Quotes about lion
page 2

John Steinbeck photo
Richelle Mead photo
Charles Bukowski photo
Margaret Mitchell photo
Stevie Smith photo

“Oh Lion in a peculiar guise,
Sharp Roman road to Paradise,
Come eat me up, I'll pay thy toll
With all my flesh, and keep my soul.”

Stevie Smith (1902–1971) poet, novelist, illustrator, performer

Source: Selected Poems

Madeline Miller photo
Ibrahim of Ghazna photo
Silvio Berlusconi photo
William Blake photo

“The pride of the peacock is the glory of God.
The lust of the goat is the bounty of God.
The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God.
The nakedness of woman is the work of God.”

William Blake (1757–1827) English Romantic poet and artist

Source: 1790s, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790–1793), Proverbs of Hell, Line 22

Rumi photo

“Learn from Ali how to fight
without your ego participating.
God's lion did nothing
that didn't originate
from his deep center.”

Rumi (1207–1273) Iranian poet

"Ali in Battle" an account of Ali ibn Abi Talib's explanation as to why he declined to kill someone who had spit in his face as Ali was defeating him in battle, in Ch. 20 : In Baghdad dreaming of Cairo
Disputed, The Essential Rumi (1995)

Plutarch photo

“Lysander said, "Where the lion's skin will not reach, it must be pieced with the fox's."”

Plutarch (46–127) ancient Greek historian and philosopher

60 Lysander
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders

Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas photo

“Dog, ounce, bear, and bull,
Wolfe, lion, horse.”

Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas (1544–1590) French writer

Second Week, First Day, Part iii. Compare: "Lion, bear, or wolf, or bull", William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, act ii. sc. 1.
La Seconde Semaine (1584)

“At that Mother got proper blazing,
"And thank you, sir, kindly," said she.
"What, waste all our lives raising children
To feed ruddy Lions? Not me!"”

Marriott Edgar (1880–1951) British poet

"Albert and the Lion", line 69.
Albert, 'Arold and Others (1938)

Thom Yorke photo

“While you make pretty speeches
I'm being cut to shreds
You feed me to the lions
A delicate balance”

Thom Yorke (1968) English musician, philanthropist and singer-songwriter

"Like Spinning Plates"
Lyrics, Amnesiac (2001)

Xenophanes photo
Bruce Cockburn photo
Daniel Handler photo
Walter Wink photo
Frederick Russell Burnham photo

“I am more afraid of an army of a hundred sheep led by a lion than an army of a hundred lions led by a sheep.”

Frederick Russell Burnham (1861–1947) father of scouting; military scout; soldier of fortune; oil man; writer; rancher

Taking Chances (1944)

Thomas Carlyle photo
Katy Perry photo
Thomas Aquinas photo
Stephenie Meyer photo

“If a lion could speak, it would not understand itself.”

Michael Frayn (1933) British writer

James Fenton (ed.) The Original Michael Frayn (Edinburgh: Salamander Press, 1983) p. 67.

Mia Couto photo
Margaret Thatcher photo

“We heard moving accounts from two working miners about just what they have to face as they try to make their way to work. The sheer bravery of those men and thousands like them who kept the mining industry alive is beyond praise. “Scabs” their former workmates call them. Scabs? They are lions!”

Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician

Speech to Conservative Party Conference (12 October 1984) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/105763
Second term as Prime Minister

Josh Billings photo

“The lion and the lamb may, possibly, sumtime lay down in this world together for a fu minnits, but when the lion kums tew git up, the lamb will be missing.”

Josh Billings (1818–1885) American humorist

Affurisms: Slips of the Pen http://books.google.com/books?id=Wpk_AAAAYAAJ&q="The+lion+and+the+lamb+may+possibly+sumtime+lay+down+in+this+world+together+for+a+fu+minnits+but+when+the+lion+kums+tew+git+up+the+lamb+will+be+missing"&pg=PA227#v=onepage The Complete Works of Josh Billings (1876)

Frederick Douglass photo
Peter Akinola photo
Frank McCourt photo
Susan Cooper photo

“Strong as a young lion, pliant as a loving woman, and bitter to the taste, as all enchantment in the end must be.”

Susan Cooper (1935) English fantasy writer

Source: The Dark Is Rising (1965-1977), Silver on the Tree (1977), Chapter 14 “Caer Wydyr” (p. 190)

Tipu Sultan photo

“To live like a lion for a day is far better than to live for a hundred years like a jackal.”

