Top 180 William Golding Quotes (2025 Update)
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151. “The moon was through to the sunset side of the gap, but its light was hardly noticeable on the earth for the ruddy brilliance of the firelight.”

— William Golding

152. “Allow me to tell you, Mr Taylor,” said I, but quietly as the occasion demanded, “that one gentleman does not rejoice at the misfortune of another in public”.”

— William Golding

153. “He was so delighted he stood on his head. And this is one of the ways small boys show they’re delighted, they stand on their head and waggle their feet in the air.”

— William Golding

154. “I had never met the Roman Catholuc Church outside of a history book. To come across it living, so to speak, was like finding a diplodocus.”

— William Golding

155. “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.”

— William Golding

156. “Not them. Didn’t you hear what the pilot said? About the atom bomb? They’re all dead.”

— William Golding

157. “Other people could stand up and speak to an assembly, apparently, without that dreadful feeling of pressure of personality; could say what they would as though they were speaking to only one person.”

— William Golding

158. “Sleep is where we touch what is better left unexamined. There, the whole of life is bundled up, dwindled. There the carefully hoarded and enjoyed personality, our only treasure and at the same time our only defense must die into the ultimate truth of things, the black lightning that splits and destroys all, the positive, unquestionable nothingness.”

— William Golding

159. “This toy of voting was almost as pleasing as the conch.”

— William Golding

160. “We don’t want you,’ said Jack, flatly. ‘Three’s enough.’ Piggy’s glasses flashed. ‘I was with him when he found the conch. I was with him before anyone else was.”

— William Golding

161. “The trouble was, if you were a chief you had to think, you had to be wise. And then the occasion slipped by so that you had to grab at a decision. This made you think; because thought was a valuable thing, that got results...”

— William Golding

162. “Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!” said the head. For a moment or two the forest and all the other dimly appreciated places echoed with the parody of laughter. “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 laughter shivered again. “Come now,” said the Lord of the Flies. “Get back to the others and we’ll forget the whole thing.”

— William Golding

163. “They knew very well why he hadn’t: because of the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood.”

— William Golding

164. “That was the voice of one who knew his own mind.”

— William Golding

165. “Then they stepped back, laughing with triumphant pleasure, so that immediately Ralph had to stand on his head.”

— William Golding

166. “Now to be precise. I had seen the whole building as an image of living, praying man. But inside it was a richly written book to instruct that man.”

— William Golding

167. “The folly isn’t mine. It’s God’s folly. Even in the old days he never asked men to do what was reasonable.”

— William Golding

168. “We have lots of assemblies. Everybody enjoys speaking and being together. We decide things. But they don’t get done.”

— William Golding

169. “Ralph era uno specialista del pensiero, ora, e poteva riconoscere il pensiero in un altro.”

— William Golding

170. “But there seemed something more fitting in leaving the last word till they stood on the top, and could see a circular horizon of water. Ralph turned to the others. ‘This belongs to us.”

— William Golding

171. “Hi!’ it said, ’wait a minute!”

— William Golding

172. “Eyes shining, mouths open, triumph, they savored the right of domination.”

— William Golding

173. “Not fair let me see your anal gland pretty please with a cherry on top!”

— William Golding

174. “You shut up, you fat slug!”

— William Golding

175. “On the other side of the island, swathed at midday with mirage, defended by the shield of the quiet lagoon, one might dream of rescue; but here, faced by the brute obtuseness of the ocean, the miles of division, one was clamped down, one was helpless, one was condemned, one was –.”

— William Golding

176. “They were reminded of their personal sorrows; and perhaps felt themselves to share in a sorrow that was universal.”

— William Golding

177. “The shameful knowledge grew in them and they did not know how to begin confession.”

— William Golding

178. “Let me think in pictures again. If I imagine heaven metaphorically dazzled into colours, the pure white light spread out in a cascade richer than a peacock’s tail then I see that one of the colours lay over me. I was innocent of guilt, unconscious of innocence; happy, therefore, and unconscious of happiness. Perhaps the full sheaf of colours is never to be experienced by the human being since if they experience these colours they must lie in the past or on someone else.”

— William Golding

179. “They would reach the castle some time; and the chief would have to go forward.”

— William Golding

180. “I just think you’ll get back all right.”

— William Golding

181. “This dreadful eruption from an unknown world.”

— William Golding

182. “Something to forgive is a purer joy than geometry.”

— William Golding

183. “You could see the damp spot where each flake died, then you could mark the first flake that lay down without melting and watch the whole ground turn white.”

— William Golding

184. “They are frightened of the air.”

— William Golding

185. “Before something happens in the realm of calmness, we do not feel the calmness; only when something happens within it do we find the calmness.”

— William Golding

186. “Si accorse che cominciava a capire come fosse faticosa quella vita, nella quale ogni sentiero era nuovo, e una parte considerevole del tempo in cui si stava svegli si doveva passarla a guardarsi i piedi.”

— William Golding