Hedgehog Quotes & Sayings

This is the difference between the fox and the hedgehog. Both creatures know that storytelling is everything, and that the only way modern people can understand history and politics is through the machinations of a story. But only the hedgehog knows that storytelling is secretly the problem, which is why the fox is constantly wrong. — Chuck Klosterman

Toby, watch Jaden. I heard he had a bad night and is in the mood for annihilation. End of the world's not on me today, bud. Hey, Takeshi, get your fat butt off me. You're squishing the fox. There is no honor in sacrificing the fox, you ugly hedgehog. (Acheron) — Sherrilyn Kenyon

Smiley was the oddest. You thought, to look at him, that he couldn't cross the road alone, but you might as well have offered protection to a hedgehog. — John Le Carre

Sonic the hedgehog is a beautiful statement on capitalism. You spend your whole life collecting yellow rings and then hit one spike and lose them all. And there is a fat man who wants to kill you. — Thom Yorke

My future chef was an oversized, hysterical hedgehog with a martyr complex. — Ilona Andrews

I successfully chloroformed a hedgehog that was entangled in the tennis net and so managed to release it. — Agatha Christie

At least he went on saying this till Aslan had loaded him up with three dwarfs, one dryad, two rabbits, and a hedgehog, that steadied him a bit. — C.S. Lewis

It was still white, and it still glowed under the moon, and the cobbles were still as rounded as old skulls, and the leaves still looked like splashes of blood across the stones, but Rhea felt better. She was still going somewhere terrible, but she had a hedgehog, dammit. — T. Kingfisher

That's what the future is for: to build the present, with real plans, made by living people. - The Elegance of the Hedgehog — Muriel Barbery

If somebody thinks they're a hedgehog, presumably you just give 'em a mirror and a few pictures of hedgehogs and tell them to sort it out for themselves. — Douglas Adams

The Hedgehog Concept comes from the Greek fable about the fox and the hedgehog: while the wily fox knows many things, the simple hedgehog only knows one thing, but that one knowledge bite is highly impactful in protecting itself against danger. Discovering that simple but essential element is what created the success of the good-to-great companies. — Eighty Twenty Publishing

He had about the same life expectancy as a three legged hedgehog on a six lane motorway. — Terry Pratchett

Then he realized that Salander was in costume. Usually her style was sloppy and rather tasteless. Blomkvist had assumed that she was not really interested in fashion, but that she tried instead to accentuate her own individuality. Salander always seemed to mark her private space as hostile territory, and he had thought of the rivets in her leather jacket as a defense mechanism, like the quills of a hedgehog. To everyone around her it was as good a signal as any: Don't try to touch me - it will hurt. — Stieg Larsson

Fraser stood quite still for a moment, breathing slowly and regarding Woodbine as a tiger might regard a hedgehog: yes, he could eat it, but would the inconvenience of swallowing be worth it? — Diana Gabaldon

Had the ancient Greek poet Archilochus and the modern philosopher Isaiah Berlin been magically transported to northern Italy in November of 218 B.C., they might well have speculated on the strategic prospects. "Hannibal knows many things, but Rome knows one big thing," the Greek might have proposed. To which Berlin might have replied, "Perhaps at the outset. But then the fox could get stuck in a rut, and the hedgehog might learn new tricks." This would have been the Second Punic War epitomized. — Anonymous

I'm fairly certain, Captain," she said, "that the more you discover about me, the more you will dislike me. Therefore, let's cut to the chase and acknowledge that we don't like each other. Then we won't have to bother with the in-between part."
She was so bloody frank and practical about the whole thing that Christopher couldn't help but be amused.
"I'm afraid I can't oblige you."
"Why not?"
"Because when you said that just now, I found myself starting to like you."
"You'll recover," she said.
Her decisive tone made him want to smile. "It's getting worse, actually," he told her. "Now I'm absolutely convinced that I like you."
Beatrix gave him a patently skeptical stare. "What about my hedgehog? Do you like her, too?"
Christopher considered that. "Affection for rodents can't be rushed."
"Medusa isn't a rodent. She's an erinaceid. — Lisa Kleypas

The Gerat Bald Swamp Hedgehog of Billericay displays, in courtship, his single prickle and does impressions of Holiday Inn desk clerks. Since this means him standing motionless for enormous periods of time he is often eaten in full display by The Great Bald Swamp Hedgehog Eater. — Mike Harding

Nothing kills a party like an oversize metal hedgehog. — Ilona Andrews

It may seem odd to talk about something as soft and fuzzy as "passion" as an integral part of a strategic framework. But throughout the good-to-great companies, passion became a key part of the Hedgehog Concept. — James C. Collins

