Serpent Quotes - Page 7

• The faith towards God in Christ must be sure and steadfast, that it may solace and make glad the conscience, and put it to rest. When a man has this certainty, he has overcome the serpent; but if he be doubtful of the doctrine, it is for him very dangerous to dispute with the devil.

  Martin Luther

  Men, Devil, Overcoming

  Martin Luther (1848). “The table talk or familiar discourse of Martin Luther, tr. by W. Hazlitt”, p.19

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• Schemes within schemes. The Great Serpent is a good sign for you Aes Sedai, I think. Someday you may swallow yourselves by accident.

  Robert Jordan

  Thinking, May, Someday

  Robert Jordan (2010). “The Fires of Heaven: Book Five of 'The Wheel of Time'”, p.278, Macmillan

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• Death is not regarded as a natural affair by primitive man. Death is believed to be due to the intervention of some malevolent or at least not well disposed power. Normally it should not take place. So we have all through history crude explanations of death, as e.g., the influence of the serpent, the devil, sin.

  Joseph Alexander Leighton

  Men, Primitive Man, Devil

  Joseph Alexander Leighton (1918). “The Field of Philosophy: An Outline of Lectures on Introduction to Philosophy”

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• The fifth and by far the most important reason is that stoning is literally a means of crushing the murderer's head by means of a rock, which is symbolic of God. This is analogous to the crushing of the head of the serpent in Genesis 3:15. This symbolism testifies to the final victory of God over all the hosts of Satan. Stoning is therefore integral to the commandment against murder.

  Gary North

  Crush, Mean, Rocks

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• Another striding instance is recorded by the very intelligent traveler regarding a representation of the fall of our first parents, sculptured in the magnificent temple of Ipsambul in Nubia. He says that a very exact representation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is to be seen in that cave, and that the serpent climbing round the tree is especially delineated, and the whole subject of the tempting of our first parents most accurately exhibited.

  Godfrey Higgins

  Fall, Intelligent, Garden

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• Happy! Who is happy? Was there not a serpent in Paradise itself? And if Eve had been perfectly happy beforehand, would she have listened to the tempter?

  William Makepeace Thackeray

  Happiness, Paradise, Ifs

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• Sir Francis Bacon observed that a well-written book, compared with its rivals and antagonists, is like Moses' serpent, that immediately swallowed up and devoured those of the Egyptians.

  Joseph Addison

  Book, Style, Rivals

  Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1852). “The Spectator”, p.15

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• The chain of habit coils itself around the heart like a serpent, to gnaw and stifle it.

  William Hazlitt

  Heart, Habit, Chains

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• ... not only is life put in new patterns from the air, but it is somehow arrested, frozen into form. (The leaping hare is caught in a marble panel.) A glaze is put over life. There is no flaw, no crack in the surface; a still reservoir, no ripple on its face. Looking down from the air that morning, I felt that stillness rested like a light over the earth. The waterfalls seemed frozen solid; the tops of the trees were still; the river hardly stirred, a serpent gently moving under its shimmering skin.

  Anne Morrow Lindbergh

  Morning, Moving, Light

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• St. Augustine teaches us that there is in each man a Serpent, an Eve, and an Adam. Our senses and natural propensities are the Serpent; the excitable desire is the Eve; and reason is the Adam. Our nature tempts us perpetually; criminal desire is often excited; but sin is not completed till reason consents.

  Blaise Pascal

  Men, Temptation, Desire

  Blaise Pascal (1849). “Thoughts of Blaise Pascal”, p.371

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• The Bible has come under fire for making woman the fall guy in man's cosmic drama. But in casting a male conspirator, the serpent, as God's enemy, Genesis hedges and does not take its misogyny far enough. The Bible defensively swerves from God's true opponent, chthonian nature. The serpent is not outside Eve but in her. She is the garden and the serpent.

  Camille Paglia

  Drama, Fall, Men

  Camille Paglia (2018). “Free Women, Free Men: Sex, Gender, Feminism”, p.38, Canongate Books

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• One classic American landscape haunts all of American literature. It is a picture of Eden, perceived at the instant of history when corruption has just begun to set it. The serpent has shown his scaly head in the undergrowth. The apple gleams on the tree. The old drama of the Fall is ready to start all over again.

  Jonathan Raban

  Drama, Fall, Eden

  Jonathan Raban (1992). “For Love and Money: A Writing Life”, Perennial

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• One way of ending the poem is to turn it back on itself, like a serpent with its tail in its mouth.

