Snake Quotes

“I shaved this morning for precisely that reason. I was like, 'Well, you never know when someone is going to clamp down on your calf and try to suck out the snake poison.”
― John Green

“If you’re listening to this, congratulations! You survived Doomsday.
I’d like to apologize straightaway for any inconvenience the end of the world may have caused you. The earthquakes, rebellions, riots,tornadoes, floods, tsunamis, and of course the giant snake who swallowed the sun—I’m afraid most of that was our fault. Carter and I decided we should at least explain how it happened.”
― Rick Riordan, The Serpent's Shadow

“When I carved this, my thoughts were on you, love. Your life is like this snake's coils. No matter how many turns it makes, you'll end up back where you belong. With me.”
― Maria V. Snyder, Magic Study

“Our problems started in Dallas, when the fire-breathing sheep destroyed the King Tut exhibit.”
― Rick Riordan, The Serpent's Shadow

“Yes, an actual full-sized camel. If you find that confusing, just think how the criosphinx must have felt.
Where did the camel come from, you ask? I may have mentioned Walt’s collection of amulets. Two of them summoned disgusting camels. I’d
met them before, so I was less than excited when a ton of dromedary flesh flew across my line of sight, plowed into the sphinx, and collapsed on top
of it. The sphinx growled in outrage as it tried to free itself. The camel grunted and farted.
“Hindenburg,” I said. Only one camel could possibly fart that badly. “Walt, why in the world—?”
“Sorry!” he yelled. “Wrong amulet!”
The technique worked, at any rate. The camel wasn’t much of a fighter, but it was quite heavy and clumsy. The criosphinx snarled and clawed
at the floor, trying unsuccessfully to push the camel off; but Hindenburg just splayed his legs, made alarmed honking sounds, and let loose gas.
I moved to Walt’s side and tried to get my bearings.”
― Rick Riordan, The Serpent's Shadow

“Truth is as straight as an arrow, while a lie swivels like a snake.”
― Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

“I'm not the one who's so far away
When I feel the snake bite enter my veins.
Never did I wanna be here again,
And I don't remember why I came.”
― Sully Erna

“Go on, my dear," urges the snake. "Take one. Hear it? 'Pluck me,' it's saying. That big, shiny red one. 'Pluck me, pluck me now and pluck me hard.' You know you want to."

"But God," quotes Eve, putting out feelers for an agent provacateur, clever girl, "expressly forbids us to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge."

"Ah yessssss, God ... But God gave us life, did He not? And God gave us desire, did He not? And God gave us taste, did He not? And who else but God made the damned apples in the first place? So what else is life for but to tassste the fruit we desire?"

Eve folds her arms schoolgirlishly. "God expressly forbade it. Adam said."

The snake grins through his fangs, admiring Eve's playacting. "God is a nice enough chap in His way. I daresay He means well. But between you and The Tree of Knowledge, He is terribly insecure."

"Insecure? He made the entire bloody universe! He's omnipotent."

"Exactly! Almost neurotic, isn't it? All this worshiping, morning, noon, and night. It's 'Oh Praise Him, Oh Praise Him, Oh Praise the Everlassssting Lord.' I don't call that omnipotent. I call it pathetic. Most independent authorities agree that God has never sufficiently credited the work of virtual particles in the creation of the universssse. He raises you and Adam on this diet of myths while all the really interesting information is locked up in these juicy apples. Seven days? Give me a break.”
― David Mitchell, Ghostwritten

“I am working on a new book about a boa constrictor and a litter of hyenas. The boa constrictor swallows the babies one by one, and the mother hyena dies laughing.”
― E.B. White

“I'd rather meander through a pit of vipers than love one more person, but since I'm on the subject of snakes, we all know one, or are one.”
― Donna Lynn Hope

“It was strange how she found out, One moment she didn't know; the next minute she did. One moment her mind was as blank as the desert; the next minute the snake of suspicion had slithered into her thoughts and raised its poisonous head.”
― Thrity Umrigar, The Space Between Us

“The crookedness of the serpent is still straight enough to slide through the snake hole.”
― Abraham Verghese, Cutting for Stone

“Snake pulled out the digital camera and decided to play a joke on Otacon. He snapped a picture of the pinup, muttered, "Good," and closed the door.”
― Raymond Benson, Sons of Liberty

“I've got the kids in my room," she explained, while Jubal strove to keep up with her, "so that Honey Bun can watch them."

Jubal was mildly startled to see, a moment later, what Patricia meant by that. The boa was arranged on one of twin double beds in squared-off loops that formed a nest - a twin nest, as one bight of the snake had been pulled across to bisect the square, making two crib-sized pockets, each padded with a baby blanket and each containing a baby.

