Elihu Root Quotes

That's what the cat said to the canary when he swallowed him - 'You'll be all right.'

Freedom for the pike is death for the minnow.

The wolf asketh not how many the sheep may be.

Liberty for wolves is death to the lambs.

Take, for example, the African jungle, the home of the cheetah. On whom does the cheetah prey? The old, the sick, the wounded, the weak, the very young, but never the strong. Lesson: If you would not be prey, you had better be strong.

It takes in reality only one to make a quarrel. It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favor of vegetarianism, while the wolf remains of a different opinion.

In the animal kingdom, the rule is, eat or be eaten; in the human kingdom, define or be defined.

With each new day in Africa, a gazelle wakes up knowing he must outrun the fastest lion or perish. At the same time, a lion stirs and stretches, knowing he must outrun the fastest gazelle or starve. It's no different for the human race. Whether you consider yourself a gazelle or a lion, you have to run faster than others to survive.

A hungry wolf at all the herd will run, In hopes, through many, to make sure of one.

Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them.

Lions, wolves, and vultures don't live together in herds, droves or flocks. Of all animals of prey, man is the only sociable one. Every one of us preys upon his neighbor, and yet we herd together.

It never troubles the wolf how many the sheep may be.

When a lion doesn't get its prey, it remains hungry. When the prey saves himself, he has not won, but has saved his life.

A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats.

Many cats are the death of the mouse.

Man is a predatory animal, and this aspect of his nature is nowhere better suited by environment than in the world of politics.

It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favor of vegetarianism while the wolf remains of a different opinion.

That’s like blaming the witch for the witch hunt.

I remember one time watching a bird snatch a dragonfly out of midair and thinking, 'Gee, life can come to an end - crunch! - just like that.'

Unlike your fish tank, in nature, fish eat each other. When the population of a species gets too low, it will die out.

Freedom for the wolves has often meant death to the sheep.

Such is the condition of organic nature! whose first law might be expressed in the words 'Eat or be eaten!' and which would seem to be one great slaughter-house, one universal scene of rapacity and injustice!

They’d blame a castoff just for breathing. You could be good as gold and they’d still blame you.

It was that white cloak that soiled me, not the other way around.

All the animals, the plants, the minerals, even other kinds of men, are being broken and reassembled every day, to preserve an elite few, who are the loudest to theorize on freedom, but the least free of all.