# Quote — H.G. Wells, The Island of Doctor Moreau

> Pain is simply our intrinsic medical adviser to warn us and stimulate us. Not all living flesh is painful; nor is all nerve, not even all sensory nerve. There’s no taint of pain, real pain, in the sensations of the optic nerve. If you wound the optic nerve, you merely see flashes of light, — just as disease of the auditory nerve merely means a humming in our ears. Plants do not feel pain, nor the lower animals; it’s possible that such animals as the starfish and crayfish do not feel pain at all. Then with men, the more intelligent they become, the more intelligently they will see after their own welfare, and the less they will need the goad to keep them out of danger. 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.

- Author: [H.G. Wells](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hg-wells.md)
- Book: [The Island of Doctor Moreau](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hg-wells/the-island-of-doctor-moreau.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/H._G._Wells#The_Island_of_Doctor_Moreau_(1896)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/hg-wells/the-island-of-doctor-moreau/pain-is-simply

## More from this book

> "This silly ass of a world," he said; "what a muddle it all is! I haven't had any life. I wonder when it's going to begin. Sixteen years being bullied by nurses and schoolmasters at their own sweet will; five in London grinding hard at medicine, bad food, shabby lodgings, shabby clothes, shabby vice, a blunder — I didn't know any better — and hustled off to this beastly island. Ten years here! What's it all for, Prendick? Are we bubbles blown by a baby?"

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hg-wells/the-island-of-doctor-moreau/this-silly-ass.md)

> 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 blind Fate, a vast pitiless Mechanism, seemed to cut and shape the fabric of existence; and I, Moreau (by his passion for research), Montgomery (by his passion for drink), the Beast People with their instincts and mental restrictions, were torn and crushed, ruthlessly, inevitably, amid the infinite complexity of its incessant wheels.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hg-wells/the-island-of-doctor-moreau/i-fell-indeed.md)

> An animal may be ferocious and cunning enough, but it takes a real man to tell a lie.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hg-wells/the-island-of-doctor-moreau/an-animal-may.md)