Turtle Quotes & Sayings

Think of this every day. I think of it when I meet the turtle with its patient green face, or hear the hawk's tin-tongued skittering cry, or watch the otters at play in the pond. I am blood and bone however that happened, but I am convictions of my singular experience and my own thought, and they are made greatly of the hours of the earth, rough or smooth, but never less than intimate, poetic, dreamy, adamant, ferocious, loving, life-shaping. — Mary Oliver

There's not a Hand in this town, sir, man, woman, or child, but has one ultimate object in life. That object is, to be fed on turtle soup and venison with a gold spoon. Now, they're not a-going - none of 'em - ever to be fed on turtle soup and venison with a gold spoon. — Charles Dickens

Ah, but would we not all be the fools to attack an armored turtle through its shell? — R.A. Salvatore

I am now a turtle. Virtually everything I own is on my back and suffice it to say I am one ton lighter and therefore 2,000 pounds happier. All houses are gone. — Bobby Darin

When Olivia leaves the room, I move to follow, but Franny steps into my path.

"Oh no, you stay here."

"Simon," I say with a scowl, "collect your wife before I say something I'll regret."

But Franny just tilts her head, appraising me. "I used to think you were a selfish bastard, but I'm starting to believe you're just a fool. A double-damned idiot. I'm not sure which is worse."

"Then I guess it's good that I don't give a turtle's arse-crack about your opinion of me. — Emma Chase

It was all very well going on about pure logic and how the universe was ruled by logic and the harmony of numbers, but the plain fact of the matter was that the Disc was manifestly traversing space on the back of a giant turtle and the gods had a habit of going round to atheists' houses and smashing their windows. — Terry Pratchett

Hear the mellow wedding bells, Golden bells! What a world of happiness their harmony foretells Through the balmy air of night How they ring out their delight! From the molten golden notes, And all in tune What a liquid ditty floats To the turtle-dove that listens while she gloats On the moon! — Edgar Allan Poe

The next day, a dead turtle was left on my doorstep as a warning. I couldn't figure out as a warning for what, and I guess whoever was watching me picked up on that, because the next morning there was another dead turtle, but this one had several sheets of paper glued to it's back leg. The pieces of paper contained a long footnoted explanation of all the symbolism involved. It didn't make a lot of sense to me. The turtle was the "turtle of inquisitiveness" and the cheese smeared on it's shell meant something, and the little cowboy boots on its feet meant something. Everything about this animal meant something apparently to whoever sent it. I still didn't get what it was all about. The next morning there was no turtle. Somebody just shot at me from the bushes. — John Swartzwelder

Your friend the Turtle... He died a few years ago. The old idiot puked inside his shell and choked to death on a galaxy or two. Very sad, don't you think? But also quite bizarre. — Stephen King

We could all be in a turtle's dream, in outer space! — Frank Reynolds

Barking machines!" Dylan exclaimed. "Didn't I tell you? I've never seen a beastie that couldn't get up on its own. Well, except a turtle. And one of my auntie's cats."
Alek raised an eyebrow. "And I'm sure your auntie's cat would have survived that aerial bomb."
"You'd be surprised. He's quite fast. — Scott Westerfeld

The otter's picnic ground is a large rock where we always find empty turtle shells. It is rather sad, but I can't help thinking how conveniently packaged a turtle is to an otter. Like a kind of Big Mac in a crushproof box. — Louise Erdrich

A turtle should take fright at the sound of a boiling pot. — Carol Kendall

The turtle stands on a turtle, which stands on a turtle. That's the universe in whole, boy. It's turtles all the way down. — Bill Willingham

I long ago lost a hound, a bay horse, and a turtle-dove, and am still on their trail. Many are the travellers I have spoken concerning them, describing their tracks and what calls they answered to. I have met one or two who had heard the hound, and the tramp of the horse, and even seen the dove disappear behind a cloud, and they seemed as anxious to recover them as if they had lost them themselves. — Henry David Thoreau