Tipu Sultan (1750–1799) Ruler of the Sultanate of Mysore

As quoted in Encyclopedia of Asian History (1988) Vol. 4, p. 104
Variants:
It is far better to live like a lion for a day than to live like a jackal for a hundred years.
It is far better to live like a tiger for a day than to live like a jackal for a hundred years.
Variant mentioned in Tipu Sultan : A Study in Diplomacy and Confrontation (1982) by B. Sheikh Ali, p. 329

John Adams photo
Miguna Miguna photo
Oriana Fallaci photo

“To make you cry I’ll tell you about the twelve young impure men I saw executed at Dacca at the end of the Bangladesh war. They executed them on the field of Dacca stadium, with bayonet blows to the torso or abdomen, in the presence of twenty thousand faithful who applauded in the name of God from the bleachers. They thundered "Allah akbar, Allah akbar." Yes, I know: the ancient Romans, those ancient Romans of whom my culture is so proud, entertained themselves in the Coliseum by watching the deaths of Christians fed to the lions. I know, I know: in every country of Europe the Christians, those Christians whose contribution to the History of Thought I recognize despite my atheism, entertained themselves by watching the burning of heretics. But a lot of time has passed since then, we have become a little more civilized, and even the sons of Allah ought to have figured out by now that certain things are just not done. After the twelve impure young men they killed a little boy who had thrown himself at the executioners to save his brother who had been condemned to death. They smashed his head with their combat boots. And if you don’t believe it, well, reread my report or the reports of the French and German journalists who, horrified as I was, were there with me. Or better: look at the photographs that one of them took. Anyway this isn’t even what I want to underline. It’s that, at the conclusion of the slaughter, the twenty thousand faithful (many of whom were women) left the bleachers and went down on the field. Not as a disorganized mob, no. In an orderly manner, with solemnity. They slowly formed a line and, again in the name of God, walked over the cadavers. All the while thundering Allah–akbar, Allah–akbar. They destroyed them like the Twin Towers of New York. They reduced them to a bleeding carpet of smashed bones.”

Oriana Fallaci (1929–2006) Italian writer

Rage and the Pride">

Alain de Botton photo
Damian Pettigrew photo

“We lunched in Fregene: grilled sardines sprinkled with parsley and lemon. Federico ate daintily, like someone with no appetite. The beach was deserted, the wind brisk. In the distance stood the abandoned lighthouse he filmed for 8 1/2. Like someone about to propose a toast, he stood up and "recited" from King Lear :
Hark! Have you heard the news? The king fell off a cliff.
O horrible! Were you very close to him?
Indeed, sir. Close enough to push.
We laughed until he brusquely sat down again, scraping the fish scales off his fingers, staring at the age spots that covered his hands. The beautiful adolescent waitress asked for his autograph. He drew himself as a man-lion in a hat and scarf with huge paws chasing her, and signed it "Féfé." We spent the afternoon visiting Ostia and returned to Rome in a sweltering twilight. He asked to be driven home for a change of clothes. We invited Giulietta, who wore a green velvet turban, to join us for dinner. (Had she already lost her hair from chemotherapy?) Graciously, she declined while smoking cigarette after cigarette. At Cesarina's, Federico drew hilarious, pornographic sketches on the table napkin saying, "If you have not made love today then you have lost a day!"”

Damian Pettigrew Canadian filmmaker

The entire restaurant was at his feet. He was twenty years old now and as thin as Kafka. He was Rome. He had adopted us the way Rome adopts everyone, and we loved him.
On Fellini's final years
Federico Fellini: Sou um Grande Mentiroso (2008)

Thomas Carlyle photo

“Don't try to cut any deals with me, Hector.
Do lions make peace treaties with men?
Do wolves and lambs agree to get along?”

Stanley Lombardo (1943) Philosopher, Classicist

Book XXII, lines 287–289; spoken by Achilles.
Translations, Iliad (1997)

