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A crowd of grade-three thinkers, all shouting the same thing, all warming their hands at the fire of their own prejudices, will not thank you for pointing out the contradictions in their beliefs. Man is a gregarious animal, and enjoys agreement as cows will graze all the same way on the side of a hill.

William Golding

Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in!
WILLIAM GOLDING

Bash Cut Him Kill Pig Throat
Beethoven for listening; Liszt, Chopin, and Beethoven for playing as well as Bach and Prokofiev and so on. If I kept going, this list would spiral. It’s as wide as literature; in fact, it is probably wider.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Beethoven Country Listen People Person Play Well
Honestly, I haven’t the time to read contemporary writers. I know this is awful, but in the main it is true.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Awful Contemporary Honestly Main Raed Time True Write
Graham Greene at 82 years old was still writing, and I don’t think anyone can deny the force, the expertise, and the unique quality of his writing, if you take his complete oeuvre.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Anyone Country Deny Eighty Force People Think Two Write Year
But forgiveness must not only be given but received also.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Forgiveness Given Must Receive
Childhood is a disease – a sickness that you grow out of.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Children Disease Grow Out Sickness
We’re not savages. We’re English.
WILLIAM GOLDING

English Language Savage
I hope my books make statements about our general condition.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Book Condition General Hope Make Statement
We did everything adults would do. What went wrong?
WILLIAM GOLDING

Adult Everything Went Wrong
Heaven lies around us in our infancy.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Around Heaven Infancy Lie Our
Simon became inarticulate in his effort to express mankind’s essential illness.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Become Effort Essential Express Illness Inarticulate Mankind People
A crowd of grade-three thinkers, all shouting the same thing, all warming their hands at the fire of their own prejudices, will not thank you for pointing out the contradictions in their beliefs. Man is a gregarious animal, and enjoys agreement as cows will graze all the same way on the side of a hill.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Crow Grade Hand Prejudice Same Shout Thing Thinker Warning
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

Close Come Crowd Knowledge Memories Min Pig Struggling Them
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

Absorb Become Beyond Control Describe Excercise Felt Happiness Himself Living Thing
They walked along, two continents of experience and feeling unable to communicate.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Along Communicate Continent Experience Feel Unable Walk
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

Better Country Like Pach Paint People Sensible
Percival was mouse-coloured and had not been very attractive even to his mother.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Attractive Beem Cloured Even Mother Mouse Percival Very
There’s a kinship among men who have sat by a dying fire and measured the worth of their life by it.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Among Dry Kinship Life Measure Men Sat Worth
What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages?
WILLIAM GOLDING

Animal Human Savage
How can you expect to be rescued if you don’t put first things first and act proper?
WILLIAM GOLDING

Act Expect First Proper Rescue Thing
Sleep is when all the unsorted stuff comes flying out as from a dustbin upset in a high wind.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Come Dustbin Fly High Sleep Stuff Unsort Upet Wind
There is, they say, no fool like an old fool.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Fool Like Old Say
The trouble was, if you were a chief you had to think, you had to be wise.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Chief Think Trouble Wise
You have the older generation like Iris Murdoch and Angus Wilson who are not as old as Graham Greene, but still are coming on. I dare say anyone who knew the scene better than I know it could fill it in with a very satisfactory supply of novels.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Come Country Generation Holder Like One People Still
The skull regarded Ralph like one who knows all the answers and won’t tell.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Answer Country Know Like People Regard Skull Tell
In India the odd thing is that English is this almost artificial language floating on the surface of a place with about fifty other languages. The same is true of Nigeria but even more so.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Almost Artificial Country English Fifty Float Language Odd Other Place Surface Thing
The beast was harmless and horrible; and the news must reach the others as soon as possible.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Beast Harmless Horrible Must News Other Possible Reach Soon

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