The Island of Dr. Moreau quotes

View Quote [opening lines] Our plane crashed in the endless southern pacific, and we drifted for days between life and death. On the sixth or seventh day the two men who had survived with me began to fight over the last canteen of water. They fought like beasts, not men. I fought for my life, just as savagely as they did.

View Quote [closing lines] This is a true record of what I saw. I set it down only leaving out the longitude and latitude of the island, as a warning to all who would follow in Moreau's footsteps. Most times, I keep the memory far in the back of my mind, a distant cloud. 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. As unstable as anything Moreau created. And I go... in fear.

View Quote I have seen the devil in my microscope, and I have chained him.

View Quote I have almost achieved perfection, you see, of a divine creature that is pure, harmonious, absolutely incapable of any malice. And if in my tinkering I have fallen short of the human form by the snout, claw or hoof, it really is of no great importance. I am closer that you could possibly imagine, sir.

View Quote [On Dr. Moreau] Animal rights activists drove him out of the States. Got so bad you couldn't cage a rat without reading him his rights.

View Quote [When Edward attempts to use a radio for help] Who do you think you're going to call, hmm? What are you going to say when you get someone on the horn? "Mayday, mayday, I'm being held by a pig lady"?

View Quote It is a hard way, the way of being a man. Sooner or later we all want a thing that is bad. To walk on all fours. To suck up drink from a stream. To jabber, instead of saying the words. To go snuffling at the earth, and to claw on the bark of trees. To eat flesh, or fish. To make love to more than one, every which way. These are all bad things. These are not the things that men do. But we are men, are we not? We are men because the Father has made us men!

View Quote To go on two legs is very hard. Perhaps four is better, anyway.

View Quote Edward Douglas: Are you a doctor?
Montgomery: Well, I'm more of a vet.