Robert Jordan photo
Clarence Darrow photo

“Life cannot be reconciled with the idea that back of the universe is a Supreme Being, all merciful and kind, and that he takes any account of the human beings and other forms of life that exist upon the earth. Whichever way man may look upon the earth, he is oppressed with the suffering incident to life. It would almost seem as though the earth had been created with malignity and hatred. If we look at what we are pleased to call the lower animals, we behold a universal carnage. We speak of the seemingly peaceful woods, but we need only look beneath the surface to be horrified by the misery of that underworld. Hidden in the grass and watching for its prey is the crawling snake which swiftly darts upon the toad or mouse and gradually swallows it alive; the hapless animal is crushed by the jaws and covered with slime, to be slowly digested in furnishing a meal. The snake knows nothing about sin or pain inflicted upon another; he automatically grabs insects and mice and frogs to preserve his life. The spider carefully weaves his web to catch the unwary fly, winds him into the fatal net until paralyzed and helpless, then drinks his blood and leaves him an empty shell. The hawk swoops down and snatches a chicken and carries it to its nest to feed its young. The wolf pounces on the lamb and tears it to shreds. The cat watches at the hole of the mouse until the mouse cautiously comes out, then with seeming fiendish glee he plays with it until tired of the game, then crushes it to death in his jaws. The beasts of the jungle roam by day and night to find their prey; the lion is endowed with strength of limb and fang to destroy and devour almost any animal that it can surprise or overtake. There is no place in the woods or air or sea where all life is not a carnage of death in terror and agony. Each animal is a hunter, and in turn is hunted, by day and night. No landscape is beautiful or day so balmy but the cry of suffering and sacrifice rends the air. When night settles down over the earth the slaughter is not abated. Some creatures are best at night, and the outcry of the dying and terrified is always on the wind. Almost all animals meet death by violence and through the most agonizing pain. With the whole animal creation there is nothing like a peaceful death. Nowhere in nature is there the slightest evidence of kindness, of consideration, or a feeling for the suffering and the weak, except in the narrow circle of brief family life.”

Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) American lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union

Source: The Story of My Life (1932), p. 383

Homér photo

“There can be no covenants between men and lions, wolves and lambs can never be of one mind.”

XXII. 262–263 (tr. Samuel Butler); Achilles to Hector.
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

William I of England photo

“I attacked the English of the Northern Shires like a lion. I ordered their houses and corn, with all their belongings, to be burnt without exception and large herds of cattle and beasts of burden to be destroyed wherever they were found. It was there I took revenge on masses of people by subjecting them to a cruel famine; and by doing so — alas!”

William I of England (1028–1087) first Norman King of England

I became the murderer of many thousands of that fine race.
Part of a speech on his deathbed in 1087, referring to the Harrying of the North, written down by a monk named Ordericus Vitalis in 1123; as quoted in Empires and Citizens : The Roman Empire, Medieval Britain, African Empires (2003) by Ben Walsh, p. 60

Andrew Motion photo

“By day the appalling loose beauty
of prowling floes:
lions’ heads, dragons, crucifix-wrecks,
and a thing like a blown rose.”

Andrew Motion (1952) poet, novelist and biographer from England

Poem "Ice"
Poetry Quotes

Al-Mutanabbi photo

“He asks from men all that he has in himself, though even lions would not claim to match that.”

Al-Mutanabbi (915–965) Arabic poet from the Abbasid era

From the poem "To Sayf Al-Dawla" http://web.archive.org/web/20140708175325/http://www.princeton.edu/~arabic/poetry/al_mu_to_sayf.html

Anton Chekhov photo
Anthony Burgess photo
Ernest Shackleton photo

“Better a live donkey than a dead lion.”

Ernest Shackleton (1874–1922) Anglo-Irish polar explorer

Quoted in [Moss, Stephen, Captain Scott centenary: Storm rages around polar explorer's reputation, The Guardian, 28 March 2012, http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/mar/28/captain-scott-antarctic-centenary-profile]

Tobias Smollett photo
Eric S. Raymond photo
Statius photo

“The loss of one lion alone drew a tear from mighty Caesar's eye.”
Magni quod Caesaris ora... unius amissi tetigit jactura leonis.

v, line 27 (tr. J. H. Mozley)
Silvae, Book II

Wilfred Thesiger photo
Joanna Newsom photo
Swami Vivekananda photo

“Ye are the children of God, the sharers of immortal bliss, holy and perfect beings. Ye divinities on earth - sinners! It is a sin to call man so; it is a standing libel on human nature. Come up, lions! and shake off the delusion that you are sheep; you are souls immortal, spirits free, blest and eternal.”

Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher

Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Calcutta, 1985, Vol I. p. 11. Quoted from Goel, S. R. (1996). History of Hindu-Christian encounters, AD 304 to 1996. Chapter 13 ISBN 9788185990354

Luís de Camões photo

“To be a lion among sheep, 'tis poor.”

