Quotes by Richard Adams

At that moment, in the sunset on Watership Down, there was offered to General Woundwort the opportunity to show whether he was really the leader of vision and genius which he believed himself to be, or whether he was no more than a tyrant with the courage and cunning of a pirate. For one beat of his pulse the lame rabbits idea shone clearly before him. He grasped it and realized what it meant. The next, he had pushed it away from him.

Im sick and tired of it, he said, Its the same all the time. These are my claws, so this is my cowslip. These are my teeth, so this is my burrow. Ill tell you, if I ever get into the Owsla, Ill treat outskirters with a bit of decency.

You know how you let yourself think that everything will be alright if you can only go to certain place or do a certain thing. But when you get there you find its not that simple.

Many human beings say that they enjoy the winter, but what they really enjoy is feeling proof against it.

Here is a boy who was waiting to be punished. But then, unexpectedly,he ¯nds that his fault has been overlooked or forgiven and at once the worldreappears in brilliant colors, full of delightful prospects. Here is a soldier whowas waiting, with a heavy heart, to su®er and die in battle. But suddenlythe luck has changed. There is news! The war is over and everyone burstsout singing! He will go home after all! The sparrows in the plowland werecrouching in terror of the kestrel. But she has gone; and they °y pell-mell upthe hedgerow, frisking, chattering and perching where they will.

Animals dont behave like men, he said. If they have to fight, they fight; and if they have to kill they kill. But they dont sit down and set their wits to work to devise ways of spoiling other creatures lives and hurting them. They have dignity and animality.

Bluebell had been saying that he knew the men hated us for raiding their crops and gardens, and Toadflax answered, That wasnt why they destroyed the warren. It was just because we were in their way. They killed us to suit themselves.

Rabbits (says Mr. Lockley) are like human beings in many ways. One of these is certainly their staunch ability to withstand disaster and to let the stream of their life carry them along, past reaches of terror and loss. They have a certain quality which it would not be accurate to describe as callousness or indifference. It is, rather, a blessedly circumscribed imagination and an intuitive feeling that Life is Now. A foraging wild creature, intent above all upon survival, is as strong as the grass.

[One} who does not know when a gift has made him safe is poorer than a slug, even though he may think otherwise himself.

Youre trying to eat grass that isnt there. Why dont you give it a chance to grow?

No, no- the sky will grow dark, cold rain will fall and all trace of the right way will be blotted out. You will be all alone. And still you will have to go on. There will be ghosts in the dark and voices in the air, disgusting prophecies coming true I wouldn’t wonder and absent faces present on every side, as the man said. And still you will have to go on. The last bridge will fall behind you and the last lights will go out, followed by the sun, the moon and the stars; and still you will have to go on. You will come to regions more desolate and wretched than you ever dreamed could exist, places of sorrow created entirely by that mean superstition which you yourself have put about for so long. But still you will have to go on

A foraging wild creature, intent above all upon survival, is as strong as the grass.

Stubbs may have envisaged the skeleton inside the horse, but most of us do not

I dislike this whole business of experimentation on animals, unless theres some very good and altogether exceptional reason to this very case. The thing that gets me is that its not possible for the animals to understand why they are being called upon to suffer. They dont suffer for their own good or benefit at all, and I often wonder how far its for anyones. Theyre given no choice, and there is no central authority responsible for deciding whether whats done is morally justifiable. These experiment animals are just sentient objects; theyre useful because they are able to react; sometimes precisely because theyre able to feel fear and pain. And theyre used as if they were electric light bulbs or boots. What it comes to is that whereas there used to be human and animal slaves, now there are just animal slaves. They have no legal rights or choices in the matter.

How do they find out with the experiments?...one way they can find out a whole lot is to make an animal ill and then try different ways to make it better until they find one that works.But isnt that unkind to the animal?Well, I suppose it is...but I mean, there isnt a dad anywhere who would hesitate, is there, if he knew it was going to make [his child] better? Its changed the whole world during the last hundred years, and thats no exaggeration.

I dont like straight lines: men make them.

Bigwig: I cant think why he didnt convince Threarah.Hazel: Because Threarah doesnt like anything he hasnt thought of for himself.

When the man was disgraced and told to go away, he was allowed to ask all the animals whether any of them would come with him and share his fortunes and his life. There were only two who agreed to come entirely of their own accord, and they were the dog and the cat. And ever since then, those two have been jealous of each other, and each is for ever trying to make man choose which one he likes best. Every man prefers one or the other.

When several creatures, men or animals, have worked together to overcome something offering resistance and have at last succeeded, there follows often a pause, as though they felt the propriety of paying respect to the adversary who has put up so good a fight. The great tree falls, splitting, cracking, rushing down in leaves to the final, shuddering blow along the ground. Then the foresters are silent, and do not at once sit down. After hours, the deep snowdrift has been cleared and the lorry is ready to take the men home out of the cold. But they stand a while, leaning on their spades and only nodding unsmilingly as the car-drivers go through, waving their thanks.

Once the moon gets to be full somebody - some man or other - goes up every day and slices bits of one side until there isnt any more,and then after a bit a new one grows. Men do that with all sorts of things, actually - rose bushes for instance.... The man who slices the bits off brings them down here and then theyre used for making those lights on the cars. Clever isnt it... They only last about one night, I should think, because you hardly ever see them shining by day.