Lord Of The Flies Quotes

Quotes from Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies is a book by the English author William Golding, published in 1954. Below you can find some of the best quotes from Lord of the Flies, organised by chapter, along with analyses of selected quotations.

Jump to quotes from:

Chapter 1 Quotes From Lord of the Flies

Quote: "The creature was a party of boys, marching approximately in step in two parallel lines and dressed in strangely eccentric clothing."
Analysis: The group of boys, who were marching in an orderly way, looked like a creature when viewed from a distance.

Quote: "Sucks to your ass-mar!" - Ralph

Chapter 2 Quotes From Lord of the Flies

Quote: "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." - Jack
Analysis: Early on in Lord of the Flies, Jack still felt conditioned by his previous English society to want morals, law and order, and to reject savagery.

Chapter 3 Quotes From Lord of the Flies

Quote: "They looked at each other, baffled, in love and hate."

Chapter 4 Quotes From Lord of the Flies

Quote: "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's arm was conditioned by a civilization that knew nothing of him and was in ruins."
Analysis: Even though he was now beyond the control of his old society, Roger was still used to the old rules he had been brought up with of not hurting others or else there would be consequences. This would change as Roger realized there was no real authority and no punishments on the island and thus became more and more emboldened.

Chapter 5 Quotes From Lord of the Flies

Quote: "The thing is - fear can't hurt you any more than a dream." - Jack
Analysis: Fear is only an emotion and so can't do anything on its own. However it's the things that fear can cause a person to do that makes it dangerous.

Quote: "If faces were different when lit from above or below - what was a face? What was anything?"

Quote: "The world, that understandable and lawful world, was slipping away"
Analysis: The boys were beginning to forget the ways of their old society and were becoming undisciplined and self-indulgent.

Quote: "What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages?" - Piggy

Quote: "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."

Chapter 6 Quotes From Lord of the Flies

Quote: "Even the sounds of nightmare from the other shelters no longer reached him, for he was back to where he came from, feeding the ponies with sugar over the garden wall."

Chapter 7 Quotes From Lord of the Flies

Quote: "Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in!" - The boys

Quote: "The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering."

Chapter 8 Quotes From Lord of the Flies

Quote: "The greatest ideas are the simplest"

Quote: "Now there was something to be done they worked with passion."
Analysis: Having a purpose is a great motivator for people.

Quote: "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?" - The Lord of the Flies
Analysis: Evil (the Beast) is not something physical or external that can be destroyed. Evil existed within the boys and was the reason why they were slowly descending into savagery.

Chapter 9 Quotes From Lord of the Flies

Quote: "Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!" - The boys

Chapter 10 Quotes From Lord of the Flies

Quote: "I'm frightened. Of us." - Ralph
Analysis: Ralph was beginning to see the evil that came from within themselves and was frightened of it and what it could lead to.

Chapter 11 Quotes From Lord of the Flies

Quote: "Roger advanced upon them as one wielding a nameless authority"
Analysis: Roger's feeling of authority came from the fact that his barbaric group of hunters were now the dominant group on the island, and so he had sanction to do whatever he wanted without fear of punishment.

Quote: "The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist."
Analysis: Roger pushed a rock onto Piggy which ended up killing him and destroying the conch (both symbols of order and lawfulness), signifying the descent of the boys from civilized to savage.

Quote: "Which is better - to have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill?" - Piggy
Analysis: Piggy made an argument for the rule of law and democracy, but in the end the boys' society rejected this, instead choosing bloodlust and savagery.

Chapter 12 Quotes From Lord of the Flies

Quote: "I should have thought that a pack of British boys - you're all British, aren't you? - would have been able to put up a better show than that" - The officer
Analysis: The officer, being patriotic, believed that boys from a society as civilized as Britain should have been able to recreate a civilized community on the island.

Quote: "Jolly good show. Like the Coral Island." - The officer
Analysis: Here the officer is sarcastically comparing the nightmarish society that the boys ended up with to the book "The Coral Island" in which, conversely, a group of boys worked together and got on well.

Quote: "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"
Analysis: After seeing the evil that people were capable of and the dark side of human nature, Ralph's innocence was lost. He wept for these things and of course for the loss of Piggy.

Back to Top