I've always said that Watership Down is not a book for children. I say: it's a book, and anyone who wants to read it can read it.

All the world will be your enemy, Prince of a Thousand enemies. And when 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 will never be destroyed.

The Threarah doesn't like anything he hasn't thought of for himself.

Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed.

Rabbits live close to death and when death comes closer than usual, thinking about survival leaves little room for anything else.

If a rabbit gave advice and the advice wasn't accepted, he immediately forgot it, and so did everyone else.

Like the pain of a bad wound, the effect of a deep shock takes some while to be felt. When a child is told, for the first time in his life, that a person he has known is dead, although he does not disbelieve it, he may well fail to comprehend it and later ask--perhaps more than once--where the dead person is and when he is coming back.