Over 3,000 snake species exist everywhere except New Zealand, Iceland, Ireland, Greenland, and Antarctica. As several snake quotes talk about, people attach negative connotations to these slippery limbless reptiles due to their dangerous nature - probably because their bites kill between 81,000 to 138,000 a year, and thousands more get permanent disabilities.
However, in actuality, they have diverse backgrounds across cultures. For example, two snakes coiled around a winged staff have been a symbol of medicine. Another is their representation of rebirth and eternity due to the shedding of their skin.
Run through our curated list of snake quotes to uncover the mysteries and beliefs attached to these reptilians, or read our complete rundown of all the snake facts you ever wanted to know.
Quick links to our selection of snake quotes:
Snakes may lack limbs, external ears, eyelids, and a lung to complete a pair, but this makes them distinctive. In addition, they compensate for lacking these features with another unique quality. Compared to our spine, which only has 33 stacked vertebrae, snakes have a whopping 100-450 vertebrae.
Discover more about serpents' anatomy after you read our best snake quotes that sum up society's perception of them.
"Kill the snake of doubt in your soul, crush the worms of fear in your heart and mountains will move out of your way."
"Just as a snake sheds its skin, we must shed our past over and over again."
"He that has been bitten by a snake is afraid of a rope."
"Like a snake sheds its skin, we are capable of getting rid of assembled habits, creating space to call matters into question."
Scientists hypothesize that snakes first appeared 128.5 million years ago. Fossil evidence suggests they descended from lizards. Researchers theorized they evolved from either burrowing terrestrial lizards or aquatic lizards. A study in 2015 concluded snakes are likelier to have originated on land1.
Evolution is a curious thing that makes our planet complex and beautiful. Track the ancestry of other animals after you read the following snake quotes about their slippery and slimy nature in the wild.
Read more: Types of Snakes.
"Have you ever held a snake? They are so strong. You can see why there are so many myths about them: they are unlike any other creature. It's extraordinary how that little brain can keep everything moving in different directions."
"I think the most alarming animals I have encountered are really poisonous snakes."
"The relationship with a snake is not like what we have with dogs, like how we can sort of cuddle a dog."
"I have no fear of losing my life - if I have to save a koala or a crocodile or a kangaroo or a snake, mate, I will save it."
"People get very passionate about saving the whale, but when something like a Florida indigo snake is endangered there are not a lot of people out there holding up placards."
Aside from strangulation, snakes are dangerous because of their bites. The most venomous snake in the world is the Inland Taipan, which resides in South Australia; its venom can attack the cardiovascular and nervous systems.
King Cobras is another famous snake to be wary of due to their impressive hunting and defense mechanisms2. And also Black Mamba with their fast-acting venom.
Read the following quotes about snakebites' dangers and how we should treat these animals kindly.
"You know, you can touch a stick of dynamite, but if you touch a venomous snake it'll turn around and bite you and kill you so fast it's not even funny."
"I've probably saved thousands of peoples' lives with my educational message on snake bites, how to get in around venomous anything."
"Even if a snake is not poisonous, it should pretend to be venomous."
"Always carry a flagon of whiskey in case of snakebite and furthermore always carry a small snake."
"I don't have any irrational fears. Obviously, if I was walking through the outback, and I saw a snake, I wouldn't go up and stroke it, but I wouldn't run screaming from it, either."
"No, snakes are no problem. I'd go to any country, anywhere, any snakes, not a problem."
To eat their prey, snakes devour them whole. In 2018, Floridians saw a Burmese python swallowing a young deer. This shocking sight is possible due to their jaw anatomy. Snakes can unhinge their jaw with the help of the surrounding ligaments. Unlike us, who can only open our mouths to 26 degrees, snakes can extend their jaws to an incredible 160 degrees.
Swallow these metaphorical quotes about out slithering friends you can use daily in your conversations.
"Propaganda is a soft weapon; hold it in your hands too long, and it will move about like a snake, and strike the other way."
"We must enlist our own snake and strike like a cobra against their vitals with an attack on Washington."
"Everybody has ways in which they've been lucky in life, and everybody also has ways in which they've definitely rolled snake eyes."
"The snake kills by squeezing very slowly. This is how the civilized world slowly, slowly pushes into the forest and takes away the world that used to be."
"I'm one of those people who snake through the crowd, keep my head low. I'm not looking for attention."
"In social matters, pointless conventions are not merely the bee sting of etiquette, but the snake bite of moral order."
"I'm like a snake sleeping on a rock. I won't bother you unless you poke a stick at me."
"You can't play a guy who's just a snake, because what do you draw on?"