The turtle couldn't help us. — Stephen King

The slow turtle wins the race!" at it pertains to writing and editing well. — Dennis De Rose

As true as steel, as plantage to the moon,
As sun to day, at turtle to her mate,
As iron to adamant, as earth to centre. — William Shakespeare

And how many hours a day did you do lessons?' said Alice, in a hurry to change the subject.
Ten hours the first day,' said the Mock Turtle: 'nine the next, and so on.'
What a curious plan!' exclaimed Alice.
That's the reason they're called lessons,' the Gryphon remarked: 'because they lessen from day to day. — Lewis Carroll

Dad-a-dhuck, dad-a-churtle, don't worry, girl, you've got the turtle! — Stephen King

Gypsy was the name my brother gave a pet turtle he had. I always thought it was so peculiar. — Joel Hodgson

A turtle does come in it's own bowl — Mike Dirnt

What would it be like to be a turtle inside a shell hit by hailstones? — Naomi Shihab Nye

Begin. Keep on beginning. Nibble on everything.
Take a hike. Teach yourself to whistle. Lie.
The older you get the more they'll want your stories.
Make them up. Talk to stones. Short-out electric
fences. Swim with the sea turtle into the moon. Learn
how to die. Eat moonshine pie. Drink wild geranium
tea. Run naked in the rain. Everything that happens
will happen and none of us will be safe from it.
Pull up anchors. Sit close to the god of night.
Lie still in a stream and breathe water. Climb to the
top of the highest tree until you come to the branch
where the blue heron sleeps. Eat poems for breakfast.
Wear them on your forehead. Lick the mountain's
bare shoulder. Measure the color of days
around your mother's death. Put your hands over
your face and listen to what they tell you. — Ellen Kort

The idea of the state is, or should be, a very limited, prescribed idea. The state looks after the defense of the realm, and other matters - raising revenue to pay for things which are for all of us, and so on. That idea has turned turtle now. The state isn't any longer perceived as an institution which exists to serve us. — Tom Stoppard

On westminster Bridge, Arthur was struck by the brightness of the streetlamps running across like a formation of stars. They shone white against the black coats of the marching gentlefold and fuller than the moon against the fractal spires of Westminster. They were, Arthur quickly realized, the new electric lights, which the city government was installing, avenue by avenue, square by square, in place of the dirty gas lamps that had lit London's public spaces for a century. These new electric ones were brighter. They were cheaper. They required less maintenance. And they shone farther into the dime evening, exposing every crack in the pavement, every plump turtle sheel of stone underfoot. So long to the faint chiaroscuro of London, to the ladies and gentlemen in black-on-black relief. So long to the era of mist and carbonized Newcastle coal, to the stench of the Blackfriars foundry. Welcome to the cleasing glare of the twentieth century. — Graham Moore

The place where the story happened was a world on the back of four elephants perched on the shell of a giant turtle. That's the advantage of space. It's big enough to hold practically anything, and so, eventually, it does.
People think that it is strange to have a turtle ten thousand miles long and an elephant more than two thousand miles tall, which just shows that the human brain is ill-adapted for thinking and was probably originally designed for cooling the blood. It believes mere size is amazing.
There's nothing amazing about size. Turtles are amazing, and elephants are quite astonishing. But the fact that there's a big turtle is far less amazing than the fact that there is a turtle anywhere. — Terry Pratchett

Yeah, well, what are you going to teach me next ... how to take over the world?" I asked sarcastically.
"Good idea!" Sampson exclaimed a little too enthusiastically.
"No, bad idea!" I stressed.
"See? You are learning," Sampson said. — Jennifer Priester

Big words from a guy who's trussed up like a turkey. What are you going to do, wobble over here like an upside- down turtle to snap me in half?"
"The logistics of breaking you are easy. The only question is when. — Susan Ee