The ophidian nursemaid raised her head inquiringly as they came in. Patty stroked it and said, "It's all right, dear. Father Jubal wants to see them. Pet her a little, and let her grok you, so that she will know you next time."

First Jubal coochey-cooed at his favorite girl friend when she gurgled at him and kicked, then petted the snake. He decided that it was the handsomest specimen of Bojdae he had ever seen, as well as the biggest - longer, he estimated, than any other boa constrictor in captivity. Its cross bars were sharply marked and the brighter colors of the tail quite showy. He envied Patty her blue-ribbon pet and regretted that he would not have more time in which to get friendly with it.

The snake rubbed her head against his hand like a cat. Patty picked up Abby and said, "Just as I thought. Honey Bun, why didn't you tell me?"- then explained, as she started to change diapers, "She tells me at once if one of them gets tangled up, or needs help, or anything, since she can't do much for them herself - no hands - except nudge them back if they try to crawl out and might fall. But she just can't seem to grok that a wet baby ought to be changed - Honey Bun doesn't see anything wrong about that. And neither does Abby."

"I know. We call her 'Old Faithful.' Who's the other cutie pie?"

"Huh? That's Fatima Michele, I thought you knew."

"Are they here? I thought they were in Beirut!"

"Why, I believe they did come from some one of those foreign parts. I don't know just where. Maybe Maryam told me but it wouldn't mean anything to me; I've never been anywhere. Not that it matters; I grok all places are alike - just people. There, do you want to hold Abigail Zenobia while I check Fatima?"

Jubal did so and assured her that she was the most beautiful girl in the world, then shortly thereafter assured Fatima of the same thing. He was completely sincere each time and the girls believed him - Jubal had said the same thing on countless occasions starting in the Harding administration, had always meant it and had always been believed. It was a Higher Truth, not bound by mundane logic.

Regretfully he left them, after again petting Honey Bun and telling her the same thing, and just as sincerely.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

“What you are now is not what you've always been, nor is it what you always will be. You are a snake. Shed your skin if it no longer serves you. Transform into something different. Something better.”
― Shelby Mahurin, Blood & Honey

“Come and join the Church of the Serpent. Learn the philosophy of the snake and slough off the old, failed skin of humanity. Don’t you want to be one of the Prometheans, the HyperHumans, the Faustians? Don’t you want to complete the journey from Cimmeria (Alpha) to Hyperborea (Omega)? Only the Serpent Humans can bring all of humanity to the most precious fruit of the Tree of Knowledge and confer Absolute Knowledge on everyone. Only through the Serpents will you achieve gnosis. Join usssssssssss.”
― David Sinclair, The Church of the Serpent: The Philosophy of the Snake and Attaining Transcendent Knowledge

“On the throne, the remaining flowers turn the same inky black as Cardan's eyes. Then the black bleeds down his face. He turns to me, opening his mouth, but his jaw is changing. His whole body is changing- elongating and ululating.
...
The monstrous thing seems to have swallowed up everything of Cardan. His mouth opens wide and then jaw-crackingly wide as long fangs sprout. Scales shroud his skin. Dread has rooted me in place.
...
In the place where the High King was, there is a massive serpent, covered in black scales and curved fangs. A golden sheen runs down the coils of the enormous body. I look in to his black eyes, hoping to see recognition there, but they are cold and empty.

'It will poison the land,' cries the smith. 'No true love's kiss will stop it. No riddle will fix it. Only death.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“You need a backbone to enter the Church of the Serpents. You need to have the guts to shed your old skin and undergo a metamorphosis. What are you capable of becoming? What transformation lies ahead of you?”
― David Sinclair, The Church of the Serpent: The Philosophy of the Snake and Attaining Transcendent Knowledge

“3:14. the snake. Just a snake, not the devil or Satan as later Christian interpretation pictured. As the curse that follows indicates, the story has to do with the fate of snakes, not with the cosmic role of a devil. There is no such concept in the Hebrew Bible.”
― Richard Elliott Friedman, Commentary on the Torah

“Insignificance by Stewart Stafford

From the emerald Draco star,
Fell the coiled Rosslyn figure,
Unwinding into elongated form,
The golden crozier of St Patrick.

Faded gods upon ruined temples,
All came alive, screeching creeds,
Overwhelming minds and bodies,
Fanatics expiring from confusion.

In the shamanic ritualistic dance,
Of an in-out, Hokey-Cokey culture,
Spins the stained mah-jongg piece,
The missing link apes checkmate.