"Meditation isn't snake oil. For some people, meditation might be the most efficient way to reduce stress and cultivate mindfulness. But it isn't a panacea. If you don't meditate, there's no need to stress out about it."
Snakes in many cultures and literature have become synonymous with lies and betrayals. This averse definition likely stems from their hunting tactics. Snakes are ambush predators that stalk and give their victims slow, agonizing death. Thanks to Jacobson's Organ, they can "smell" their surroundings through their tongues. In addition, some snakes have pit organs that allow them to detect infrared waves from their warm-bodied prey, making them effective hunters at night.
Continue to respect these legless carnivorous reptiles while remaining cautious as you read the following snake quotes.
"Truth is as straight as an arrow, while a lie swivels like a snake."
"To the unspoiled, even a snake bite is a loving kiss. But to the spoiled even a loving kiss is a snake bite."
"It's good to see the snakes revealing themselves. They weren't actually hidden at all. People hide behind the masks, but eventually you see them for who they truly are."
"The snake produces poison in its body to poison its enemies! But man is a strange snake; he produces poison in his mind to poison his fellow men!"
"Well, yeah, you listen to a talking snake and there's gonna be trouble."
"When a woman teams up with a snake a moral storm threatens somewhere."
"Snakes hide in grass, people behind their lies."
"The snake grins through his fangs, admiring Eve's playacting."
Were you always such a snake… or did you grow into what you are?
~ Dean Koontz
“A relationship is like being in a forest, where snakes lurk awaiting the chance to entice.”
~Anthony Liccione
The recurrence of snake symbolism is evident in literature dating back to ancient times. Satan famously disguised himself as a snake in the bible. In Hindu mythology, snakes represent freedom since people cannot tame them. Also, Eastern Asian mythology links snakes to lucky fortunes and dragons, which they treat with high regard.
Check out these interesting snake quotes from the arts and literature.
"Snake's poison is life to the snake; it is in relation to man that it means death."
"The snake stood up for evil in the Garden."
"There's a snake lurking in the grass."
"Every great story seems to begin with a snake."
"What is with these guys? Where's the thrill in watching snakes eat? I certainly didn't thrill in watching humans eat."
"Method is more important than strength, when you wish to control your enemies. By dropping golden beads near a snake, a crow once managed To have a passer-by kill the snake for the beads."
"He was a poison snake, and I was another, and on such terms we pleased ourselves."
Snakes, in general, are not extinct. However, human activities- habitat loss, climate change, snake disease, and human persecution- still threaten their population. As of the time of writing, the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List lists 88 critically endangered and 186 endangered snakes.
After reading the rest of the snake quotes, let us recognize their purpose in our natural ecosystems and respect their existence no matter what beliefs are attached to them.
"A snake knows more about what is happening around than any other creature, because it has no ears to listen to gossip - only direct perception."
"Not all the snakes are poisonous and not all the poisons are deadly! Keep this in mind when bitten."
"The world of men is dreaming, it has gone mad in its sleep, and a snake is strangling it, but it can't wake up."
"I want to give up my bearings, slip out of who I am, shed everything, the way a snake discards old skin."
"The crookedness of the serpent is still straight enough to slide through the snake hole."
"Death consists, indeed, in a repeated process of unrobing, or unsheathing. The immortal part of man shakes off from itself, one after the other, its outer casings, and - as the snake from its skin, the butterfly from its chrysalis - emerges from one after another, passing into a higher state of consciousness."
"An indigo snake leaves a lasting impression."
"When you're a snake charmer, you're gonna get bit."
"We instinctively fear snakes, but we appear not to be afraid of fast cars, which are a real danger now. This suggests our emotions were shaped by our evolutionary environment not the one we grew up in."
~ Steven Pinker
If a rich man ate a snake, they would say it was because of his wisdom; if a poor man ate it, they would say it was because of his stupidity.
~ Saudi Arabian proverb
When the snake decided to go straight, he didn't get anywhere.
~ William Stafford
| 1 | Hsiang, A.Y., Field, D.J., Webster, T.H. et al. The origin of snakes: revealing the ecology, behavior, and evolutionary history of early snakes using genomics, phenomics, and the fossil record. BMC Evol Biol 15, 87 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-015-0358-5 |
| 2 | Versluis, M., Schmitz, B., Von Der Heydt, A., & Lohse, D. (2000). How Snapping Shrimp Snap: Through Cavitating Bubbles. Science, 289(5487), 2114–2117. |
Isabela is a determined millennial passionate about continuously seeking out ways to make an impact. With a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering with honors, Isabela’s research expertise and interest in artistic works, coupled with a creative mindset, offers readers a fresh take on different environmental, social, and personal development topics.
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