She opened her eyes.
He sniffed.
Ah! The rosemary! Holding her breath, she waited.
He sniffed again. "Is it an herb, nyet?"
She nodded, smiling shyly. "Rosemary."
"The cook at Tullock puts it in turtle soup."
Her smile faltered. She smelled like a turtle? Not a fragrant loaf of bread, but a turtle? "Surely you've smelled it in some other dishes, too? Bread, perhaps?"
He shook his head.
"In a delicious stew, then? Something savory and warm?"
He released her cloak. "In my country, we throw rosemary onto graves."
She just looked at him, appalled.
"That seems odd to you, nyet? Rosemary keeps fresh the ... How do you say-?" He tapped his forehead. "Thoughts about times no longer here."
"Memories?"
"Da! Rosemary keeps fresh the memories of the dead."
Lovely. She smelled like a turtle and the grave. — Karen Hawkins

Nothing," he said softly. "It's just a real nice turtle, that's all." "You — Amy Lane

Sometimes he reminded me of a turtle hiding inside its shell, in there thinking about things and not ever sticking his head out into the world. — Kate DiCamillo

So a lorry-load of tortoises crashed into a train-load of terrapins, I thought "That's a turtle disaster". — Tommy Cooper

As far as I knew, Nadia was still with her new guy, some fancy tennis player from Brazil. Donatello or Michelangelo or something. Ninja Turtle? Yeah. — Ilsa Madden-Mills

I am a huge animal lover. Growing up, my mother and I rescued countless animals - dogs, cats, birds, rabbits, even a turtle. I have been accused of caring more about animals than I do about people. — Amanda Schull

As ever, the original inhabitants of Turtle Island are entirely overlooked. Mysteriously, the only time indigenous people are guaranteed a mainstream Amerikkan mention is on Thanksgiving.
Again, to contextualize, this would be be kinda like someone busting into your house and robbing you blind, then sending you postcards once a year to remind you how much they are enjoying all of your stuff, and getting annoyed with you if you don't respond with appreciation for their thoughtfulness. — Inga Muscio

And even if she loses the charms, she thinks, they'll always be a part of her. The things that matter stay with you, seep into your skin. People get tattoos to have a permanent reminder of things they love or believe or fear, but though she'll never regret the turtle, she has no need to ink her flesh again to remember the past. She had not known the markings would be etched so deep. A — Christina Baker Kline

In the aftermath of an athletic humiliation on an unprecedented scale - a loss to a tortoise in a footrace so staggering that, his tormenters teased, it would not only live on in the record books, but would transcend sport itself, and be taught to children around the world in textbooks and bedtime stories for centuries; that hundreds of years from now, children who had never heard of a "tortoise" would learn that it was basically a fancy type of turtle from hearing about this very race - the hare retreated, understandably, into a substantial period of depression and self-doubt. — B.J. Novak

Words have a life of their own. There is no telling what they will do. Within a matter of days, they can even turn turtle and mean the opposite. — Craig Brown

Just like a turtle, we only make progress if we stick our neck out. — James Bryant Conant

It was her, Marie Antoinette, scrutinizing me, satanically silent. Some would say that Marie Antoinette could only express her hate in silence because she was a turtle. To these naive souls I would reply that hate, like laughter, makes less noise the deeper it is.
-pg 100 — Albert Sanchez Pinol

The 'sitch'? Did you watch that Kim Possible movie again? You know it only makes you sad that you don't have a naked mole-rat of your very own.'
'One, I've been watching Buffy, not Kim Possible. And two, it is so not fair that Dad won't let me get a Rufus when he lets Angel keep that stupid turtle. — Tammy Blackwell

You have to be like a turtle, she thought; you have to figure out how to bring your home along with you. — Ann Brashares

Contrary to her sister-in-law Janie's claims, Celia hadn't been in love with Kyle Gilchrist since her childhood - she'd simply loved to annoy him ... Armed with childish logic, Celia made it her mission to get under Kyle's skin as often as possible.
She'd drawn hearts emblazoned with her name on every one of his school notebooks.
He'd retaliated by stringing up her My Little Pony collection from a tree.
She'd pushed him into the stock tank.
He'd held her down and tickled her until she peed her pants.
She'd put a snapping turtle in his gym bag.
He'd tied her to the tire swing and spun her until she puked.
All harmless pranks that demanded retaliation. — Lorelei James

