“And today the great Yertle, that Marvelous he,
Is King of the Mud. That is all he can see.
And the turtles, of course… all the turtles are free
As turtles and, maybe, all creatures should be.”

“There is an Indian story -- at least I heard it as an Indian story -- about an Englishman who, having been told that the world rested on a platform which rested on the back of an elephant which rested in turn on the back of a turtle, asked (perhaps he was an ethnographer; it is the way they behave), what did the turtle rest on? Another turtle. And that turtle? 'Ah, Sahib, after that it is turtles all the way down.”

“See the TURTLE of enormous girth,
On his shell he holds the earth.
If you want to run and play,
Come along the BEAM today.”

“If a turtle doesn't have a shell, is he homeless or naked?”

“People who read my magazine wax their turtles all the time.”

“Turtles don't feel, stupid," said Jem.

"Were you ever a turtle, huh?”

“I'm running this, and I can jump the hurdles. I feel like I'm racing a bunch of little turtles. I keep a bandanna like the Ninja Turtles. I'm like a turtle when I sip the purple.”

“The turtle moves.”

“Slugs have ridden their contempt for defensive armour as much to death as the turtles their pursuit of it. They have hardly more than skin enough to hold themselves together; they court death every time they cross the road. Yet death comes not to them more than to the turtle, whose defences are so great that there is little left inside to be defended. Moreover, the slugs fare best in the long run, for turtles are dying out, while slugs are not, and there must be millions of slugs all over the world over for every single turtle.”

“Anytime you see a turtle up on top of a fence post, you know he had some help.”