Finding peace and contentment with Evernight - two emotions he was certain he'd never found in bed with a woman before - was entirely unacceptable. When awake, the woman was prickly as a hedgehog and about as lovable as a block of ice. — Kristen Callihan

With respect to the ZPA, what kind of digit develops depends on how close the digit is to the source of Sonic hedgehog. — Neil Shubin

I'm not a mouse or a tigress, she thought, I'm a hedgehog. — Vikram Seth

The fox knows many things . . . the hedgehog knows one big thing. — Eric Greitens

She was still going somewhere terrible, but she had a hedgehog, damnit. — T. Kingfisher

Isabelle drifted over, Jace a pace behind her. She was wearing a long black dress with boots and an even longer cutaway coat of soft green velvet, the color of moss. "I can't believe you did it!" she exclaimed. "How did you get Magnus to let Jace leave?"
"Traded him for Alec," Clary said.
Isabelle looked mildly alarmed. "Not permanently?"
"No," said Jace. "Just for a few hours. Unless I don't come back," he added thoughtfully. "In which case, maybe he does get to keep Alec. Think of it as a lease with an option to buy."
Isabelle looked dubious. "Mom and Dad won't be pleased if they find out."
"That you freed a possible criminal by trading away your brother to a warlock who looks like a gay Sonic the Hedgehog and dresses like the Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?" Simon inquired. "No, probably not. — Cassandra Clare

The hedgehog was engaged in a fight with another hedgehog, which seemed to Alice an excellent opportunity for croqueting one of them with the other: the only difficulty was, that her flamingo was gone across to — Lewis Carroll

It is somehow easier to face things when one is not alone. Courage still does most of the heavy lifting, but Pride gets its shoulder in there, too, just to keep you from embarrassing yourself in front of the other person...or hedgehog, as the case may be. — T. Kingfisher

The figure stopped to cough long and hard, making a noise like a wall being hit repeatedly with a bag of rocks. Moist saw that it had a beard of the short bristled type that suggested that its owner had been interrupted halfway through eating a hedgehog. — Terry Pratchett

There is an ugly kind of forgiveness in this world,
a kind of hedgehog forgiveness, shot out like quills. Men take one who has offended, and set him down before the blowpipe of their indignation, and scorch him, and burn his fault into him; and when they have kneaded him sufficiently with their fiery fists, then
they forgive him. — Henry Ward Beecher

You're letting him get to you. You're like a walking mythological encyclopedia, Kate. You pull random mystical crap out of your head and figure out that a giant monster nobody has seen on the face of the planet for three thousand years is allergic to hedgehogs and then you find a cute hedgehog and stab the monster in the eye with it."
"Where do you even get this shit? — Ilona Andrews

I'm an inveterate fox and not a hedgehog, so I always think you should try everything. — Clifford Geertz

When I went to college, I discovered the Sega console, and 'Sonic the Hedgehog' became very dear to me. — Edgar Wright

He has been mad for you these many months, ever since you prodded him in the nether regions with a hedgehog. — Gail Carriger

Until that time I had ascribed the reasons for my cultural eclecticism to my condition as a proletarian autodidact. As I have already explained, I have spent every moment of my existence that could be spared from work in reading, watching films, and listening to music.
Muriel Barbery, translated by Alison Anderson, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, 2008 — Muriel Barbery

Noah, however, was a son of a bitch of a captain who ran a very tight ship. Only pairs of the best and the brightest were allowed to climb the plank - perpetuate the species, repopulate the planet, and all that Nazi nonsense. Would Noah have allowed a lesbian zebra aboard, an unmarried hedgehog, a limping lemur? — Rabih Alameddine

Coraline also explored for animals. She found a hedgehog, and a snakeskin )but no snake), and a rock that looked just like a frog, and a toad that looked just like a rock. — Neil Gaiman

The most absurd thing of the whole affair was that we were never engaged. He just started showing up Sunday after Sunday and now expected to marry me. I never went out alone (or chaperoned) with him anywhere, I never even smiled at him. If that is all it takes to be engaged then I could have been married off to a hedgehog if it showed up every
Sunday. — Astrid Yrigollen

Ringo's eyes narrowed as he studied me. "Yer different." "Than what? A hedgehog?" He — April White

Step aside? I step aside for nobeast, whether it be a hallowed hedgehog, an officious otter, a seasoned squirrel, a mutterin' mole or a befuddled badger! — Brian Jacques