Withdraw, like a turtle, into a hard yet harmless shell, ornamented with beautiful memories of the past.
from the book 'I Know Who You Are! — Mariam Masood

Sure as eggs is eggs," he said. "As the turkey-farmer said when he hatched his first turtle. — Neil Gaiman

Take a walk with a turtle. And behold the world in pause. — Bruce Feiler

Turtle Tail, I know you'll always be with me," he called. "You waited a long time for our love to grow and it won't die now. I'll fight for you, Turtle Tail, and I'll make sure that your kits have a future on the moor, safe among friends." The clouds touched, becoming one. "I will not fail you. — Erin Hunter

Even if a horse comes down from kings and queens but lacks heart, he can't outrun a three-year-old turtle. — Fred Grove

So many careers came and went through me:
salamander finder, crawfish annoyer, flat-stone creek skipper, cedar chest smeller, railroad car counter, tin can stomper, milkweed blower, mulberry picker, snowball smoother, paper bag popper, steel rail walker, box turtle toucher, dark-sky watcher, best part saver. They didn't last long, these careers of mine, but flashed into and out of existence like mayflies. But while they employed me, I gave them an honest minute's work and was paid in the satisfactions of curiosity met and a job well done. — Jerry Spinelli

More humans should acquire the quality of the turtle. He makes more progress only when he sticks his neck out. — Mitch Kynock

Aging gracefully is about no heavy makeup, and not too much powder because it gets into the wrinkles, and, you know, to not get turtle eyelids and to not try to look young. — Iris Apfel

Turtle is putting seaweed all over me. It is the big turtle. She is so big that she can regurgitate
seaweed over me. It comes out of her mouth like
coming from a spoud of a fountain, which is actually a very nice feeling. It is not sticky at all. It is just
a very nice clean feeling and it is a wonderful ocean smell
about it. — Sandra Harner

I had to be self-contained, a kind of casual turtle carrying his house on his back. — John Steinbeck

Now you see,' said the turtle, drifting back into the pond, 'why it is useless to cry. Your tears do not wash away your sorrows. They feed someone else's joy. And that is why you must learn to swallow your own tears. — Amy Tan

The master was an old Turtle
we used to call him Tortoise
'
Why did you call him Tortoise, if he wasn't one?' Alice asked.
We called him Tortoise because he taught us,' said the Mock Turtle angrily; 'really you are very dull!'
You ought to be ashamed of yourself for asking such a simple question,' added the Gryphon; and then they both sat silent and looked at poor Alice, who felt ready to sink into the earth. — Lewis Carroll

Thou hast hit it: come, sit on me. Kath. Asses are made to bear, and so are you. Pet. Women are made to bear, and so are you. Kath. No such jade as bear you, if me you mean.202 Pet. Alas! good Kate, I will not burden thee; For, knowing thee to be but young and light, - Kath. Too light for such a swain as you to catch, And yet as heavy as my weight should be. Pet. Should be! should buz! Kath. Well ta'en, and like a buzzard. Pet. O slow-wing'd turtle! shall a buzzard take thee?208 Kath. Ay, for a turtle, as he takes a buzzard. Pet. Come, come, you wasp; i' faith you are too angry. Kath. If I be waspish, best beware my sting. Pet. My remedy is, then, to pluck it out.212 Kath. Ay, if the fool could find it where it lies. Pet. Who knows not where a wasp does wear his sting? In his tail. Kath. In his tongue. Pet. Whose tongue? Kath. Yours, if you talk of tails; and so farewell.216 Pet. What! with my tongue in your tail? nay, come again. — William Shakespeare

Pride of one's work is not improper, unladylike, or vain. We can all take a lesson from the sea turtle. She does not travel thousands of miles or risk all for her ego. She has an instinct for greatness
one that I believe is found in all living creatures. — Mary Alice

