At that moment, in the sunset on Watership Down, there was offered to General Woundwort the opportunity to show whether he was really the leader of vision and genius which he believed himself to be, or whether he was no more than a tyrant with the courage and cunning of a pirate. For one beat of his pulse the lame rabbit's idea shone clearly before him. He grasped it and realized what it meant. The next, he had pushed it away from him.

Who knows why men do anything?

They're all so much afraid of the Council that they're not afraid of anything else.

People who record birdsong generally do it very early-before six o'clock-if they can. Soon after that, the invasion of distant noise in most woodland becomes too constant and too loud.

Our children's children will hear a good story.

A thing can be true and still be desperate folly.

Men will never rest till they've spoiled the earth and destroyed the animals.