Luís de Camões (1524–1580) Portuguese poet

É fraqueza entre ovelhas ser leão.
Stanza 68, line 8 (tr. Richard Fanshawe)
Epic poetry, Os Lusíadas (1572), Canto I

Gregory Scott Paul photo
Roger Manganelli photo
Robert E. Howard photo

“But Titus said, with his uncommon sense,
When the Exclusion Bill was in suspense:
"I hear a lion in the lobby roar;
Say, Mr. Speaker, shall we shut the door
And keep him there, or shall we let him in
To try if we can turn him out again?"”

James Bramston (1694–1744) British writer

Art of Politics (1729). Colonel Titus is reported to have said, "I hope we shall not be wise as the frogs to whom Jupiter gave a stork for their king. To trust expedients with such a king on the throne would be just as wise as if there were a lion in the lobby, and we should vote to let him in and chain him, instead of fastening the door to keep him out". On the Exclusion Bill, Jan. 7, 1681.

Stendhal photo

“There is no such thing as "natural law": this expression is nothing but old nonsense… Prior to laws, what is natural is only the strength of the lion, or the need of the creature suffering from hunger or cold, in short, need.”

Il n’y a point de droit naturel: ce mot n'est qu’une antique niaiserie... Avant la loi il n’y a de naturel que la force du lion, ou le besoin de l’être qui a faim, qui a froid, le besoin en un mot.
Vol. II, ch. XLIV
Variant translation: There is no such thing as natural law, the expression is nothing more than a silly anachronism … There is no such thing as right, except when there is a law to forbid a certain thing under pain of punishment. Before law existed, the only natural thing was the strength of the lion, or the need of a creature who was cold or hungry, to put it in one word, need.
As translated by Horace B. Samuel (1916)
Le Rouge et le Noir (The Red and the Black) (1830)

Saddam Hussein photo

“The lion does not care about a monkey laughing at him from a tree.”

Saddam Hussein (1937–2006) Iraqi politician and President

Saddam Hussein, Defiant Dictator Who Ruled Iraq With Violence and Fear, Dies http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/30/world/middleeast/30saddam.html (The New York Times, 30 December 2006, page A10)
In response to guffaws from a spectator in an overhead gallery during his trial, 2006.

“Courage is poorly housed that dwells in numbers; the lion never counts the herd that are about him, nor weighs how many flocks he has to scatter.”

Aaron Hill (writer) (1685–1750) British writer

As quoted in The Golden Treasury of Thought: A gathering of quotations from the best ancient and modern authors (1873) edited by John Camden Hotten.

Jefferson Davis photo
Iltutmish photo
George Moore (novelist) photo

“Humanity is a pigsty, where lions, hypocrites, and the obscene in spirit congregate.”

George Moore (novelist) (1852–1933) Irish novelist, short-story writer, poet, art critic, memoirist and dramatist

Source: Confessions of a Young Man http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12278/12278-h/12278-h.htm (1886), Ch. 16.

José de San Martín photo

“I only want Lions in my regiment.”

José de San Martín (1778–1850) Argentine general and independence leader

Solo quiero Leones en mi regimiento.
As quoted in San Martín, The Liberator (1971) by J. C. J. Metford, p. 33

William Blake photo
Jozef Israëls photo

“.. isn't it stupid that what you were writing in your article is still understood by so few people. Among others there was somebody - I believe in the [magazine] 'Nieuws van de Dag' -, who thought the 'Old woman in front of the hearth' [painting of Israels]….- how beautifully painted - was as sickening subject. - Furthermore, Alberd. Thijm [Dutch art-critic and very critical of Israel's' often applied 'dejection'] was also raving strongly about my pulling down of the togs of the poor people. Well-roared, lion, I thought - well understood [ironic! ] for what reason I painted it.. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)”

Jozef Israëls (1824–1911) Dutch painter

version in original Dutch (citaat van Jozef Israëls in Nederlands): ..is het niet gek dat wat gij zegt in uw stuk nog door zo weinig mensen begrepen wordt. Onder anderen was er iemand ik geloof in het 'Nieuws van den Dag', die de 'oude vrouw bij den haard' [in een schilderij van Israels].. ..hoe mooi ook geschilderd walgelijk zegge walgelijk van onderwerp vond. – Voorts is [kunst-criticus, erg kritisch op Israëls' vaak toegepaste 'neerslachtigheid'] ook erg aan 't malen geweest over mijn omhalen van de plunje van de arme lui. Goed gebruld leeuw dacht ik – goed begrepen [ironisch!] waarvoor het geschilderd is..
In a letter, 10 May 1885, to A.S. Kok in The Hague; in R.K.D. The Hague: Archive of A.S. Kok
Quotes of Jozef Israels, 1871 - 1900

Edgar Rice Burroughs photo
Thomas Brooks photo
Walter Scott photo

“Rouse the lion from his lair.”

