Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, is a survival story.
With the world at war, a plane full of school children is shot down on a tropical island.
The children need everything to survive if they can get along and work together.
The boys elect Ralph as their leader, who sets simple rules and delegates tasks.
Can the boys work together to keep the signal fire burning and hunt food until they’re rescued?
Or will they go to war with each other and fight for power?
Lord of the Flies Quotes With Page Numbers
“Sucks to your ass-mar!”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (Ralph), Chapter 1, Page 13
“Didn’t you hear what the pilot said? About the atom bomb? They’re all dead.”
~William Golding, Lord of The Flies, (Piggy), Chapter 1, Page 14
20 Piggy Lord of the Flies Quotes
“I ought to be chief…because I’m chapter chorister and head boy. I can sing C sharp.”
~William Golding, Lord of The Flies, (Jack), Chapter 1, Page 22
“He snatched his knife out of the sheath and slammed it into a tree trunk. Next time there would be no mercy,”
~William Golding, Lord of The Flies, (The narrator about Jack), Chapter 1, Page 31
25 Important Lord of the Flies Quotes Explained
“This is our island. It’s a good island. Until the grownups come to fetch us we’ll have fun.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (Ralph), Chapter 2, Page 35
“Acting like a crowd of kids!”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (Piggy), Chapter 2, Page 38
“Once more, amid the breeze, the shouting, the slanting sunlight on the high mountain, was shed that glamour, that strange invisible light of friendship, adventure and content.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (The narrator), Chapter 2, Page 39
“His specs – use them as burning glasses! ”
~William Golding, Lord of The Flies, (Jack), Chapter 2, Page 40
“Give me my specs!”
~William Golding, Lord of The Flies, (Piggy), Chapter 2, Page 41
“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.”
William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (Jack), Chapter 2, Page 42
“The sun in the west was a drop of burning gold that slid nearer and nearer the sill of the world. All at once they were aware of the evening as the end of light and warmth.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (The narrator), Chapter 2, Page 43
“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.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (The narrator), Chapter 2, Page 44
“How can you expect to be rescued if you don’t put first things first and act proper?”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (Piggy), Chapter 2, Page 45
“That little ‘un that had a mark on his face—where is he now? I tell you I don’t see him.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (Piggy), Chapter 2, Page 46
Lord of the Flies Characters Symbolism
“I thought I might kill.”
~William Golding, Lord of The Flies, (Jack), Chapter 3, Page 51
“There is nothing in it of course. Just a feeling. But you can feel as if you’re not hunting, but – being hunted, as if something’s behind you all the time in the jungle.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (Simon), Chapter 3, Page 53
“People don’t help much.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (Piggy), Chapter 3, Page 54
“He wanted to explain how people were never quite what you thought they were.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (The narrator about Piggy), Chapter 3, Page 54
“They walked along, two continents of experience and feeling unable to communicate.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (The narrator), Chapter 3, Page 55
“They looked at each other, baffled, in love and hate.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (the narrator), Chapter 3, Page 55
“They accepted the pleasures of morning, the bright sun, the whelming sea and sweet air, as a time when play was good and life so full that hope was not necessary and therefore forgotten.”
~Golding William, Lord of the Flies, (The narrator), Chapter 4, Page 58
“…they grew accustomed to these mysteries and ignored them, just as they ignored the miraculous, the throbbing stars.”
