Quotes from The Island of Dr. Moreau

“I hope, or I could not live.”
― H.G. Wells, quote from The Island of Dr. Moreau

“I must confess that I lost faith in the sanity of the world”
― H.G. Wells, quote from The Island of Dr. Moreau

“An animal may be ferocious and cunning enough, but it takes a real man to tell a lie.”
― H.G. Wells, quote from The Island of Dr. Moreau

“My days I devote to reading and experiments in chemistry, and I spend many of the clear nights in the study of astronomy. There is, though I do not know how there is or why there is, a sense of infinite peace and protection in the glittering hosts of heaven. There it must be, I think, in the vast and eternal laws of matter, and not in the daily cares and sins and troubles of men, that whatever is more than animal within us must find its solace and its hope.”
― H.G. Wells, quote from The Island of Dr. Moreau

“It is when suffering finds a voice and
sets our nerves quivering that this pity comes troubling us.”
― H.G. Wells, quote from The Island of Dr. Moreau

“There is, though I do not know how there is or why there is, a sense of infinite peace and protection in the glittering hosts of heaven.”
― H.G. Wells, quote from The Island of Dr. Moreau

“But there are times when the little cloud spreads, until it obscures the sky. And those times I look around at my fellow men and I am reminded of some likeness of the beast-people, and I feel as though the animal is surging up in them. And I know they are neither wholly animal nor holy man, but an unstable combination of both.”
― H.G. Wells, quote from The Island of Dr. Moreau

“The crying sounded even louder out of doors. It was as if all the pain
in the world had found a voice”
― H.G. Wells, quote from The Island of Dr. Moreau

“By this time I was no
longer very much terrified or very miserable. I had, as it were, passed the
limit of terror and despair. I felt now that my life was practically lost,
and that persuasion made me capable of daring anything”
― H.G. Wells, quote from The Island of Dr. Moreau

“The crying sounded even louder out of doors. It was as if all the pain in the world had found a voice. Yet had I known such pain was in the next room, and had it been dumb, I believe—I have thought since—I could have stood it well enough. It is when suffering finds a voice and sets our nerves quivering that this pity comes troubling us. But in spite of the brilliant sunlight and the green fans of the trees waving in the soothing sea-breeze, the world was a confusion, blurred with drifting black and red phantasms, until I was out of earshot of the house in the stone wall.”
― H.G. Wells, quote from The Island of Dr. Moreau

“I never yet heard of a useless thing that was not ground out of
existence by evolution sooner or later. Did you? And pain gets needless.”
― H.G. Wells, quote from The Island of Dr. Moreau

“Not to go on all-Fours; that is the Law. Are we not Men?”
― H.G. Wells, quote from The Island of Dr. Moreau

“The ocean rose up around me, hiding that low, dark patch from my eyes. The daylight, the trailing glory of the sun, went streaming out of the sky, was drawn aside like some luminous curtain, and at last I looked into the blue gulf of immensity which the sunshine hides, and saw the floating hosts of stars. The sea was silent, the sky was silent. I was alone with the night and silence.”
― H.G. Wells, quote from The Island of Dr. Moreau

“For it is just this question of pain that parts
us. So long as visible or audible pain turns you sick; so long as your own
pains drive you; so long as pain underlies your propositions about
sin,—so long, I tell you, you are an animal, thinking a little less obscurely
what an animal feels.”
― H.G. Wells, quote from The Island of Dr. Moreau

“There it must be, I think, in the vast and eternal laws of matter, and
not in the daily cares and sins and troubles of men, that whatever is
more than animal within us must find its solace and its hope. I hope, or I
could not live.”
― H.G. Wells, quote from The Island of Dr. Moreau

“You cannot imagine the strange colour-less delight of these intellectual desires.”
― H.G. Wells, quote from The Island of Dr. Moreau

“I suppose everything in existence takes its colour from the average hue of our surroundings.”
― H.G. Wells, quote from The Island of Dr. Moreau

“There is still something in everything I do that defeats me, makes me dissatisfied, challenges me to further effort. Sometimes I rise above my level, sometimes I fall below it, but always I fall short of the things I dream.”
― H.G. Wells, quote from The Island of Dr. Moreau

“one of those pertinacious tempers that would warm every day to a white heat and never again cool to forgiveness.”
― H.G. Wells, quote from The Island of Dr. Moreau

“This is a mood, however, that comes to me now, I thank God, more rarely. I have withdrawn myself from the confusion of cities and multitudes, and spend my days surrounded by wise books,—bright windows in this life of ours, lit by the shining souls of men.”
― H.G. Wells, quote from The Island of Dr. Moreau