So my answer is, YES, everyone can find a hedgehog concept. If these companies can do it, anyone can do it. And anybody who says they can't is simply whining. — James Collins

Consider the simple hedgehog, and his neighbor, the opossum ... do they waste their energy trying to throw one another into chasms when they face a common enemy, the winter? No! — Ransom Riggs

Art is life playing to other rhythms."
"The Elegance of the Hedgehog — Muriel Barbery

Madame Michel has the elegance of the hedgehog: on the outside she is covered in quills, a real fortress, but my gut feeling is that on the inside, she has the same simple refinement as the hedgehog: a deceptively indolent little creature, fiercely solitary
and terrible elegant. — Muriel Barbery

I am voice actor Roger Craig Smith. You may know me as Batman, Captain America, Sonic the Hedgehog, Ezio from Assassin's Creed, Transformers: RID, or narrator of "Say Yes To the Dress" (among many other things). AMA! — Roger Craig Smith

We all make mistakes, as the hedgehog said as he climbed off the scrubbing brush — Anne Sullivan Macy

I speak many times about Stephen Ireland, that he is shy like a hedgehog. — Giovanni Trapattoni

The box filled gradually around them over the next half hour. Mr. Weasley kept shaking hands with people who were obviously very important wizards. Percy jumped to his feet so often that he looked as though he were trying to sit on a hedgehog. — J.K. Rowling

I came to California to study oceanography." "That sounds like a perfectly good reason," she said. "Well" - he flicked his pen in short strokes around the hedgehog's face - "as it turns out, I don't actually like the ocean." Georgie laughed. Neal's eyes were laughing with her. "I'd never seen it before I got here," he said, glancing quickly up at her. "I thought it seemed cool." "It's not cool?" "It's really wet," he said. "And also outside." Georgie kept laughing. Neal kept inking. "Sunburn ... ," he said, "seasick ... " "So now what are you studying?" "I am definitely still studying oceanography," he said, nodding at his drawing. "I am definitely here on an oceanography scholarship, still studying oceanography." "But that's terrible. You can't study oceanography if you don't like the ocean." "I may as well." He almost smiled again. "I don't like anything else either. — Rainbow Rowell

Some persons think that they have to look like a hedgehog to be pious. — Billy Sunday

I'm honest enough to say that I dinna care what the right and wrong of it may be, so long as you're here wi' me, Claire," he said softly. "If it was a sin for you to choose me ... then I would go to the devil himself and bless him for tempting ye to it." He lifted my foot and gently kissed the tip of my big toe.
I laid my hand on his head; the short hair felt bristly but soft, like a very young hedgehog.
"I don't think it was wrong," I said softly. "But if it was ... then I'll go to the devil with you, Jamie Fraser. — Diana Gabaldon

The English, who look on stoically as national health hospitals in run-down metropolitan areas close their wards through lack of support and patients spend time on trolleys in corridors, are comforted by the knowledge that wounded hedgehogs are tenderly cared for in a hedgehog hospital. — Antony Miall

If wits were pins, the man would be a veritable hedgehog. — Frances Hardinge

That you freed a possible criminal by trading away your brother to a warlock who looks like a gay sonic the Hedgehog and dresses like the childcatcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. — Cassandra Clare

Hedgehog Concept - disciplined action, following from disciplined people who exercise disciplined thought. — James C. Collins

Captain Phelan and I dislike each other," Beatrix told her. "In fact, we're sworn enemies."
Christopher glanced at her quickly. "When did we become sworn enemies?"
Ignoring him, Beatrix said to her sister, "Regardless, he's staying for tea."
"Wonderful," Amelia said equably. "Why are you enemies, dear?"
"I met him yesterday while I was out walking," Beatrix explained. "And he called Medusa a 'garden pest,' and faulted me for bringing her to a picnic."
Amelia smiled at Christopher. "Medusa has been called many worse things around here, including 'diseased pincushion,' and 'perambulating cactus. — Lisa Kleypas

There is a little phrase commonly used in police work that says, "in accordance with the evidence." You say that over six times a day as a grace before and after meals, and perhaps it will keep your feet on the ground and stop you ending up thinking you're Frederick the Great or a hedgehog or something. — Josephine Tey

This area produces a protein given the whimsical name Sonic Hedgehog, — Brian Switek

A hedgehog? And just how does a hedgehog make love?" he demanded.
No, I thought. I won't. I will not. But I did. "Very carefully," I replied, giggling helplessly. So now we know just how old that one is, I thought. — Diana Gabaldon

Hair and hole, horn and teeth - hedgehog, walrus, ape, Josef Breuer. He — Irvin D. Yalom

