William Golding Quotes

He doesn't mind if he dies... indeed, he would like to die; but yet he fears to fall. He would welcome a long sleep; but not at the price of falling to it.

Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me (Spiegel & Grau, 2015)

You'll get back to where you came from.

"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 alright 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 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're standing out of the way he'd hurt the next thing. And that's me."
"Piggy's right, Ralph. There's you and Jack. Go on being chief."

He forgot his wounds, his hunger and thirst, and became fear; hopeless fear

Înțelese deodată plictiseala acestei vieți unde fiecare poteca era o improvizație, iar o buna parte din viata diurna ți-o petreceai urmărindu-ți piciorele

How can you expect to be rescued if you don’t put first things first and act proper?

I have walked by stalls in the market-place where books, dog-eared and faded from their purple, have burst with a white hosanna. I have seen people crowned with a double crown, holding in either hand the crook and flail, the power and the glory. I have understood how the scar be­comes a star, I have felt the flake of fire fall, miraculous and pentecostal. My yesterdays walk with me. They keep step, they are grey faces that peer over my shoulder.

The pile of guts was a black blob of flies that buzzed like a saw. After a while these flies found Simon. Gorged, they alighted by his runnels of sweat and drank. They tickled under his nostrils and played leapfrog on his thighs. 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.

We have a disharmony in our natures. We cannot live together without injuring each other.

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.

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

Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood! Do him in!

I cried out not with hope of an ear but as accepting a shut door, darkness and a shut sky.

I think women are foolish to pretend they're equal to men. They are far superior and always have been.