~Golding William, Lord of the Flies, (The narrator), Chapter 4, Page 58
“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.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (The narrator), Chapter 4, Page 61
“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.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (The narrator), Chapter 4, Page 62
“The mask was a thing on it’s own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-conciousness.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (The narrator about Jack), Chapter 4, Page 64
“There had grown up tacitly among the biguns the opinion that Piggy was an outsider, not only by accent, which did not matter, but by fat, and assmar, and specs, and a certain disinclination for manual labor. ”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (The narrator about Piggy), Chapter 4, Page 65
“Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (Jack and his group of hunters), Chapter 4, Page 69
“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.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (The narrator: about Roger), Chapter 4, Page 70
“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.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (The narrator), Chapter 5, Page 76
“He lost himself in a maze of thoughts that were rendered vague by his lack of words to express them. Frowning, he tried again.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (The narrator), Chapter 5, Page 76
“If faces were different when lit from above or below — what was a face? What was anything?”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (The narrator: about Ralph’s thoughts), Chapter 5, Page 78
“Thought was a valuable thing, that got results.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (The narrator), Chapter 5, Page 78
“We’ve got to talk about this fear and decide there’s nothing in it.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (Ralph), Chapter 5, Page 82
“The thing is – fear can’t hurt you any more than a dream.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (Jack), Chapter 5, Page 82
“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.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (Piiggy and Ralph), Chapter 5, Page 84
“Life’s scientific, but we don’t know, do we? Not certainly, I mean.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (Maurice), Chapter 5, Page 88
“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.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (Ralph), Chapter 5, Page 89
“Maybe there is a beast… maybe it’s only us.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (Simon), Chapter 5, Page 89
“The world, that understandable and lawful world, was slipping away.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (The narrator), Chapter 5, Page 91
“What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages?”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (Piggy), Chapter 5, Page 91
“The rules!” shouted Ralph. “You’re breaking the rules!” “Who cares?” Ralph summoned his wits. “Because the rules are the only thing we’ve got!”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (Ralph), Chapter 5, Page 91
“Bollocks to the rules! We’re strong – we hunt! If there’s a beast, we’ll hunt it down! We’ll close in and beat and beat and beat”
~William Golding, Lord of The Flies, (Jack), Chapter 5, Page 91
“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.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (Characters: Ralph and Piggy), Chapter 5, Page 92
“The trouble is: Are there ghosts, Piggy? Or beasts?” “ ’Course there aren’t.” “Why not?” “’Cos things wouldn’t make sense. Houses an’ streets, an’—TV—they wouldn’t work.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (Ralph), Chapter 5, Page 92
“Simon stirred in the dark. “Go on being chief.” “You shut up, young Simon! Why couldn’t you say there wasn’t a beast?” “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. I tell you what. He hates you too, Ralph—” “Me? Why me?” “I dunno. You got him over the fire; an’ you’re chief an’ he isn’t.” “But he’s, he’s, Jack Merridew!” “I been in bed so much I done some thinking. I know about people. I know about me. And him. He can’t hurt you: but if you stand out of the way he’d hurt the next thing. And that’s me.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (Characters: Simon, Piggy, and Ralph), Chapter 5, Page 93
“Grownups know things,” said Piggy. “They ain’t afraid of the dark. They’d meet and have tea and discuss. Then things ’ud be all right—”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (Piggy), Chapter 5, Page 94
“If you could shut your ears to the slow suck down of the sea and boil of the return, if you could forget how dun and unvisited were the ferny coverts on either side, then there was a chance that you might put the beast out of mind and dream for a while.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (The narrator), Chapter 7, Page 109
“Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in!”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (Jack and his group of hunters), Chapter 7, Page 114
“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, Lord of the Flies, (The narrator: about Ralph), Chapter 7, Page 117
“As long as there’s light we’re brave enough”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (Ralph), Chapter 8, Page 125
“Now you done it. You been rude about his hunters.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (Piggy), Chapter 8, Page 125
“The greatest ideas are the simplest. Now there was something to be done they worked with passion”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (Ralph), Chapter 8, Page 129
“They always been making trouble, haven’t they?”
The voice came near his shoulder and sounded anxious.
“We can do without ’em. We’ll be happier now, won’t we?”
~Golding William, Lord of the Flies, (Piggy), Chapter 8, Page 131
“The half-shut eyes were dim with the infinite cynicism of adult life.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (The narrator), Chapter 8, Page 137
“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. In Simon’s right temple, a pulse began to beat on the brain.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (The narrator), Chapter 8, Page 138
“But nobody else understands about the fire. If someone threw you a rope when you were drowning. If a doctor said take this because if you don’t take you’ll die – you would, wouldn’t you?”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (Ralph), Chapter 8, Page 139
“I dunno, Ralph. We just got to go on, that’s all. That’s what grown-ups would do.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (Piggy), Chapter 8, Page 139
“… what makes things break up like they do?”
