Elephant Quotes To Celebrate Animals & Nature
These elephants quotes will inspire and intrigue your spiritual nature.
Elephants are beautiful, gentle giants and the current largest existing land animals. They say an elephant never forgets, which explains why these creatures are so intelligent.
Read this list of incredible elephant quotes to gain a new appreciation for these amazing creatures.
What makes elephants special?
If you've ever seen an elephant up close, either at the zoo or on safari, you know that these animals are truly majestic.
Elephants are wise, friendly, fascinating beasts. These elephant quotes highlight the power and beauty of earth's mightiest mammal.
Despite how beloved elephants are by many, poaching and environmental destruction has taken a toll on them.
African elephants are classified as a vulnerable species, and Asian elephants are listed as endangered.
It would be a tragic and profound loss if elephants were to go extinct. These inspirational quotes about elephants will motivate you to protect them at all costs.
Don't forget to also read these nature quotes about reconnecting with mother earth.
Elephant quotes that will intrigue your spiritual nature
1. "Nature's great masterpiece, an elephant ― the only harmless great thing." – John Donne
2. "I meant what I said and I said what I meant. An elephant's faithful one-hundred percent!" – Dr. Seuss
3. "I have a memory like an elephant. I remember every elephant I've ever met." – Herb Caen
4. "Only elephants should own ivory." – Yao Ming
5. "When you have got an elephant by the hind legs and he is trying to run away, it's best to let him run." – Abraham Lincoln
6. "We admire elephants in part because they demonstrate what we consider the finest human traits: empathy, self-awareness, and social intelligence. But the way we treat them puts on display the very worst of human behavior." – Graydon Carter
7. "God is really only another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant and the cat. He has no real style, He just goes on trying other things." – Pablo Picasso
8. "They say that somewhere in Africa the elephants have a secret grave where they go to lie down, unburden their wrinkled gray bodies, and soar away, light spirits at the end." – Robert McCammon
9. "There is no creature among all the Beasts of the world which hath so great and ample demonstration of the power and wisdom of almighty God as the Elephant." – Edward Topsell
10. "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality." – Desmond Tutu
Elephant quotes about the power and beauty of earth's mightiest mammal
11. "But perhaps the most important lesson I learned is that there are no walls between humans and the elephants except those we put up ourselves, and that until we allow not only elephants, but all living creatures their place in the sun, we can never be whole ourselves." – Lawrence Anthony
12. "Elephants love reunions. They recognize one another after years and years of separation and greet each other with wild, boisterous joy. There's bellowing and trumpeting, ear flapping and rubbing. Trunks entwine." – Jennifer Richard Jacobson
13. "Of all African animals, the elephant is the most difficult for man to live with, yet its passing ― if this must come ― seems the most tragic of all. I can watch elephants (and elephants alone) for hours at a time, for sooner or later the elephant will do something very strange such as mow grass with its toenails or draw the tusks from the rotted carcass of another elephant and carry them off into the bush. There is mystery behind that masked gray visage, and ancient life force, delicate and mighty, awesome and enchanted, commanding the silence ordinarily reserved for mountain peaks, great fires, and the sea." – Peter Matthiessen
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14. "Primate and elephant and even pig societies show considerable evidence of care for others, parent-child bonding, solidarity in the face of danger, and so on." – Christopher Hitchens
15. "If elephants didn't exist, you couldn't invent one. They belong to a small group of living things so unlikely they challenge credulity and common sense." – Lyall Watson
16. "And the elephant sings deep in the forest-maze; About a star of deathless and painless peace; But no astronomer can find where it is." – Ted Hughes
17. "It is absurd for a man to kill an elephant. It is not brutal, it is not heroic, and certainly it is not easy; it is just one of those preposterous things that men do like putting a dam across a great river, one tenth of whose volume could engulf the whole of mankind without disturbing the domestic life of a single catfish." – Beryl Markham
18. "Elephants don't know anything about the world of ants; the peaks of mountains are oblivious of what is happening on the plains!" – Mehmet Murat ildan
19. "I'm not much for cats. I'm terrified of mice. I've worked a lot with elephants, and they are extremely intelligent and sensitive, and thankfully, they seem to like me. You never want to get on the bad side of an elephant. And never trust a chimp." – Mary Ellen Mark
20. "Elephants, it turns out, are surprisingly stealthy. As the sunlight fades, other species declare their presence. Throngs of zebras and wildebeests thunder by in the distance, trailing dust clouds. Cape buffalo snort and raise their horns and position themselves in front of their young. Giraffes stare over treetops, their huge brown eyes blinking, then lope away in seeming slow motion. But no elephants." – Thomas French
Also read these Steve Irwin quotes that will make you say "crikey"
Elephant quotes that will inspire you to stand up for these incredible creatures
21. "The elephant can survive only if forests survive." – Mark Shand
22. "I don't know how many lions and leopards I've shot. I've shot two elephants, which was enough – never again. It's a melancholy and moving thing to hunt an elephant. It's like shooting an old man." – Wilbur Smith
23. "We already live a very long time for mammals, getting three times as many heartbeats as a mouse or elephant. It never seems enough though, does it?" – David Brin
24. "I feel as if I go to Africa, I may never come back. I'm just going to live with the animals and adopt an elephant, and it's going to be my friend." – Dianna Agron
25. "An elephant always puts his foot into the hole which another elephant's foot has made so that a frequented track is nothing but a series of pits filled with mud and water." – Isabella Bird
26. "Who rides on a tiger can never dismount; asleep on an elephant, that is repose." – Marianne Moore
27. "All around the edges of the platform where she sat, elephants stood patiently waiting for their breakfast. Occasionally, one would grunt or snort or flap its ears, but otherwise, they were as quiet as apparitions." – Dawn Reno Langley
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28. "Seriously, a smaller, leaner, cleaner, tuskless and more secretive elephant is exactly what is needed. It definitely would live longer." – Lyall Watson
29. "They say an elephant never forgets. Well, you are not an elephant. Take notes, constantly. Save interesting thoughts, quotations, films, technologies… the medium doesn't matter, so long as it inspires you." – Aaron Koblin
30. "Wallowing was for elephants, depressing people, and depressing elephants." – Cassandra Clare
Elephant quotes that will make your day better
31. "The strange rhythm seemed now to be coming from behind me, from the land, so I turned to look across the gorge … where my heart stopped … Standing there in the shade of the tree was an elephant … staring out to sea!… A female with a left tusk broken off near the base … I knew who she was, who she had to be. I recognized her from a color photograph put out by the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry under the title "The Last Remaining Knysna Elephant." This was the Matriarch herself … She was here because she no longer had anyone to talk to in the forest. She was standing here on the edge of the ocean because it was the next, nearest, and most powerful source of infrasound." – Carl Safina
If you're enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of forest quotes about the beauty of the trees.