You must be hungry," said the satyr. "Either that, or your stomach speaks hedgehog. That was quite a statement in hedgehog. — Rick Riordan

Reichardt kept people relentlessly focused on the simple hedgehog idea, — James C. Collins

It was starting to get impatient. A hedgehog hopping irritably on its hind legs is a tragic sight. — T. Kingfisher

I never sleep before 4 A.M. and usually play 'Sonic the Hedgehog' computer games before bed. I like Sonic - he reminds me of Happy, my hamster that died. I used to stay up and watch Happy. — Martin Millar

Sharon exuded the brightness of a firefly, the confidence of a double-decker bus, the optimism of a hedgehog and the tact of a small thermonuclear missile. — Kate Griffin

Drenched in British purples, I have offered up my tones: pigeon breast, hind belly, balky mule lung, monkey bottom pink, lapis lazuli and malachite, excited nymph thigh, panther pee-pee, high-smelling hen hair, hedgehog in aspic, barrel-maker's brothel, revered rose, monkeybush, turkey-like white, sly violet, page's slipper, immaculate nun spring, unspeakable red, Ensor azure, affected yellow, mummy skull, rock-hard gray, brunt celadon, shop soiled smoke ring. — James Ensor

An aphorism ought to be entirely isolated from the surrounding world like a little work of art and complete in itself like a hedgehog. — Friedrich Von Schlegel

In classic hedgehog style, Walgreens took this simple concept and implemented it with fanatical consistency. — James C. Collins

In other words, the budget process is not about figuring out how much each activity gets, but about determining which activities best support the Hedgehog Concept and should be fully strengthened and which should be eliminated entirely. — James C. Collins

The fox has many tricks. The hedgehog has but one, but that is the best of all. — Archilochos

My digestion is not mocked!" boomed the Russian. "Nor will I stand idly while Miss Larouche is insulted! You are banished, hedgehog! My digestion has spoken-BEGONE! — James Kennedy

Daemon Black could be as prickly as a hedgehog having a really bad day, but underneath all that spindly armor, he was sweet, protective, and incredibly selfless. — Jennifer L. Armentrout

Isabelle looked dubious. "Mom and Dad won't be pleased if they find out."
"That you freed a possible criminal by trading away your brother to a warlock who looks like a gay Sonic the Hedgehog and dresses like the Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Band? Simon inquired. "No, probably not. — Cassandra Clare

The way you want to respond is to ask a question: Is this technology directly relevant to our hedgehog concept? If the answer is YES, then we want to become pioneers, not in the technology, but in the application of that technology specifically linked to our hedgehog concept. — James Collins

New Rule: Bring back a little pubic hair. Not a lot, I'm not talking about reviving that 1973 look that said "I'm liberated" and "I'm smuggling a hedgehog."I just want a friendly, fuzzy calling card that's a middle ground between toddler smooth and "Dr. Livingston, I presume?" It's supposed to have some hair on it. It's a pussy, not Dr. Evil's cat. Call me old school, but there's a name for a guy who needs it hair-free: He's called a pedophile. — Bill Maher

Isaiah Berlin once said that there are two kinds of writers, hedgehogs and foxes. He said the fox knows many things, the hedgehog knows just one thing. So Shakespeare is a typical fox; Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky are typical hedgehogs. Now, I'm a typical hedgehog. I know just one thing, and I repeat it over and over again. I try to approach it from different angles to make it look different, but it's the same thing. — Colin Wilson

He lies like a hedgehog rolled up the wrong way, Tormenting himself with his prickles. — Thomas Hood

How the fuck do you keep your hair like that? I look like a hedgehog's been humping my skull. — James S.A. Corey

In the end it wins a king's daughter, who is expected to burn its hedgehog-skin at night, and does so, and finds herself clasping a beautiful prince, all singed and soot-black. Christabel says, 'And if he regretted his armoury of spines and his quick wild wits, history does not relate, for we must go no further, having reached the happy end. — A.S. Byatt

Small, short-sighted, blonde, barbed - she reminds me of a bright little hedgehog. — Edwina Currie

The Germans invited you to their country to work, not to mingle, and expected you to leave as soon as you were no longer needed. Adapting to their ways was like trying to embrace a hedgehog. There might be a secret tenderness, a gentle core underneath, but you couldn't pass the sharp needles to tap into it. — Elif Shafak