Piggy rubbed his glasses slowly and thought. When he understood how far Ralph had gone towards accepting him he flushed pinkly with pride.
“I dunno, Ralph. I expect it’s him.”
“Jack?”
“Jack.” A taboo was evolving round that word too.
Ralph nodded solemnly.“Yes,” he said, “I suppose it must be.”
~Golding William, Lord of the Flies, (CharactersL Ralph and Piggy about Jack), ,Chapter 8, Pages 139, 140
“There isn’t anyone to help you. Only me. And I’m the Beast. . .”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (Simon), Chapter 8, Page 143
“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 what they are?”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (The head in Simon’s hallucination), Chapter 8, Page 143
“Come away. There’s going to be trouble. And we’ve had our meat.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (Piggy), Chapter 9, Page 151
“Towards midnight the rain ceased and the clouds drifted away, so that the sky was scattered once more with the incredible lamps of stars. Then the breeze died too and there was no noise save the drip and tickle of water that ran out of clefts and spilled down, leaf by leaf, to the brown earth of the island. The air was cool, moist, and clear; and presently even the sound of the water was still. The beast lay huddled on the pale beach and the stains spread, inch by inch.
The edge of the lagoon became a streak of phosphorescence which advanced minutely, as the great wave of the tide flowed. The clear water mirrored the clear sky and the angular bright constellations. The line of phosphorescence bulged about the sand grains and little pebbles; it held them each in a dimple of tension, then suddenly accepted them with an inaudible syllable and moved on.
Along the shoreward edge of the shallows the advancing clearness was full of strange, moonbeam-bodied creatures with fiery eyes. Here and there a larger pebble clung to its own air and was covered with a coat of pearls. The tide swelled in over the rain-pitted sand and smoothed everything with a layer of silver. Now it touched the first of the stains that seeped from the broken body and the creatures made a moving patch of light as they gathered at the edge. 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. The strange, attendant creatures, with their fiery eyes and trailing vapours busied themselves round his head. The body lifted a fraction of an inch from the sand and a bubble of air escaped from the mouth with a wet plop. Then it turned gently in the water.
Somewhere over the darkened curve of the world the sun and moon were pulling; and the film of water on the earth planet was held, bulging slightly on one side while the solid core turned. The great wave of the tide moved further along the island and the water lifted. Softly, surrounded by a fringe of inquisitive bright creatures, itself a silver shape beneath the steadfast constellations, Simon’s dead body moved out towards the open sea.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (The narrator), Chapter 9, Pages 153, 154
“That’s right. We was on the outside. We never done nothing, we never seen nothing.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (Piggy), Chapter 9, Page 158
“Are we savages or what?”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (Ralph), Chapter 11, Page 170
“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?”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (Piggy), Chapter 11, Page 180
“the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (The narrator), Chapter 11, Page 181
“This was a savage whose image refused to blend with that ancient picture of a boy in shorts and a shirt.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (The narrator), Chapter 12, Page 183
“He knelt among the shadows and felt his isolation bitterly. They were savages it was true; but they were human.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (The narrator), Chapter 12, Pages 185, 186
“If only one had time to think!”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (The narrator), Chapter 12, Page 195
“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.”
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (The narrator: about Ralph), Chapter 12, Page 202
“The officer, surrounded by these noises, was moved and a little embarrassed. He turned away to give them time to pull themselves together; and waited, allowing his eyes to rest on the trim cruiser in the distance. (The Last Line)
~William Golding, Lord of the Flies, (The narrator), Chapter 12, Page 202
Maybe there is a beast… maybe it’s only us. page number.
This quote is on page 89, chapter 5 of Lord of the Flies.
The world that understandable and lawful world was slipping away. page number.
This line is on page 91, chapter 5 of Lord of the Flies.
Fancy thinking the beast was something page number.
This line is on page 143, chapter 8 of Lord of the Flies.