“The crying sounded even louder out of doors. It was as if all the pain in the world had found a voice. Yet had I known such pain was in the next room, and had it been dumb, I believe — I have thought since — I could have stood it well enough. It is when suffering finds a voice and sets our nerves quivering that this pity comes troubling us. But”
― H.G. Wells, quote from The Island of Dr. Moreau

“But, as I say, I was too
full of excitement and (a true saying, though those who have never
known danger may doubt it) too desperate to die.”
― H.G. Wells, quote from The Island of Dr. Moreau

“Hunger and a lack of blood-corpuscles take all the manhood from a man.”
― H.G. Wells, quote from The Island of Dr. Moreau

“Before, they had been beasts, their instincts fitly adapted to their surroundings, and happy as living things may be. Now they stumbled in the shackles of humanity, lived in a fear that never died, fretted by a law they could not understand; their mock-human existence, begun in an agony, was one long internal struggle, one long dread of Moreau —”
― H.G. Wells, quote from The Island of Dr. Moreau

“It was not the first time that conscience has turned against the methods of research.”
― H.G. Wells, quote from The Island of Dr. Moreau

“They are mad; they are fools," said the Dog-man.”
― H.G. Wells, quote from The Island of Dr. Moreau

“That these man-like creatures were in truth only bestial monsters, mere grotesque travesties of men, filled me with a vague uncertainty of their possibilities which was far worse than any definite fear.”
― H.G. Wells, quote from The Island of Dr. Moreau

“I fell indeed into a morbid state, deep and enduring, and alien to fear, which has left permanent scars upon my mind. I must confess that I lost faith in the sanity of the world when I saw it suffering the painful disorder of this island. A”
― H.G. Wells, quote from The Island of Dr. Moreau

“Had Moreau had any intelligible object, I could have sympathized at least a little with him. I am not so squeamish about pain as that. I could have forgiven him a little even, had his motive been only hate. But he was so irresponsible, so utterly careless! His curiosity, his mad, aimless investigations, drove him on; and the Things were thrown out to live a year or so, to struggle and blunder and suffer, and at last to die painfully.”
― H.G. Wells, quote from The Island of Dr. Moreau

“And the great difference between man and monkey is in the larynx, he said, in the incapacity to frame delicately different sounding symbols by which thought could be sustained”
― H.G. Wells, quote from The Island of Dr. Moreau

About the author

Popular quotes

“One of Renee's friends asked her, "Does your boyfriend wear glasses?" She said, "No, he wears a Walkman.”
― Rob Sheffield, quote from Love Is a Mix Tape

“In traveling, there is nothing like dissecting people's statements, which are usually colored by their estimate of the powers or likings of the person spoken to, making all reasonable inquiries, and then pertinaciously but quietly carrying out one's own plans.”
― Isabella L. Bird, quote from Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains

“Reality depends upon your mind alone.[34]”
― Kamo no Chōmei, quote from Hojoki: Ten Foot Square House

“Is that dog shit on the bottom of your shoe?’
I sat up a fraction. ‘What?’
‘Is that dog shit on the bottom of your shoe?’
‘I don’t know, the lab report’s not back yet,’ I replied drily.
‘I’m serious, is that dog shit?’
‘How should I know?’
Katz leaned far enough forward to give it a good look and a cautious sniff. ‘It is dog shit,’ he announced with an odd tone of satisfaction.
‘Well, keep quiet about it or everybody’ll want some.’
‘Go and clean it off, will ya? It’s making me nauseous.’
And here the bickering started, in intense little whispers.
‘You go and clean it off.’
‘It’s your shoes.’
‘Well, I kind of like it. Besides, it kills the smell of this guy next to me.’
‘Well, it’s making me nauseous.’
‘Well, I don’t give a shit.’
‘Well, I think you’re a fuck-head.’
‘Oh, you do, do you?’
‘Yes, as a matter of fact. You’ve been a fuck-head since Austria.’
‘Well, you’ve been a fuck-head since birth.’
‘Me?’ A wounded look. ‘That’s rich. You were a fuck-head in the womb, Bryson. You’ve got three kinds of chromosomes: X, Y and fuck-head.”
― Bill Bryson, quote from Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe

“How often did he feel it now, this gorgeous, furtive seclusion? In the bath sometimes, maybe. Though Jean failed to understand his need for periodic isolation and regularly dragged him back to earth mid-soak by hammering on the locked door in search of bleach or dental floss.”
― Mark Haddon, quote from A Spot of Bother

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.