Elephant Sayings and Quotes

Often perceived as gentle giants, elephants have captivated humans all over the world for generations. Perhaps this is because, like us, they are social creatures. Below you’ll find a collection of wise and humorous quotes about elephants.

They say an elephant never forgets. What they don't tell you is, you never forget an elephant. Bill Murray
The elephant is never won by anger; nor must that man who would reclaim a lion take him by the teeth. John Dryden
Nature's great masterpiece, an elephant; the only harmless great thing. John Donne
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
No one in the world needs an elephant tusk but an elephant. Thomas Schmidt
I have a memory like an elephant. I remember every elephant I've ever met. Herb Caen
Th' unwieldy elephant, To make them mirth, us'd all his might, and wreathed His lithe proboscis. John Milton
Only elephants should own ivory. Yao Ming
If anyone wants to know what elephants are like, they are like people only more so. Peter Corneille
I have a memory like an elephant. In fact, elephants often consult me. Noel Coward
An elephant: A mouse built to government specifications. Lazarus Long
You don't shoot elephants, you ride them–you might as well shoot your charger. King George V
She owned the road as an elephant owns the veldt and like a big blue elephant moved with massive grace and dignity. David Drake
A novelist is an elephant, but an elephant who must pretend to forget. Mary Mccarthy
When eating an elephant take one bite at a time. Creighton Abrams
My roommate got a pet elephant. Then it got lost. It's in the apartment somewhere. Steven Wright
If size mattered, the elephant would be the king of the jungle. Rickson Gracie
When there is an invisible elephant in the room, one is from time to time bound to trip over a trunk. Karen Joy Fowler
An Elephant can trumpet and shake the earth but not the self-possession of the ants who hold it. Alistair Cooke
As an elephant in the battlefield withstands arrows shot from bows all around, even so shall I endure abuse. The Buddha
Awake. Be the witness of your thoughts. The elephant hauls himself from the mud. In the same way drag yourself out of your sloth. Buddha
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
Our elders say that an elephant does not find its own trunk heavy. Zakes Mda
He frowned as he struggled to remember. It was like watching an elephant crochet. Val McDermid
He who mounts a wild elephant goes where the elephant goes. Randolph Bourne
Just in case you thought elephants were all sweetness, I can attest to the fact that this one had the time of her life scaring the bejeezus out of those dudes. James Patterson
When you have got an Elephant by the hind leg, and he is trying to run away, it's best to let him run. Abraham Lincoln
When there's an elephant in the room introduce him. Randy Pausch
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
The elephant, the huge old beast, is slow to mate. David Herbert Lawrence
Elephants ears are full of blood vessels and help cool the blood as it travels through the extensive vein network that runs close to the surface. Jeff Henschel
They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance. General John B. Sedgwick
I'm an elephant today. I will need to have lots of room and also a bowl of water on the floor. Jesse Ball
Mediocrity is the elephant in the room. Kevin Spacey
The knife flaying the elephant does not have to be large, only sharp! Andre Norton
The elephant has just one basic gait: an ambling walk; elephants cannot run or jump like other animals. Richard D. Estes
The elephant's a gentleman. Rudyard Kipling
So slowly the hot elephant hearts grow full of desire, and the great beasts mate in secret at last, hiding their fire. David Herbert Lawrence
When we are hungry, elephants are food. When we are full, elephants are beautiful. Edward R. Ricciuti
It was an exceedingly odd thing to see an elephant in a spacesuit. Alastair Reynolds
Elephants, it turns out, are surprisingly stealthy. Thomas French
Words are cheap. The biggest thing you can say is 'elephant'. Charlie Chaplin
What is bigger than an elephant? But this also is become man's plaything, and a spectacle at public solemnities; and it learns to skip, dance, and kneel. Plutarch
It was an elephant. Cause elephants bring good luck, especially if the trunks are up and his trunk was up. Dale Kerrigan
The elephant can survive only if forests survive. Mark Shand
The Indian Elephant is said sometimes to weep. Charles Darwin
Elephants can sense danger. They're able to detect an approaching tsunami or earthquake before it hits. Jennifer Richard Jacobson
A chain as thick as a palm tree cannot stop an elephant; the vine that proposes to stop the elephant from going to the grassland will go with the elephant. Oyekan Owomoyela
One digs a pit in the path of the elephant, but the elephant can read signs; the elephant does not go that way. Oyekan Owomoyela
A blind elephant does not know a man from a tree. Oyekan Owomoyela
While you sit on an elephant you will be able to break through your neighbor's hedge. Stephen Arnott
She's big and friendly (Elephant!) Wrinkled and gray (Elephant!) / And with her great big feet, better get out of the way of the elephant (Elephant!) Lory J Lazarus
Sitting on my elephant / Pretty and intelligent / Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na / Gonna take a ride that you won't forget. Robin Rex
Holabaloo, my elephant's jumping / Up and down from side to side / Holabaloo, my elephant's pumping / Elephant ride all over the town / Holabaloo, my elephant's jumping / Inside-out, moving up and down / Holabaloo, my elephant's pumping / Elephant ride in Calcutta town. Robin Rex
Look out! Look out / Pink elephants on parade / Here they come / Hippety hoppety / They're here and there / Pink elephants everywhere. Oliver Wallace
The elephant, the huge old beast, is slow to mate; / He finds a female, they show no haste they wait. David Herbert Lawrence
A true elephant is the one who never forgets his Herculean strength; / the astounding power that reverberated from his body as he strolled; / even in times when he lay timidly wounded on the ground. Nikhil Parekh
All I want is a wild elephant; which swishes tones of water merrily all around with its trunk. Nikhil Parekh
Never ever enter into the brain of the elephant; / or you'll suddenly find yourself a lugubriously disoriented burden to earth; / emanating an infinite groans to just alight your foot an inconspicuous inch from the soil. Nikhil Parekh
To emulate an elephant was very easy; / as all you had to do was inflate your persona like a colossal gas balloon; / tread triumphantly on the soil of the jungle as the largest organism existing in the rampant outgrowths. Nikhil Parekh
Elephants are enslaved ensnared endangered exploited / Elephants are exterminated / They're eradicated / Elephants are eaten / Elephants are forgotten / Fatally forgotten famished fossils / Elephants are gone. William Scott Bruford
The elephant needs a thousand times more food than the ant but that is not an indication of inequality. Mahatma Gandhi
Elephants have the largest brains of any mammal on the face of the Earth. They are creative, altruistic and kind. Ingrid Newkirk
Elephants are so wise and so funny and so endangered and so intelligent. I just think there is a lot to learn from them. Gloria Steinem
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
Although elephants are far more distantly related to us than the great apes, they seem to have evolved similar social and cognitive capacities. Frans De Waal
Elephants love to play around. They are very intelligent animals. They have a strong bond, at times stretching to several decades, with their mahouts. Mark Shand
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