Watership Down

by Richard Adams

But I didn’t have the words for all that. So I said, “It’s about rabbits.”

‘El-ahrairah, your people cannot rule the world, for I will not have it so. All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed.’

To come to the end of a time of anxiety and fear! To feel the cloud that hung over us lift and disperse—the cloud that dulled the heart and made happiness no more than a memory! This at least is one joy that must have been known by almost every living creature.

Who wants to hear about brave deeds when he’s ashamed of his own, and who likes an open, honest tale from someone he’s deceiving?

“I’m still alive, Fiver,” he said. “So are all of us. You’ve bitten through a bigger peg than this one I’m dragging. Tell us what to do.”

Love the animals. God has given them the rudiments of thought and joy untroubled. Don’t trouble it, don’t harass them, don’t deprive them of their happiness, don’t work against God’s intent. Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

The cat had stopped short and was licking one paw with a pretense of nonchalance. “They hate to look silly,” said Hazel.

There is nothing that cuts you down to size like coming to some strange and marvelous place where no one even stops to notice that you stare about you.