175 Quotes by Richard Adams

This was their way of honoring the dead. The story over, the demands of their own hard, rough lives began to re-assert themselves in their hearts, in their nerves, their blood and appetites. Would that the dead were not dead! But there is grass that must be eaten, pellets that must be chewed, hraka that must be passed, holes that must be dug, sleep that must be slept. Odysseus brings not one man to shore with him. Yet he sleeps sound beside Calypso and when he wakes thinks only of Penelope.

Bargains, bargains, El-ahrairah," he said. "There is not a day or night but a doe offers her life for her kittens, or some honest captain of Owsla his life for his Chief Rabbit's. Sometimes it is taken, sometimes it is not. But there is no bargain, for here what is is what must be.

If we ever meet again Hazel-rah", said Dandelion, as he took cover in the grass verge, "we ought to have the makings of the best story ever.

They're all so much afraid of the Council that they're not afraid of anything else.

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

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 isn't that unkind to the animal?''Well, I suppose it is...but I mean, there isn't a dad anywhere who would hesitate, is there, if he knew it was going to make [his child] better? It's changed the whole world during the last hundred years, and that's no exaggeration.

How comforting to be a slug, among the dandelions so snug-""And feel the blackbird's sudden tug.

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

He fought because he actually felt safer fighting than running.