William Golding quotes - page 3

However Simon thought of the beast, there rose before his inward sight the picture of a human at once heroic and sick. (William Golding)
Jack was on top of the sow, stabbing downward with his knife. Roger found a lodgment for his point and began to push till he was leaning his whole weight. The spear moved forward inch by inch and the terrified squealing became a high-pitched scream. Then Jack found the throat and the hot blood spouted over his hands. The sow collapsed under them and they were heavy and fulfilled upon her. The butterflies still danced, preoccupied in the center of the clearing. View quote
William Golding
"You want a pig," said Roger, "like in a real hunt." "Or someone to pretend," said Jack. "You could get someone to dress up as a pig and then he could act - you know, pretend to knock me over and all that -" "You want a real pig," said Robert, still caressing his rump, "because you've got to kill him." "Use a littlun," said Jack, and everybody laughed. View quote
William Golding
Ralph waved the conch. "Shut up! Wait! Listen!" He went on in the silence, borne on in his triumph. "There's another thing. We can help them to find us. If a ship comes near the island they may not notice us. So we must make smoke on top of the mountain. We must make a fire." "A fire! Make a fire!" At once half the boys were on their feet. Jack clamored among them, the conch forgotten. "Come on! Follow me!" The space under the palm trees was full of noise and movement. Ralph was on his feet too, shouting for quiet, but no one heard him. All at once the crowd swayed toward the island and was gone- following Jack. Even the tiny children went and did their best among the leaves and broken branches. Ralph was left, holding the conch, with no one but Piggy. View quote
William Golding
Jack stood up as he said this, the bloodied knife in his hand. The two boys faced each other. There was the brilliant world of hunting, tactics, fierce exhilaration, skill; and there was the world of longing and baffled common-sense. View quote
William Golding
The Herr Doctor does not know about peoples. View quote
William Golding
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" when what it really means is full of a truth that cannot be told in any other way but a story. View quote
William Golding
There was no Piggy to talk sense. There was no solemn assembly for debate nor dignity of the conch. View quote
William Golding
We have a disharmony in our natures. We cannot live together without injuring each other. View quote
William Golding
Art is partly communication, but only partly. The rest is discovery. View quote
William Golding
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. (William Golding)
The mask was a thing on it's own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-conciousness. View quote
William Golding
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. View quote
William Golding
People don't help much. View quote
William Golding
The skull regarded Ralph like one who knows all the answers but won't tell. View quote
William Golding
The water rose further and dressed Simon's coarse hair with brightness. The line of his cheek silvered and the turn of his shoulder became sculptured marble... View quote
William Golding
The pig's head hung down with gaping neck and seemed to search for something on the ground. At last the words of the chant floated up to them, across the bowl of blackened wood and ashes. "Kill the pig! Cut her throat! Spill the blood!" View quote
William Golding
Maybe," he said hesitantly, "maybe there is a beast." [...] "What I mean is, maybe it's only us. View quote
William Golding
We declare our own triviality on a small speck of dirt circling a small star at the rim of one countless galaxies and ignore the heroic insolence of the declaration. We have diminished the world of God and man in a universe ablaze with all the glories that contradict that diminution. Of man and God. View quote
William Golding
Through our mother we are part of the solar system and part through that of the whole universe. In the blazing poetry of the fact we are children of the stars. View quote
William Golding
I believed then, that man was sick - not exceptional man, but average man. I believed that the condition of man was to be a morally diseased creation and that the best job I could do at the time was to trace the connection between his diseased nature and the international mess he gets himself into. To many of you, this will seem trite, obvious, and familiar in theological terms. Man is a fallen being. He is gripped by original sin. His nature is sinful and his state is perilous. (William Golding)
Fortunately some spirit or other - I do not presume to put a name to it - ensured that I should remember my smallness in the scheme of things. View quote
William Golding
I have had to rely on memories of moments, bet on what once seemed a certainty but may now be an outsider, remember in faith what I cannot recreate. View quote
William Golding
The theme is an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature. The moral is that the shape of a society must depend on the ethical nature of the individual and not on any political system however apparently logical or respectable. View quote
William Golding
Words may, through the devotion, the skill, the passion, and the luck of writers prove to be the most powerful thing in the world. They may move men to speak to each other because some of those words somewhere express not just what the writer is thinking but what a huge segment of the world is thinking. View quote
William Golding