Elephant Quotes

“The rider evolved to serve to the elephant.”
― Jonathan Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom

“Right now I've got just two rules to live by.

Rule one: don't taunt elephants.
Rule two: don't stand next to anybody who taunts elephants.

-Sergeant Schlock”
― Howard Tayler, The Tub of Happiness

“I'm an elephant today. I will need to have lots of room and also a bowl of water on the floor.”
― Jesse Ball, The Curfew

“Brahma and Airavata

Long ago in lands of golden sand
Brahma turned to Saraswati
and gently kissed her inked hand....”
― Muse, Enigmatic Evolution

“A novelist is an elephant, but an elephant who must pretend to forget.”
― Mary McCarthy

“That's odd. It looks almost as if Nick is picking a fight with that elephant."

"Well, the elephant started it."

"That's irrelevant. Fighting with civilians is against the rules. Go break it up."

-Admiral Breya Andreyasn & Sergeant Schlock”
― Howard Tayler, The Tub of Happiness

“They can't expect anyone to actually pay for a shirt that says, 'I (picture of an elephant) the San Diego Zoo.' What does that even mean?”
― Adam Rex, Fat Vampire: A Never Coming of Age Story

“The very desire to preserve animals was a subjective sentiment of fail in the animal's intrinsic worth. It was a feeling possessed by most of the scientists there, who regarded the wildebeeste migration with the same awe that others feel for the Mona Lisa, but they would not admit this sentiment into their arguments because it could not be backed up by facts; the right and worng of aesthetics being imponderables not open to scientific analysis. At the end of the meeting there was a consensus of opinion on only one fact, that there was an urgent need for research before taking any hasty action.”
― Ian Douglas-Hamilton, Among the Elephants

“The moment I see her, there’s a rumbling in my chest, and my mouth is as dry as a desert.”
― Haruki Murakami, The Elephant Vanishes

“Wonderful is the wit and subtiltie that dumb creatures have & how they shift for themselves and annoy their enemies: which is the only difficultie that they have to arise and grow to so great an height and excessive bignesse. The dragon therefore espying the Elephant when he goeth to releese, assaileth him from an high tree and launceth himselfe upon him; but the Elephant knowing well enough well enough he is not able to withstand his windings and knittings about him, seeketh to come close to some trees or hard rockes, and so forth to crush and squise the dragon between him and them: the dragons ware hereof, entangle and snarle his feet and legges first with their taile: the Elephants on the other side, undoe those knots with their trunke as with a hand: but to prevent that againe, the dragons put in their heads into their snout, and so stop their breath, and withall, fret and gnaw the tenderest parts that they find there.

(Translated by Philomel Holland, 1601.
"The Book of Naturalists: An Anthology of the Best Natural History", 1944. p. 20)”
― Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historiae

“All around the edges of the platform where she sat, elephants stood patiently waiting for their breakfast. Occasionally, one would grunt or snort or flap its ears, but otherwise, they were as quiet as apparitions.”
― Dawn Reno Langley, The Mourning Parade

“Divide your elephant into small pieces”
― Sunday Adelaja

“Andrew stood, facing Peter and Natalie with a wry smile on his face. "You know, one of the reasons I started this sanctuary is because the best way to treat broken animals is with broken people. Each fixes the other.”
― Dawn Reno Langley, The Mourning Parade

“The pink elephant barged into the room and trumpeted so loud she thought the ceiling might collapse. Memories erupted from its trunk. She snatched them up helplessly, holding them up to the light, studying their colors and pixels of pain.”
― Angela Panayotopulos, The Wake Up

“Grey as a mouse,
Big as a house,
Nose like a snake,
I make the earth shake,
As I tramp through the grass;
Trees crack as I pass.
With horns in my mouth
I walk in the South,
Flapping big ears.
Beyond count of years
I stump round and round,
Never lie on the ground,
Not even to die.
Oliphaunt am I,
Biggest of all,
Huge, old, and tall.
If ever you'd met me
You wouldn't forget me.
If you never do,
You won't think I'm true;
But old Oliphaunt am I,
And I never lie.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“Of what benefit is size to the elephant when though, being the largest jungle animal is not king of the jungle; not even uncle of the jungle?”
― Vincent Okay Nwachukwu, Weighty 'n' Worthy African Proverbs - Volume 1

“An elegant woman is like an elephant. She makes her presence felt.”
― Gift Gugu Mona, Woman of Virtue: Power-Filled Quotes for a Powerful Woman