  Maxine Kumin

  Poetry, Tails, Mouths

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• What so pure, which envious tongues will spare?
  Some wicked wits have libell'd all the fair,
  With matchless impudence they style a wife,
  The dear-bought curse, and lawful plague of life;
  A bosom serpent, a domestic evil,
  A night invasion, and a mid-day devil;
  Let not the wise these sland'rous words regard,
  But curse the bones of ev'ry living bard.

  Alexander Pope

  Wise, Night, Evil

  Alexander Pope (1839). “The Poetical Works of A. Pope, Esq: With an Account of the Life and Writings of the Author”, p.221

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• How well u treat the wicked people, they do nto give up their wickedness. They derive pleasure in hurting others. A serpent made to drink milk, it ejects poison only.

  Chanakya

  Hurt, Giving Up, Drink Milk

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• Pride measures prosperity not by her own advantages but by the disadvantages of others. She would not even wish to be a goddess unless there were some wretches left whom she could order about and lord it over, whose misery would make her happiness seem all the more extraordinary, whose poverty can be tormented and exacerbated by a display of her wealth. This infernal serpent, pervading the human heart, keeps men from reforming their lives, holding them back like a suckfish.

  Thomas More

  Heart, Pride, Men

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• 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 [the doctors'] symbol.

  Robertson Davies

  Science, Doctors, Skins

  Robertson Davies (2008). “Selected Works on the Pleasures of Reading”, Penguin Group Canada

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• O world, world when I was younger I thought there was some order governing you and your deeds. But now you seem to be a labyrinth of errors, a frightful desert, a den of wild beasts, a game in which men move in circles…a stony field, a meadow full of serpents, a flowering but barren orchard, a spring of cares, a river of tears, a sea of suffering, a vain hope.

  Fernando de Rojas

  Spring, Moving, Men

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• What was it called, that symbol of the serpent eating its own tail? It probably signified infinity, endlessness, timelessness. But for me it would mean the effort to love well going on and on, round and round, always imperfect and always forgivable. The best we could ever do for each other.

  Patricia Gaffney

  Love, Mean, Effort

  Patricia Gaffney (2004). “Circle of Three”

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• Besides alligators, the only animals to be feared are the poisonous serpents. These are certainly common enough in the forest, but no fatal accident happened during the whole time of my residence.

  Henry Walter Bates

  Animal, Forests, Common

  Henry Walter Bates (1875). “The Naturalist on the River Amazons: A Record of Adventures, Habits of Animals, Sketches of Brazilian and Indian Life, and Aspects of Nature Under the Equator, During Eleven Years of Travel”, p.253

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• Then God came to the woman and said to her, "Why did you not keep the commandment?" as if He wanted to say, "At least you, say forgive me, so as to humble your soul and to receive mercy." Again, there was no request for forgiveness. She also answered, "The serpent deceived me," as if she wanted to say, "If the serpent sinned, where is my mistake?"

  Dorotheus of Gaza

  Mistake, Humble, Humility

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• We have not faith, we have not patience to see this. We trust the man in the street; but there is one being in the universe we never trust and that is God. We trust Him when He works just our way. But the time will come when, getting blow after blow, the self - sufficient mind will die. In everything we do, the serpent ego is rising up. We are glad that there are so many thorns on the path. They strike the hood of the cobra.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Patience, Perseverance, Blow

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.2644, Manonmani Publishers

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• A wicked wife, a false friend, a saucy servant and living in a house with a serpent in it are nothing but death.

  Chanakya

  Wife, House, Wicked

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• The fatal effects of sin can be removed only by the provision that God has made. The Israelites saved their lives by looking upon the uplifted serpent. That look implied faith. They lived because they believed God's word, and trusted in the means provided for their recover. So to sinner may look to Christ, and live. He receives pardon through faith in the atoning sacrifice. Unlike the inert and lifeless symbol, Christ has power and virtue in Himself to heal the repenting sinner.

  Ellen G. White

  Mean, Sacrifice, Looks

  Ellen G. White (2015). “The Complete Conflict of the Ages”, p.500, Simon and Schuster

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• I look upon Virginia as a rib taken from Britain's side... While they both proceed as living under the marriage-compact, this Eve might thrive so long as her Adam flourishes. Whatever serpent shall tempt her to go astray etc [will only cause] her husband to rule more strictly over her.

  Alexander Spotswood

  Husband, Taken, Virginia

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