"The War of the Worlds" Quotes

No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.

And this, I believe, was what really happened. It is still a matter of wonder how the Martians are able to slay men so swiftly and so silently.

The chances of anything manlike on Mars are a million to one, he said.

The Tasmanians, in spite of their human likeness, were entirely swept out of existence in a war of extermination waged by European immigrants, in the space of fifty years. Are we such apostles of mercy as to complain if the Martians warred in the same spirit?

The intellectual side of man already admits that life is an incessant struggle for existence, and it would seem that this too is the belief of the minds upon Mars.

It is a curious thing that I felt angry with my wife; I cannot account for it, but my impotent desire to reach Leatherhead worried me excessively.

The terrier was lying on the ground, dead, with a smashed skull.

It is a curious thing, by the bye, for which I am quite unable to account, that these weird creatures - the females, I mean, of Mars - are so ferociously tenacious of their offspring.

The faint sound of a bell came in at that moment as though it were carried in on a light wind.

The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one, he said.