“A bad UI is like an elephant in a room of blind people.”
― Vineet Raj Kapoor

“Run after an elephant and you will find out why you are not a mouse.”
― Anthony T. Hincks

“You need to think about the month, you need to plan the day, you need to take your elephant and divide into pieces and eat a slice a day”
― Sunday Adelaja

“I saw him for the first time in Rangoon
In the zoo.
In a colorful, grilled iron cage.
A lonely white elephant in an iron cage.
His eyes were black, as were his nails,
But he himself snow-white.
He looked at you in such a way
As if to speak.
One can rarely find a white elephant,
One can rarely find an elephant in captivity.
He left the forest a year ago,
And can't stand his heartache in the cage.
And very often
He raises his trunk and roars,
Shedding crocodile tears,
And calling on his free brothers
To help him.
They say that elephants live long lives.
White elephant, white elephant!
Do you need a long life
Imprisoned in a cage for a hundred years?
White elephant, white elephant!”
― Rasul Rza

“The sensation I was feeling on the clifftop was some sort of reverberation in the air itself.… The whale had submerged and I was still feeling something. The strange rhythm seemed now to be coming from behind me, from the land, so I turned to look across the gorge … where my heart stopped.… Standing there in the shade of the tree was an elephant … staring out to sea!… A female with a left tusk broken off near the base.… I knew who she was, who she had to be. I recognized her from a color photograph put out by the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry under the title “The Last Remaining Knysna Elephant.” This was the Matriarch herself.… She was here because she no longer had anyone to talk to in the forest. She was standing here on the edge of the ocean because it was the next, nearest, and most powerful source of infrasound. The underrumble of the surf would have been well within her range, a soothing balm for an animal used to being surrounded by low and comforting frequencies, by the lifesounds of a herd, and now this was the next-best thing. My heart went out to her. The whole idea of this grandmother of many being alone for the first time in her life was tragic, conjuring up the vision of countless other old and lonely souls. But just as I was about to be consumed by helpless sorrow, something even more extraordinary took place.… The throbbing was back in the air. I could feel it, and I began to understand why. The blue whale was on the surface again, pointed inshore, resting, her blowhole clearly visible. The Matriarch was here for the whale! The largest animal in the ocean and the largest living land animal were no more than a hundred yards apart, and I was convinced that they were communicating! In infrasound, in concert, sharing big brains and long lives, understanding the pain of high investment in a few precious offspring, aware of the importance and the pleasure of complex sociality, these rare and lovely great ladies were commiserating over the back fence of this rocky Cape shore, woman to woman, matriarch to matriarch, almost the last of their kind. I turned, blinking away the tears, and left them to it. This was no place for a mere man.”
― Carl Safina, Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel

“Regarding the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project atop Mauna Kea, the elephant in the room is High Altitude Observatory Disease (HAOD).”
― Steven Magee

“It is pitiful how elephants, once plentiful are depleted because of their beautiful ivory.”
― Vincent Okay Nwachukwu, Weighty 'n' Worthy African Proverbs - Volume 1

“He taught him to wag his trunk like a tail. Then Arnold painted the most beautiful cat's face on the elephant.”
― Milton Glaser, Smallest Elephant in the World

“Sweet Elephant of the Morning by Stewart Stafford

O sweet elephant of the morning,
What loud noise you make,
With your leaden feet,
And trumpet voice.

You spray water,
On your thick, dusty skin,
And on anyone in proximity,
To your body.

Your trunk is a grey, reaching arm,
And your tusks resemble curved lances,
Or elongated walrus teeth,
To fight off rivals.

© Stewart Stafford, 2021. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“Well, good night," he said. "I'm off to the elephant with my kids. On the supposition that you should need me some night, you'll find me there. I live on the second floor. There is no doorman. You should ask for Monsieur Gavroche.”
― Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

“What happened to our original elephant, Flora? The Miami Metro Zoo had to finally come to accept the hard truth. As the rider who Flora attacked in 1999 explained: “I just think elephants are not meant to be captive. As they mature, they get to a point where they aren’t going to take it any more. It’s not her fault, she’s just becoming more and more unhappy.”
― Jason Hribal, Fear of the Animal Planet: The Hidden History of Animal Resistance

“The elephant in the room during the media coverage of the hurricane Ian disaster was the lack of reporting of the number of people reported missing to law enforcement.”
― Steven Magee

“A flea makes an elephant out of a fly.”
― Tamerlan Kuzgov