32. "Without being an elephant sycophant, it is relevant to note that an infant elephant is a lieutenant giant." – Vincent Okay Nwachukwu
33. "Scientists have reported that elephants grieve their dead, monkeys perceive injustice and cockatoos like to dance to the music of the Backstreet Boys." – Hal Herzog
34. "If there were no goodness in people, mankind would still be confined to loping across a Savannah somewhere on Earth, watching the elephants rule, or some other more compassionate species." – Orson Scott Card
35. "A man might be uncertain about how many wives he had, but never about elephants. Either you had one, or you didn't." – Terry Pratchett
36. "We must have bearers, and outriders, and perhaps an elephant — they are so imposing, nothing says 'Get out of the way' quite like an elephant in the front." – Neil Gaiman
37. "Don't ask why the elephants wear such large shoes, And why the kangaroos are reborn kidnappers, And why the sailing birds are all Romantics." – Robert Bly
38. "A mouse can fall down a mine shaft a third of a mile deep without injury. A rat falling the same distance would break his bones; a man would simply splash … Elephants have their legs thickened to an extent that seems disproportionate to us, but this is necessary if their unwieldy bulk is to be moved at all … A 60-ft. man would weigh 1000 times as much as a normal man, but his thigh bone would have its area increased by only 100 times … Consequently such an unfortunate monster would break his legs the moment he tried to move." – John Scott Haldane
39. "A camel makes an elephant feel like a jet plane." – Jackie Kennedy
40. "For the herds of wild elephants show no resentment when domesticated animals join them. They have none of that herd instinct directed against the stranger that one finds in cattle, in small boys and among many grown-up men. This tolerance is just one of the things about elephants which makes one realise they are big in more ways than one." – Lt.-Col. J. H. Williams O.B.E.
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More elephant quotes to inspire and motivate
41. "Th' unwieldy elephant, to make them mirth, us'd all his might, and wreathed His lithe proboscis." – John Milton
42. "It seems safe to say that apes know about death, such as that is different from life and permanent. The same may apply to a few other animals, such as elephants, which pick up ivory or bones of a dead herd member, holding the pieces in their trunks and passing them around. Some pachyderms return for years to the spot where a relative died, only to touch and inspect the relics. Do they miss each other? Do they recall how he or she was during life?" – Frans de Waal
43. "They say an elephant never forgets. What they don't tell you is, you never forget an elephant." – Bill Murray
44. "Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt." – Pierre Trudeau
45. "As he was leaving it occurred to him that he would not come back, to this zoo or to any of them. With the elephants more than any of the others, he thought as he left them ― as he left behind these great beasts who recognized him when he came, who rumbled and swayed sadly ― he could feel them waiting." – Lydia Millet
46. "Love will draw an elephant through a key-hole." – Samuel Richardson
47. "There is no creature among all the Beasts of the world which hath so great and ample demonstration of the power and wisdom of almighty God as the Elephant." – Edward Topsel
48. "Elephants are quite enough." – Agatha Christie
49. "I have spent hours and hours watching elephants, and to come to understand what emotional creatures they are … it's not just a species facing extinction, it's massive individual suffering." – Mike Bond
50. "The question is, are we happy to suppose that our grandchildren may never be able to see an elephant except in a picture book?" – David Attenborough
Which of these quotes about elephants and extinction inspires you to change the world?
Elephants are some of the most incredible creatures on earth. If you love animals, nature, or adventure, you'll definitely enjoy this collection of elephant quotes.
These inspiring sayings and words of wisdom are guaranteed to give you a new perspective on how we treat the environment.
As long as humans continue to act in selfish, destructive ways, the elephant will be at risk of extinction. Share these powerful quotes with everyone you know and inspire them to stand up for elephants.
If we all work together to change the world, we can save the mighty elephant. This collection of amazing quotes will inspire you to fight against poachers and pollution.
Read these elephant quotes every time you need encouragement or inspiration.
What are your favorite elephant quotes and sayings about life, nature, and power? Let us know in the comment section below.
Everyday Power ► Inspirational Quotes ► Elephant Quotes To Celebrate Animals & Nature
March 20, 2020 7:00 AM EST
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