The inevitable tears began to fall. So like I said before, it wasn't the clothes, and it wasn't the humiliation that drove me to cry. It was something much worse. See, I cried because I should have known what had happened had been coming at me. None of it should have come as a surprise. This is what happened when I dared to be happy in my life. When I stuck my head out of my turtle shell and dared to smile, fate made sure to lay the smackdown to remind me I was not allowed a life like everyone else. — John Goode

Turtle has just one plan at a time, and every cell buys into it. — Ted Kooser

If Mother and Mameha couldn't come to an agreement, I would remain a maid all my life just as surely as a turtle remains a turtle — Arthur Golden

A leech who, having penetrated the shell of a turtle only to find that the creature has long been dead, deems it expedient to form a new attachment to a fresh turtle. — Ambrose Bierce

"The flowers have appeared in our land: the time of pruning is come: the voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land." When the soul, like the solitary turtle-dove, retires and recollects itself in meditation to converse with God, then the flowers, that is, good desires, appear; then comes the time of pruning, that is, the correction of faults that are discovered in mental prayer. — Alphonsus Liguori

The creatures of the sea hold special mystery, and they are among the most exciting, graceful, and beautiful on Earth. Just consider the living riot of a coral reef, the beauty of an albatross, the awesome power of a giant turtle, the grace of a dolphin. Now multiply that by the millions of creatures in the sea. Wow! — Carl Safina

Perhaps I am the turtle, able to live simply anywhere, even underwater for short periods, with my home on my back. — Kurt Vonnegut

You know what makes no sense? A bunch of penises making choices for vaginas. That's like interviewing a turtle on the struggles of being a dolphin. We — Luvvie Ajayi

When pleasure reaches its height passions are
intense, and feelings know no bounds;
As the mouth of the "divine turtle"
disgorges ts "silvery stream. — Lanling Xiaoxiao Sheng

Well, I never heard it before, but it sounds uncommon nonsense. — Lewis Carroll

Retain a calm heart, sit like a turtle, walk swiftly like a pigeon, and sleep like a dog — Li Ching-Yuen

The turtle only makes progress when it's neck is stuck out. — Rollo May

The holistic acupuncturist and the sea turtle rescuer may not be able to explain the feeling, 'We are serving the same thing,' but they are. Both are in service to an emerging story of the People that is the defining mythology of a new kind of civilization. — Charles Eisenstein

I was moving at the speed of a three-legged turtle, so it took a while to blink my eyes open, and even then it was just a thin crack. — Jennifer L. Armentrout

Watch the turtle. He only moves forward by sticking his neck out. — Louis V. Gerstner Jr.

We don't even know if we're in this room. We could be in a turtle's dream in outer space. — Danny DeVito

Now the leatherback turtle overcame the heat issue via a simple, but evolutionarily impossible solution; it is the only reptile that possesses fatty insulation known as brown adipose tissue, and the only reptile that regulates a high body temperature. This brown adipose tissue is the expression of the UCP1 gene, and, aside from the leatherbacks, is found only in mammals, amphibians, and fishes. Not one other reptile has UCP1. — B.C. Chase

this was exactly what he did: became a turtle, all hard shell. It was the perfect protection, the perfect weapon. She lost every time. She understood that — Gayle Forman

The body is simple as a turtle / and straight as a dog: / the body cannot lie. — Marge Piercy

Soups challenge us, because an enticing flavorful stew can be as different from the thin watery beverage sometimes erroneously called soup as a genuine green turtle is from the mock turtle. — Louis Pullig De Gouy

You are no failure, on a river. The water moves regardless - for all it cares, you might be a minnow or a tadpole, a turtle on a beavered log. You might be nothing at all. — Leif Enger

I believe that the world isn't always what we can see ... I believe there are secrets in the woods. And I believe that goodness wins out ... So, if someone's changed overnight - by witch curse or poison apple or were-turtle - you have to show them what's good. You show them love. That works a surprising amount of the time. — Anne Ursu

