Lions Quotes
More Lions Quotes
"I never told you, but our life is a war and I have been a traitor all my born days, a spy in the enemy’s country ever since I give up my gun back in the Reconstruction. Live with your head in the lion’s mouth. I want you to overcome ‘em with yeses, undermine ‘em with grins, agree ‘em to death and destruction, let ‘em swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open..."
ralph ellison— Chapter 1 (Invisible Man (1952))
This is a strange fraternity these sea lions and land lions, land unicorns and sea unicorns; the lion civilly rampant, tame and concessive like the long-tailed bear of Ecuador the lion standing up against this screen of woven air which is the forest: the unicorn also, on its hind legs in reciprocity.
marianne moore— "Sea Unicorns and Land Unicorns"
Thou wear a lion’s hide! doff it for shame, And hang a calf’s-skin on those recreant limbs.
william shakespeare— The Life and Death of King John, Constance, scene i (1598)
The consolations of the vulgar are bitter in the royal ear. Let physicians and confectioners and servants in the great houses be judged by what they have done, and even by what they have meant to do; the great people themselves are judged by what they are. I have been told that lions, trapped and shut up in cages, grieve from shame more than from hunger.
karen blixen— "The Dreamers"
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— Taking Chances (1944)
Had another dream about the lions at the doorThey were not half as frightening as they were beforeBut I'm thinking about eternitySome kind'a ecstasy's got a hold on meWalls, windows, trees, waves coming throughYou be in me I'll be in youTogether in eternitySome kind'a ecstasy's got a hold on meUp among the firs where it smells so sweetOr down in the valley were the river used to beI got my mind on eternitySome kind'a ecstasy's got a hold on me, and I'mWondering where the lions are and I'mWondering where the lions are...
bruce cockburn— Wondering Where the Lions Are, Track 6 (See also: Ottawa Valley and Algonquin Park)
She dropped her glove, to prove his love, then looked at him and smiled;He bowed, and in a moment leaped among the lions wild:The leap was quick, return was quick, he has regained his place,Then threw the glove, but not with love, right in the lady's face."By God!" said Francis, "rightly done!" and he rose from where he sat:"No love," quoth he, "but vanity, sets love a task like that."
leigh hunt— The Glove and the Lions
While you make pretty speeches I'm being cut to shreds You feed me to the lions A delicate balance
thom yorke— "Like Spinning Plates"
Ah cannot we As well as cocks and lions jocund be, After such pleasures?
john donne— Farewell to Love, stanza 3.
I should prefer an army of stags led by a lion, to an army of lions led by a stag.
benito mussolini— Chabrias , as quoted in A Treatise on the Defence of Fortified Places (1814) by Lazare Carnot, p. 50
Join the company of lions rather than assume the lead among foxes.
— Talmud, Aboth, IV. 20. in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 124-25.
I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.
Alexander the Great
Join the company of lions rather than assume the lead among foxes.
— Talmud, Aboth. IV. 20.
An army of sheep led by a lion is better than an army of lions led by a sheep.
— Attributed to Chabrias, who died around the time Alexander was born, thus his is the earliest life to whom such assertions have been attributed; as quoted in A Treatise on the Defence of Fortified Places (1814) by Lazare Carnot, p. 50
An army of stags led by a lion would be better than an army of lions led by a stag.
— Attributed to Chabrias, in A History of Ireland (1857) by Thomas Mooney, p. 760
From Hallaj, I learned to hunt lions , but I became something hungrier than a lion.
— Rumi, as translated in We Are Three : New Rumi Poems (1987) translated by Coleman Barks, p. 1
So as you may see in Daniel and his companions, that would rather choose to burn, and be cast to the lions than they would bow to the idol which Nebuchadnezzar had set up. When this 'slight offense', in the world's account, and a hot fiery furnace stood in competition, that they must either fall into sin, or be cast into the fiery furnace such was their tenderness of the honor and glory of God, and their hatred and indignation against sin, that they would rather burn than sin!
Thomas Brooks— Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices (1652)
You are the hare of whom the proverb goes, Whose valor plucks dead lions by the beard.
william shakespeare— William Shakespeare, King John (1598), Act II, scene 1, line 137.
An army of sheep led by a lion is better than an army of lions led by a sheep.
— Attributed to Chabrias, who died around the time Alexander was born, thus his is the earliest life to whom such assertions have been attributed; as quoted in A Treatise on the Defence of Fortified Places (1814) by Lazare Carnot, p. 50
I am more afraid of one hundred sheep led by a lion than one hundred lions led by a sheep.
— Attributed to Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1754 – 1838) Variants: I am more afraid of an army of 100 sheep led by a lion than an army of 100 lions led by a sheep.
I am not afraid of an army of one hundred lions led by a sheep. I am afraid of army of 100 sheeps led by a lion.
A glorious band, the chosen few / On whom the Spirit came; / Twelve valiant saints, their hope they knew, / And mocked the cross and flame. / They met the tyrant’s brandished steel, / The lion’s gory mane; / They bowed their heads the death to feel...
— Who: Daniel "Danny" Dravot
— Source: The Man Who Would Be King (1975)
— Notes: Character and Peachy Carnehan are captured by the angry natives in Kafiristan, and the former is forced to cross the rope bridge over the gorge. As one of the natives cuts one rope, he sings the third verse of "The Son of God Goes Forth to War", and Peachy joins him; but soon the rope is cut completely, causing the bridge to topple over and Danny to fall to his death. Distraught, Peachy finishes the verse for him: "Who follows in their train?"
An army of sheep led by a lion is better than an army of lions led by a sheep.
— Attributed to Chabrias, in The Older We Get, The Better We Were, Marine Corps Sea Stories (2004) by Vince Crawley, p. 67
It is better to have sheep led by a lion than lions led by a sheep.
— Attributed to Polybius in Between Spenser and Swift: English Writing in Seventeenth Century Ireland (2005) by Deana Rankin, p. 124, citing A Contemporary History of Affairs in Ireland, from 1641 to 1652 (1880) by John Thomas Gilbert Vol. I, i, p. 153 - 157; but conceivably this might be reference to Polybius the historian quoting either Alexander or Chabrias.
An army composed of sheep but led by a lion is more powerful than an army of lions led by a sheep.
— "Proverb" quoted by Agostino Nifo in De Regnandi Peritia (1523) as cited in Machiavelli - The First Century: Studies in Enthusiasm, Hostility, and Irrelevance (2005) by Mathew Thomson, p. 55
At that Mother got proper blazing,"And thank you, sir, kindly," said she."What, waste all our lives raising childrenTo feed ruddy lions? Not me!"
marriott edgar— "Albert and the Lion", line 69
Rise like lions after slumber In unvanquishable number Shake your chains to earth like dew Which in sleep had fallen on you Ye are many they are few.
Percy Bysshe Shelley— St. 91. (The Mask of Anarchy (1819))
"And in that hope, dear soul, let trouble have rest, Knowing I tarry for thee," and pointed to Mars, As he glow’d like a ruddy shield on the Lion’s breast.
— Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "Maud: A Monodrama", V, 11.
We were the Leopards, the lions; those who'll take our place will be little jackals, hyenas; and the whole lot of us, Leopards, jackals, and sheep, we'll all go on thinking ourselves the salt of the earth.
giuseppe tomasi di lampedusa— Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, Il Gattopardo (1958), Archibald Colquhoun (trans.) The Leopard (London: Fontana, 1963). p. 152