I go to all the appointments. All the meetings. I sit with the team of inclusion teachers, occupational therapists, doctors, social workers, remedial teachers, and the cab driver that gets him from appointment to appointment, and I push for everything that can be done for my autistic boy. But I will never have a plan that will fix him. Noah is not something to be fixed.
And our life will never be normal. And people always say,
oh well what's normal, there's no such thing really, and I say
sure there is ... there's a spectrum ... and there's lots and lots of possibilities within that spectrum, and trust me buddy, ducks on the moon ain't one of them ... .but ... .
In this abnormal life, I get to live with a pirate,
and a bird fancier, and an ogre, and a hedgehog, and many many superheroes, and aliens and monsters
and an angel.
I get to go to infinity and beyond. — Kelley Jo Burke

"Growth!" is not a Hedgehog Concept. Rather, if you have the right Hedgehog Concept and make decisions relentlessly consistent with it, you will create such momentum that your main problem will not be how to grow, but how not to grow too fast. — James C. Collins

When I was super young, I had an Atari and used to play 'Space Invaders.' Then I fell in love with 'Mario Bros.,' 'Sonic the Hedgehog' and 'Yoshi' on Super Nintendo. I was quite a bit of a gamer as a kid when I think about it. — Amber Rose

So if there is something on the planet that is worth living for, I'd better not miss it, because once you're dead, it's too late for regrets, and if you die by mistake, that is really, really dumb. — Muriel Barbery

I recognize a few more of the attendees: Mustela fae - ferret-like creatures with long, venomous fangs and vulnerable craniums, a hedgehog being with the face of a sparrow, a pink woman with a neck as long as a flamingo. There — A.G. Howard

I hate the hand that comes out of a car and just drops litter in the street. I hate that! For some reason, it just fills me with fury! It's just utter laziness, lack of interest in other people, lack of interest in the planet, in the hedgehog who might eat the plastic bag, it's a lack of concern. — Joanna Lumley

That evening the men worked late to finish and I raked the fields in the dusk with Alison, stopping to pick the dog-roses which were like white stars in the hedges, then hastening after my sister. Dumbledores boomed as they struck our dresses, a hedgehog walked in the path, and we could hear the barking of a fox in the wood. Night — Alison Uttley

The mower stalled, twice; kneeling, I found
A hedgehog jammed up against the blades,
Killed. It had been in the long grass.
I had seen it before, and even fed it, once.
Now I had mauled its unobtrusive world
Unmendably. Burial was no help:
Next morning I got up and it did not.
The first day after a death, the new absence
Is always the same; we should be careful
Of each other, we should be kind
While there is still time. — Philip Larkin

Better not sit on a hedgehog if you're naked." ~ Russian Author Mikhail Bulgakov ~ The White Guard 1925 — T.C. Donivan

The fox knows many tricks; the hedgehog one good one. — Archilochos

If you have Level 5 leaders who get the right people on the bus, if you confront the brutal facts of reality, if you create a climate where the truth is heard, if you have a Council and work within the three circles, if you frame all decisions in the context of a crystalline Hedgehog Concept, if you act from understanding, not bravado - if you do all these things, then you are likely to be right on the big decisions. — James C. Collins

You can pluck up your spirits, Bluebell," he said. "I think we're close to the iron road." "I wouldn't care about my spirits," said Bluebell, "if my legs weren't so tired. Slugs are lucky not to have legs. I think I'll be a slug." "Well, I'm a hedgehog," said Hazel, "so you'd better get on!" "You're not," replied Bluebell. "You haven't enough fleas. Now, slugs don't have fleas, either. How comforting to be a slug, among the dandelions so snug - " "And feel the blackbird's sudden tug," said Hazel. — Richard Adams

The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. — Isaiah Berlin

I don't know why I'm second-guessing Crevan's sanity - I'm sitting here talking to a hedgehog mime. — T. Kingfisher

Is this the part where you suggest a highly inadvisable way of putting people in the mood to talk, in hopes that someone can shed light on who the"--Henry glanced at Vivvie--"hedgehog might be?"
"It's funny," I told Henry... "but the moment you said inadvisable, I had a thought."
...
"The hedgehog?" Emilia asked, wrinkling her brow. — Jennifer Lynn Barnes

They lay on their heathery beds and listened to all the sounds of the night. They heard the little grunt of a hedgehog going by. They saw the flicker of bats overhead. They smelt the drifting scent of honeysuckle, and the delicious smell of wild thyme crushed under their bodies. A reed-warbler sang a beautiful little song in the reeds below, and then another answered. — Enid Blyton

What ... you're a hedgehog!" It stirred at her touch and then curled up tighter. "You're a very small hedgehog. And you shouldn't be wandering round enchanted palaces looking for adventures. — Robin McKinley