ralph's actions:
He... gazed at the green and black mask before him, trying to remember what Jack looked like.

Page 202:

...Ralph wept for for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of a true, wise friend called Piggy.

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