Serpent Quotes

• Look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under it.

  William Shakespeare

  Flower, Advice, Lady Macbeth

  'Macbeth' (1606) act 1, sc. 5, l. [63]

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• Still anyone who trusts a serpent deserves its bite. The wise see a creature for what it is, not what it says it may be.

  Alice Hoffman

  Wise, May, Stills

  Alice Hoffman (2011). “The Dovekeepers: A Novel”, p.386, Simon and Schuster

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• We must combine the toughness of the serpent with the softness of the dove, a tough mind and a tender heart.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Heart, Mind, Tough

  Martin Luther King Jr. (1963). “Strength to Love”

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• To caress the serpent that devours us, until it has eaten away our heart.

  Voltaire

  Heart, Caress

  Voltaire (2005). “Candide, or, Optimism”, Lane, Allen

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• In everything we do, the serpent ego is rising up.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Rising Up, Ego, Cobras

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.2644, Manonmani Publishers

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• the serpent if it wants to become the dragon must eat itself.

  Francis Bacon

  Dragons, Want, Ifs

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• Woman is at once apple and serpent.

  Heinrich Heine

  Apples, Definitions

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• If the account given in Genesis is really true, ought we not, after all, to thank this serpent? He was the first schoolmaster, the first advocate of learning, the first enemy of ignorance, the first to whisper in human ears the sacred word liberty, the creator of ambition, the author of modesty, of inquiry, of doubt, of investigation, of progress and of civilization.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Ambition, Ignorance, Civilization

  Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.18, Library of Alexandria

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• I am the queen of spades, I am the wasp that stings, I am the dark serpent. I am the invulnerable animal who passes through fire and is not burned.

  Elena Ferrante

  Queens, Dark, Animal

  Elena Ferrante (2005). “The Days of Abandonment”, p.64, Penguin

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• The little serpent has left, and the great serpent has come.

  Muqtada al Sadr

  Littles, Left

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• Eternity is a circle, a serpent that swallows its own tail.

  Elsa Barker

  Circles, Tails, Eternity

  Elsa Barker (2011). “Letters from the Afterlife: A Guide to the Other Side”, p.88, Simon and Schuster

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• If a man wishes to become a hero, then the serpent must first become a dragon: otherwise he lacks his proper enemy.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Hero, Men, Dragons

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• The sin underneath all our sins is to trust the lie of the serpent that we cannot trust the love and grace of Christ and must take matters into our own hands

  Martin Luther

  Lying, Hands, Grace

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• The gods have sent medicines for the venom of serpents, but there is no medicine for a bad woman. She is more noxious than the viper, or than fire itself.

  Euripides

  Women, Fire, Medicine

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• Sin in a wicked man is like poison in a serpent; it is in its natural place.

  Thomas Brooks

  Men, Wicked, Poison

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• Child and serpent, star and stone — all one.

  P. L. Travers

  Stars, Children, Stones

  P. L. Travers (2014). “Mary Poppins: 80th Anniversary Collection”, p.175, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• The serpent is helpless unless he finds an apple to work with.

  George Ade

  Apples, Helpless

  George Ade (1920). “Hand-made Fables”

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• ...those serpents! There's no pleasing them!

  Lewis Carroll

  Domestic Violence, Violence, Alice Adventures In Wonderland

  Lewis Carroll “Alice in Wonderland”, W. W. Norton & Company

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• Kundalini is seen as a serpent that can shoot up the shushumna, past the chakras, opening them all and bringing you into different states of awareness.

  Frederick Lenz

  Buddhism, Past, Different

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• A serpent is a serpent, and none the less a viper, because it is nestled in the bosom of an honest-hearted man.

  Martin Delany

  Men, Vipers, Honest

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• He is as wise as a serpent and as innocent as a dove.

  Paulo Coelho

  Life, Wise, Inspiration

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• A person who suffers bitterly when slighted or insulted should recognize from this that he still harbors the ancient serpent in his breast. If he quietly endures the insult or responds with great humility, he weakens the serpent and lessens its hold. But if he replies acrimoniously or brazenly, he gives it strength to pour its venom into his heart and to feed mercilessly on his guts. In this way the serpent becomes increasingly powerful; it destroys his soul's strength and his attempts to set himself right, compelling him to live for sin and to be completely dead to righteousness.

  Symeon the New Theologian

  Powerful, Freedom, Heart

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• O serpent heart hid with a flowering face! Did ever a dragon keep so fair a cave? Beautiful tyrant, feind angelical, dove feather raven, wolvish-ravening lamb! Despised substance of devinest show, just opposite to what thou justly seemest - A dammed saint, an honourable villain!

  William Shakespeare

  Beautiful, Heart, Dragons

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• Cold as winter, strong as stone; She faced the darkness all alone. A silver goddess; a reflection. A mirage; a recollection. No return; no turning back. The past is gone, the future, black. Serpents gather in their nest, And she stands above the rest. Shadows hunt; she hunts the shadow. The moon is risen; she stands below. She views her world through the eyes of others. Black and white; there are no colors, As she looks down upon a shattered youth. A shattered mirror shows a shattered truth.

  Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

  Strong, Eye, Black And White

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• We were ensnared by the wisdom of the serpent; we are set free by the foolishness of God .

  Saint Augustine

  Foolishness

  St. Augustine, Saint Augustine, J. F. Shaw (2009). “On Christian Doctrine”, p.10, Courier Corporation

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