© Stewart Stafford, 2022. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“Always pursue glory. Shine like the stars. Burn up with ambition. Shed your old skin. Try, try, and try again. Fail, fail, and fail again. But fail better, and one day you will not fail at all.”
― David Sinclair, The Church of the Serpent: The Philosophy of the Snake and Attaining Transcendent Knowledge

“The man who loves the rising sun must equally adore the darkest night. How else will the sun rise if not through the darkness? Who would enjoy the calm if they could not also embrace the storm? All greatness is born in the harshest conditions. It’s struggle, not having everything handed to you on a plate, which makes you great. If you’re afraid of struggle, you’re afraid of greatness. The Superman wants to march through hell. The Last Man wants to see only heaven. That’s why the Last Man does nothing of note, while everything done by the Superman is noteworthy. Are the masses taking a note of your life, or is there nothing to note? Most people vanish from their own lives. At the end, they realized they never lived at all. Most people impersonate being alive. It’s not a good impression. They don’t even convince themselves. But you always know when you have encountered one of the congregation of the Chapel of the Serpent. They always leave their mark … their bite.”
― David Sinclair, The Church of the Serpent: The Philosophy of the Snake and Attaining Transcendent Knowledge

“Maybe one day you'll see
me latched barkside to that tree,
teasing my way out of the skin I'm in
until I plunk into the dirt. Until I slither
then fly. Shiny and high.
Leaving only an effigy—
a hollowed-out
replica
behind.”
― Jenny Noble Anderson, But Still She Flies: Poems and Paintings

“The snake watched her with small, black eyes, but Misty wasn’t afraid.
There was nothing that a snake could do to a girl’s bones.
There was nothing left on her that anyone could harm.”
― Ashley Blooms, Every Bone a Prayer

“Dear Lindy,
Over ten years ago a ten and a half foot Amethystine python tried to take my not quite two year old son from his bed… this weekend I attended a writer’s workshop with… Kate Llewellyn and after reading the enclosed poem she said I MUST send it to you and so here it is…
The Letter I should Have Written to Lindy Chamberlain
I believe you, Lindy,
I know that even now with all that is tamed
the Wild is always near
In the black of night
I lifted my child from his winter bed
only to feel a cold weight, skin to skin
along my length.
Python jaws around my baby’s leg.
Two day’s later on TV,
whodunnit: the Dingo or the Bitch
But I believed you and I wonder
Would they have hissed at me on the steamy courthouse steps:
‘The snake is innocent.”
― Alana Valentine, Letters to Lindy

“Holy shit!” I reached out. “Can I? Please…please let me pet the snake!”
― Adam A. Fox, A Sinful Sacrifice

“The Lindworm, a monstrous firstborn twin unwanted by its mother, was thrown out the window shortly after its birth. It came back eventually to claim its birthright. In Donkey's family, where the youngest inherited everything, she didn't have to fear any such thing.
The snake's triangular head ventured toward her a few inches. Donkey was almost too excited to breathe. The creature studied her sullenly.
"If you're the Lindworm, then you're my twin brother," Donkey said. She could feel how the snake was feeling her wild heartbeat through the ground between them.
The forked tongue tasted the air. The body undulated, and the head came even closer.”
― Bonnie Jo Campbell, The Waters

“At the apex of the snake's resistance, its body formed a fine powerful arc that was held momentarily in perfect tension, like a bow. Woman and snake were perfectly attuned to the moment and the task, each focused on the other. Hermine's absolute command over the creature, like her power over all the island, was as inalterable as the equality of the three sides of an equilateral triangle.
The storm-colored m'sauga gradually torqued her thick body into a flattened S in her silent, flowing resistance, matching the resistance of Hermine's right arm, and turned to reveal a smoky ribbed belly. Her mouth opened wide, as if in a yawn, and she revealed a pearly pink-white iridescence, the color of a princess dress or the inside of a river clam. Another wave of morel-mushroom musk rose as the venomous fangs bit the air in a staccato rhythm.”
― Bonnie Jo Campbell, The Waters

“Christians who identify the snake in Paradise as Satan actually are projecting a far more recent invention into that ancient story, since the Genesis folktale pictures the serpent only as a cunning, talking snake, perhaps a stand-in for the humans’ inner voice.”
― Elaine Pagels, Why Religion? A Personal Story

“But the sea snake wasn’t slithering, it wasn’t even swimming, it just floated in the warm water, drifting contentedly, and I remembered that to be bitten by this, the most lethargic creature in the world, is to be guilty of being very, very stupid.”
― J. Maarten Troost, The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific