Serpent Quotes - Page 2

• The mediation by the serpent was necessary. Evil can seduce man, but cannot become man.

  Franz Kafka

  Men, Evil, Literature

  Franz Kafka (1954). “Wedding preparations in the country: and other posthumous prose writings. With notes by Max Brod”

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• Like the ocean is your god-self; It remains for ever undefiled. And like the ether it lifts but the winged. Even like the sun is your god-self; It knows not the ways of the mole nor seeks it the holes of the serpent. But your god-self does not dwell alone in your being. Much in you is still man, and much in you is not yet man, But a shapeless pigmy that walks asleep in the mist searching for its own awakening.

  Khalil Gibran

  Ocean, Humility, Men

  Khalil Gibran (2014). “The Prophet - Der Prophet”, p.64, Lulu.com

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• Before our globe had become egg-shaped or round it was a long trail of cosmic dust or fire-mist, moving and writhing like a serpent. This, say the explanations, was the Spirit of God moving on the chaos until its breath had incubated cosmic matter and made it assume the annular shape of a serpent with its tail in its month--emblem of eternity in its spiritual and of our world in its physical sense.

  Manly Hall

  Spiritual, Moving, Dust

  Manly Palmer Hall (2005). “Secret Teachings of All Ages”, p.232, Lulu.com

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• It is written, 'Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves' (Mt. 10:16). Being like serpents means not ignoring the attacks and wiles of the devil. Like is quickly shown to like. The simplicity of the dove denotes purity of action.

  Syncletica of Alexandria

  Christian, Wise, Mean

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• The poisonous serpent of afflictions is sleeping in your mind; just as if a black viper were asleep in your room. You must use the hook of precepts to quickly remove it. When the sleeping snake is gone, then you can rest at ease.

  Gautama Buddha

  Life, Buddhist, Sleep

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• An army, like a serpent, travels on its belly.

  Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor

  Army, Belly

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• Let him that sows the serpent's teeth not hope to reap a joyous harvest. Every crime has, in the moment of its perpetration, its own avenging angel,--dark misgivings at the inmost heart.

  Friedrich Schiller

  Heart, Angel, Dark

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• The serpent, the king, the tiger, the stinging wasp, the small child, the dog owned by other people, and the fool: these seven ought not to be awakened from sleep.

  Chanakya

  Inspirational, Dog, Kings

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• In the Garden of Eden Eve showed more courage than Adam.. when the serpent offered the forbidden fruit.
  She knew that there was something better than paradise.

  Cesare Borgia

  Garden, Eden, Paradise

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• Envy, the meanest of vices, creeps on the ground like a serpent.

  Ovid

  Envy, Vices, Creeps

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• How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child!

  William Shakespeare

  Life, Fathers Day, Kings

  'King Lear' (1605-6) act 1, sc. 4, l. [312]

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• 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 Wollstonecraft Shelley

  Knowledge, Science, Wish

  Frankenstein Letter 4 (1818)

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• At twenty a man is a peacock, at thirty a lion, at forty a camel, at fifty a serpent, at sixty a dog, at seventy an ape, at eighty a nothing at all.

  Baltasar Gracian

  Dog, Time, Men

  Baltasar Gracian, Baltasar Gracián y Morales (2004). “The Art of Worldly Wisdom”, p.158, Shambhala Publications

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• The Devil' is, historically, the God of any people that one personally dislikes... This serpent, SATAN, is not the enemy of Man, but He who made Gods of our race, knowing Good and Evil; He bade 'Know Thyself!' and taught Initiation. He is 'The Devil' of the Book of Thoth, and His emblem is BAPHOMET, the Androgyne who is the hieroglyph of arcane perfection... He is therefore Life, and Love.

  Aleister Crowley

  Life And Love, Book, Men

  Aleister Crowley (1991). “Magick: In Theory and Practice”, Book Sales

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• Your face, my thane, is as a book where men May read strange matters. 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

  Flower, Book, Eye

  'Macbeth' (1606) act 1, sc. 5, l. [63]

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• Adam's first domestic pet after the expulsion from Paradise was the serpent.

  Franz Kafka

  Pet, Paradise, Firsts

  Franz Kafka (1991). “The Blue Octavo Notebooks”

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• Those base men who speak of the secret faults of others destroy themselves like serpents that stray onto anthills.

  Chanakya

  Wisdom, Men, Secret

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• The lion of anger shall give place to the lamb of meekness; the raven of uncleanness shall fly before the dove of purity; the vile serpent of deceit shall be trodden under the heel of truth.

  Charles Spurgeon

  Ravens, Giving, Deceit

  Charles Spurgeon (2009). “Essential Works of Charles Spurgeon”, p.1473, Barbour Publishing

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• Sordid selfishness doth contract and narrow our benevolence, and cause us, like serpents, to infold ourselves within ourselves, and to turn out our stings to the entire world besides.

  Walter Scott

  Selfishness, World, Causes

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• Red serpents, fiery forms, and yelling hags, Fit company for mad adventurers.

  Philip Freneau

  Halloween, Yelling, Mad

  Philip Freneau (1963). “The Poems of Philip Freneau: Poet of the American Revolution (Complete)”, p.214, Library of Alexandria

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• To fight the raven you may make alliance with the serpent until the battle is done.

  Robert Jordan

  Fighting, Ravens, Battle

  Robert Jordan (2010). “Knife of Dreams: Book Eleven of 'The Wheel of Time'”, p.14, Macmillan

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• There is poison in the fang of the serpent, in the mouth of the fly and in the sting of a scorpion; but the wicked man is saturated with it.

  Chanakya

  Inspirational, Men, Wicked

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• Life lives on life. This is the sense of the symbol of the Ouroboros, the serpent biting its tail. Everything that lives lives on the death of something else. Your own body will be food for something else. Anyone who denies this, anyone who holds back, is out of order. Death is an act of giving.

  Joseph Campbell

  Life, Death, Order

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• Sometimes the serpent is represented as a circle eating its own tail. That’s an image of life. Life sheds one generation after another, to be born again. The serpent represents immortal energy and consciousness engaged in the field of time, constantly throwing off death and being born again. There is something tremendously terrifying about life when you look at it that way. And so the serpent carries in itself the sense of both the fascination and the terror of life.

  Joseph Campbell

  Circles, Generations, Tails

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• I have been a hundred times on the point of killing myself, but still was fond of life. This ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of our worst instincts. What can be more absurd than choosing to carry a burden that one really wants to throw to the ground? To detest, and yet to strive to preserve our existence? To caress the serpent that devours us, and hug him close to our bosoms till he has gnawed into our hearts?

  Voltaire

  Heart, Hug, Weakness

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