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

> Then I am a religious man, Prendick, as every sane man must be. It may be, I fancy, that I have seen more of the ways of this world's Maker than you — for I have sought his laws, in my way, all my life, while you, I understand, have been collecting butterflies. And I tell you, pleasure and pain have nothing to do with heaven or hell. Pleasure and pain — bah! What is your theologian's ecstasy but Mahomet's houri in the dark? This store which men and women set on pleasure and pain, Prendick, is the mark of the beast upon them, the mark of the beast from which they came! Pain, pain and pleasure, they are for us only so long as we wriggle in the dust.

- 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/then-i-am-a-religious

## 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)