Serpent Quotes
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In the beginning, said a Persian poet, Allah took a rose, a lily, a dove, a serpent, a little honey, a Dead Sea apple, and a handful of clay. When he looked at the amalgam it was a woman.
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More Serpent Quotes
Kerala 's capital Tiruvanathapuram or Trivandrum which is infinitely easier to say and write was named after the serpent God Anantha, on whom Lord Vishnu reclines.
— Aline Dobbie, in India: The Elephant's Blessing, 2006, p.128
To fight the raven you may make alliance with the serpent until the battle is done.
robert jordan— Byar, Children of the Light
Padmanabha Swamy temple located inside the East Fort, this Vaishnava temple is very famous attracting devotees from all parts. Dedicated to Lord Vishnu sleeping on Anantha, the serpent king, this temple is a rare blend of Dravidian architecture and the Kerala style.
— Biju Mathew, in Pilgrimage to Temple Heritage, 2013. p.65
What, would'st thou have a serpent sting thee twice?
william shakespeare— William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice (late 1590s), Act IV, scene 1, line 69.
Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the L God had made.
Bible (Old Testament)— Genesis 3:1.
And the serpent said unto the woman,Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
Bible (Old Testament)— Genesis 3:4-5.
And the man said,The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the L God said unto the woman,What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said,The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
Bible (Old Testament)— Genesis 3:12-13.
And the L God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly thou shalt go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Bible (Old Testament)— Genesis 3:14-15.
And now, when I have summed up all my store, Thinking (so I myself deceive) So rich a chaplet thence to weave As never yet the King of Glory wore, Alas! I find the serpent old, That, twining in his speckled breast, About the flowers disguised does fold With wreaths of fame and interest.
Andrew Marvell— c.1650-1652 'The Coronet' (published1681).
You seek for knowledge and wisdom as I once did; and I ardently hope that the gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to sting you, as mine has been.
Mary Godwin Shelley— 1818 Frankenstein, letter 4.
I assure you, a tiger, or a venomous serpent could not rouse terror in me equal to that which he wakens.
emily brontë— Isabella Linton on Heathcliff (Ch. XIII).
Now will I show myself to have more of the serpent than the dove; that is, more knave than fool.
Christopher Marlowe— Cf "Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves", Matthew 10:16.
Who grasp'd at earthly fame, Grasped wind: nay, worse, a serpent grasped that through His hand slid smoothly, and was gone; but left A sting behind which wrought him endless pain.
robert pollok— Robert Pollok, The Course of Time (1827), Book III, line 533.
"To which god must I sacrifice in order to heal?" To which of the warring serpents should I turn with the problem that now faces me? It is easy, and tempting, to choose the god of Science. Now I would not for a moment have you suppose that I am one of those idiots who scorns Science, merely because it is always twisting and turning, and sometimes shedding its skin, like the serpent that is its symbol. It is a powerful god indeed but it is what the students of ancient gods called a shape-shifter, and sometimes a trickster.
Robertson Davies— Can a Doctor Be a Humanist? (1984)
I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel: "As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal; Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel, Since God is marching on."
julia ward howe— Published version, in the Atlantic Monthly (February 1862).
The trail of the human serpent is thus over everything.
william james— Lecture II, What Pragmatism Means
The book of Mark in the Bible's New Testament calls serpent handling one of the "signs" that true believers must follow.
— In "Custody of 'snake-bite orphans' split between grandparents". CNN. 12 February 1999. Retrieved on 2 January 2014.
Today, two serpent motifs are commonly used to symbolize the practice and profession of medicine . Internationally, the most popular symbol of medicine is the single serpententwined staff of Asklepios (Latin, Aesculapius ), the ancient Greco-Roman god of medicine.
— In The Symbol of Modern Medicine: Why One Snake Is More Than Two. Annals of Internal Medicine. Retrieved on 3 January 2014.
Any other ’spell’ or ‘fascination’ or attraction might be attributed to a soporific or paralytic rather than a pleasurable influence; and arising from noxious breath of a venomous serpent or the fixity of its eyes, never blinking.
— In p.528 (Snakes: Curiosities and Wonders of Serpent Life)
It is serpent nature to wait motionless for its prey.
— In p.529 (Snakes: Curiosities and Wonders of Serpent Life)
He seems to have been a serpent of serpents in the bosom of all the nineties . That in itself endears him to one.
— D. H. Lawrence, in Adelphi (December 1925); cited from Michael Herbert (ed.) Selected Critical Writings (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998) p. 200.
Hier auprès de Charenton Un serpent morait Jean Fréron, Que croyez-vous qu'il arriva? Ce fut le serpent qui creva.
— Imitation from the Greek. Found also in Œuvres Complèts de Voltaire, III, p. 1002. (1817). Printed as Voltaire's; attributed to Piron; claimed for Fréron.
To beguile the time, Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye, Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under 't.
william shakespeare— William Shakespeare, Macbeth (c. 1605), Act I, Scene 5.
And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil , and Satan , which deceiveth the whole world : he was cast out into the earth , and his angels were cast out with him.
— John of Patmos, in the Book of Revelation 12:7-9
But the trail of the serpent is over them all.
thomas moore— Thomas Moore, Lalla Rookh (1817), Paradise and the Peri, line 206.
We were ensnared by the wisdom of the serpent; we are set free by the foolishness of God .
— 1:14
— Latin: Serpentis sapientia decepti sumus, Dei stultitia liberamur.
But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent seduced Eve by its cunning, Your minds might be corrupted away from the sincerity and the chastity that are due the Christ.
— Paul of Tarsus; 2 Corinthians 11:3
What is time ? It is a serpent which eats its tail [...].
kurt vonnegut— Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions, Or Goodbye Blue Monday! (1973)
Where’s my serpent of old Nile? For so he calls me.
— Cleopatra, speaking of Antony, scene v
