Treasure Island quotes

“Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest-- Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum! Drink and the devil had done for the rest-- Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!”

— Spoken by a character · I. The Old Sea-dog at the Admiral Benbow

“Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight!” till you wondered that it was not out of breath, or till John threw his handkerchief over the cage.

— Spoken by a character · X. The Voyage

‘Dead men don’t bite,’ says he.

— Israel · XI. What I Heard in the Apple-Barrel

“But what is the black spot, captain?”

— Spoken by a character · III. The Black Spot

We must go on, because we can’t turn back.

— Mr. Smollett · XII. Council of War

“Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest-- Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!”

— Spoken by a character · I. The Old Sea-dog at the Admiral Benbow

That’s a summons, mate.

— Spoken by a character · III. The Black Spot

Seaward, ho! Hang the treasure! It’s the glory of the sea that has turned my head.

“Were you addressing me, sir?” says the doctor; and when the ruffian had told him, with another oath, that this was so, “I have only one thing to say to you, sir,” replies the doctor, “that if you keep on drinking rum, the world will soon be quit of a very dirty scoundrel!”

— Spoken by a character · I. The Old Sea-dog at the Admiral Benbow

Well, many’s the long night I’ve dreamed of cheese--toasted, mostly--and woke up again, and here I were.

— Spoken by a character · XV. The Man of the Island

“If it comes to swinging, swing all, say I.”

— Spoken by a character · II. Black Dog Appears and Disappears

For thirty years,” he said, “I’ve sailed the seas and seen good and bad, better and worse, fair weather and foul, provisions running out, knives going, and what not.

— Spoken by a character · XXVI. Israel Hands

Him as strikes first is my fancy; dead men don’t bite; them’s my views--amen, so be it.

— Spoken by a character · XXVI. Israel Hands

Between Silver and myself we got together in a few days a company of the toughest old salts imaginable--not pretty to look at, but fellows, by their faces, of the most indomitable spirit.

You’re either my ship’s cook--and then you were treated handsome--or Cap’n Silver, a common mutineer and pirate, and then you can go hang!

— Spoken by a character · XX. Silver’s Embassy

This grove that was now so peaceful must then have rung with cries, I thought; and even with the thought I could believe I heard it ringing still.

People were frightened at the time, but on looking back they rather liked it; it was a fine excitement in a quiet country life, and there was even a party of the younger men who pretended to admire him, calling him a “true sea-dog” and a “real old salt” and such like names, and saying there was the sort of man that made England terrible at sea.

That was Flint’s treasure that we had come so far to seek and that had cost already the lives of seventeen men from the HISPANIOLA.