The Talisman (1825), Heading, Ch. 6.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo
John Bunyan photo
Isaac Watts photo

“Let dogs delight to bark and bite,
For God hath made them so;
Let bears and lions growl and fight,
For 't is their nature too.”

Isaac Watts (1674–1748) English hymnwriter, theologian and logician

Song 16: "Against Quarrelling and Fighting".
1710s, Divine Songs Attempted in the Easy Language of Children (1715)

John Bright photo
Ali Zayn al-Abidin photo
Clement of Alexandria photo

“To me, therefore, that Thracian Orpheus, that Theban, and that Methymnaean,--men, and yet unworthy of the name,--seem to have been deceivers, who, under the pretence of poetry corrupting human life, possessed by a spirit of artful sorcery for purposes of destruction, celebrating crimes in their orgies, and making human woes the materials of religious worship, were the first to entice men to idols; nay, to build up the stupidity of the nations with blocks of wood and stone,--that is, statues and images,--subjecting to the yoke of extremest bondage the truly noble freedom of those who lived as free citizens under heaven by their songs and incantations. But not such is my song, which has come to loose, and that speedily, the bitter bondage of tyrannizing demons; and leading us back to the mild and loving yoke of piety, recalls to heaven those that had been cast prostrate to the earth. It alone has tamed men, the most intractable of animals; the frivolous among them answering to the fowls of the air, deceivers to reptiles, the irascible to lions, the voluptuous to swine, the rapacious to wolves. The silly are stocks and stones, and still more senseless than stones is a man who is steeped in ignorance. As our witness, let us adduce the voice of prophecy accordant with truth, and bewailing those who are crushed in ignorance and folly: "For God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham;" and He, commiserating their great ignorance and hardness of heart who are petrified against the truth, has raised up a seed of piety, sensitive to virtue, of those stones--of the nations, that is, who trusted in stones. Again, therefore, some venomous and false hypocrites, who plotted against righteousness, he once called "a brood of vipers."”

Clement of Alexandria (150–215) Christian theologian

But if one of those serpents even is willing to repent, and follows the Word, he becomes a man of God.
Exhortation to the Heathen

Gertrude Stein photo

“Then Pa, who had seen the occurrence,
And didn't know what to do next,
Said "Mother! Yon Lion's 'et Albert,"
And Mother said "Well, I am vexed!"”

Marriott Edgar (1880–1951) British poet

"The Lion and Albert", line 33.
Albert, 'Arold and Others (1938)

Mata Amritanandamayi photo
Ricardo Sanchez photo

“Some of you may not believe, but I am glad to be here. When Sig asked me if I would consider addressing you there was no doubt that I should come into the lion's den.”

Ricardo Sanchez (1953) United States Army Lieutenant General

Reporters and editors luncheon address (2007)

P.G. Wodehouse photo
Edgar Rice Burroughs photo
Van Morrison photo

“And I shall search my soul,
I shall search my very soul,
For the lion,
For the lion,
For the lion,
For the lion inside me.”

Van Morrison (1945) Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician

Listen to the Lion
Song lyrics, Saint Dominic's Preview (1972)

Prem Rawat photo
Rāmabhadrācārya photo

“O Rāma, the noble son of Kausalyā! The Sandhyā of the morning commences. O the lion amongst men! Arise, the Vedic daily tasks are to be performed.”

Rāmabhadrācārya (1950) Hindu religious leader

kausalyāsuprajā rāma pūrvā saṃdhyā pravartate ।
uttiṣṭha naraśārdūla karttavyaṃ daivamāhnikam ॥
Śrīsītārāmasuprabhātam

John Home photo

“I'll woo her as the lion wooes his brides.”

Act i, scene 1.
Douglas (first performed 1756)

Lewis Pugh photo
David Attenborough photo

“English translation:
A lion took the dear life of Panini, author of the grammatical treatise.”

Pāṇini ancient Sanskrit grammarian

In Panchtantra quoted in: Maurice Winternitz, Moriz Winternitz History of Indian Literature http://books.google.co.in/books?id=ql0BmInD1c4C&pg=PA462, Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 1 January 1985, p. 462.

Bob Dylan photo

“You tamed the lion in my cage but it just wasn't enough to change my heart”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Song lyrics, Blood on the Tracks (1975), Idiot Wind