A rat is more alive than a turtle.
A turtle is slow, cold, mechanical, nearly a toy, a shell with legs. Their deaths didn't count. But a white rat is quick and warm in its envelope of skin — Leonard Cohen

I pledge allegiance to the soil
of Turtle Island,
and to the beings who thereon dwell
one ecosystem
in diversity
under the sun
With joyful interpenetratio n for all. — Gary Snyder

Marko looked as if he could use a makeover himself. A big-boned six foot three, he was much stockier than most Serbians, with an olive complexion and the out-of-proportion head of a Peanuts character. He wore an overcoat that was one size too big, a thick gray Brooks Brothers sweater with flecks of white, and a cream-colored turtleneck that actually made him look like a turtle. Marko — Neil Strauss

Human beings can learn valuable lessons in conservation of necessary personal resources for accomplishing the fundamental tenants of life by observing a judiciously paced turtle determinedly and stealthily traversing the world. — Kilroy J. Oldster

I've heard this attributed to Calvin Coolidge. "Behold the turtle. He never gets anywhere unless he sticks his neck out. — Mike Coyle

I'm that same David Crockett, fresh from the backwoods, half-horse, half-alligator, a little touched with the snapping turtle; can wade the Mississippi, leap the Ohio, ride upon a streak of lightning, and slip without a scratch down a honey locust [tree]. — Davy Crockett

How true a twain
Seemeth this concordant one!
Love hath reason,
Reason none,
If what parts, can so remain. — William Shakespeare

When assaulted, the tortoise withdraws into his shell. If then assaulted with a weapon, harm is managed gradually until the turtle is slaughtered. Notwithstanding, it is conceivable to "accumulate" the tortoise. On the other hand, harm could just apply when the turtle is out of his shell. Any strikes to his shell would go toward social event the tortoise, paying little mind to device. — Dave H

Turtles are greater than baby nephews, because it's ok to drop a turtle. — Demetri Martin

A turtle swims in the background while this shark's face is distorted by the diver's camera lens. — James Mayrose

She wore leather pants, a long-sleeved shirt open over a tank top, and enough guns and knives to make her look like a pissed-off Ninja Turtle. — S.M. Reine

There's one kind of writing that's always easy: Picking out something obviously stupid and reiterating how stupid it obviously is. This is the lowest form of criticism, easily accomplished by anyone. And for most of my life, I have tried to avoid this. In fact, I've spend an inordinate amount of time searching for the underrated value in ostensibly stupid things. I understand Turtle's motivation and I would have watched Medelin in the theater. I read Mary Worth every day for a decade. I've seen Korn in concert three times and liked them once. I went to The Day After Tomorrow on opening night. I own a very expensive robot that doesn't do anything. I am open to the possibility that everyting has metaphorical merit, and I see no point in sardonically attacking the most predictable failures within any culture. — Chuck Klosterman

What is [insert name here]? Does it taste good? — Ken Akamatsu

In the end, everyone loses everyone. There was no invention to get around that, and so I felt, that night, like the turtle that everything else in the universe was on top of. — Jonathan Safran Foer

Captain's Log...

...Four days have passed with no sign of human life on this island. Hunger is about to push me to the point of...

...Eating pocket lint.

It looks edible. — Ken Akamatsu

A turtle without a shell is a very strange thing. Even with shells, turtles are very strange things, with their miniature elephant's feet, parrot's beak and ludicrous tail.
-pg 30 — Albert Sanchez Pinol

But we are mostly what we are, and the turtle stretching toward delicious buds on high does not lighten his carapace by his resolve. — Arthur Miller

When I told my sister, who was a fashion designer in college, what I wanted to do, she said I was crazy. But once I got started, I couldn't turn back. Kimberly Goodwin, Snapping Turtle Kids — Holly Hurd

A lizard fucks a crab and nine months later a turtle pops out. It's called evolution. — Anthony Marra

I have an image of
Turtle
right on the forehead.
She seems to go through the lobes of my brain. Sort of
like swimming. — Sandra Harner