Quotes from Tarzan of the Apes

Edgar Rice Burroughs ·  324 pages

Rating: (34.3K votes)


“I do not understand exactly what you mean by fear," said Tarzan. "Like lions, fear is a different thing in different men, but to me the only pleasure in the hunt is the knowledge that the hunted thing has power to harm me as much as I have to harm him. If I went out with a couple of rifles and a gun bearer, and twenty or thirty beaters, to hunt a lion, I should not feel that the lion had much chance, and so the pleasure of the hunt would be lessened in proportion to the increased safety which I felt."

"Then I am to take it that Monsieur Tarzan would prefer to go naked into the jungle, armed only with a jackknife, to kill the king of beasts," laughed the other good naturedly, but with the merest touch of sarcasm in his tone.

"And a piece of rope," added Tarzan.”
― Edgar Rice Burroughs, quote from Tarzan of the Apes


“The time has arrived when patience becomes a crime and mayhem appears garbed in a manner of virtue”
― Edgar Rice Burroughs, quote from Tarzan of the Apes


“For myself, I always assume that a lion is ferocious, and so I am never caught off my guard.”
― Edgar Rice Burroughs, quote from Tarzan of the Apes


“I got this story from someone who had no business in the telling of it.”
― Edgar Rice Burroughs, quote from Tarzan of the Apes


“I am Tarzan of the Apes. I want you. I am yours. You are mine. We live here together always in my house. I will bring you the best of fruits, the tenderest deer, the finest meats that roam the jungle. I will hunt for you. I am the greatest of the jungle fighters. I will fight for you. I am the mightiest of the jungle fighters. You are Jane Porter, I saw it in your letter. When you see this you will know that it is for you and that Tarzan of the Apes loves you.”
― Edgar Rice Burroughs, quote from Tarzan of the Apes



“I love you, and because I love you I believe in you. But if I did not believe, still should I love. Had you come back for me, and had there been no other way, I would have gone into the jungle with you - forever.”
― Edgar Rice Burroughs, quote from Tarzan of the Apes


“Beast?" Jane murmured. "Then God make me a beast; for, man or beast, I am yours.”
― Edgar Rice Burroughs, quote from Tarzan of the Apes


“As the body rolled to the ground Tarzan of the Apes placed his foot upon the neck of his lifelong enemy and, raising his eyes to the full moon, threw back his fierce young head and voiced the wild and terrible cry of his people.”
― Edgar Rice Burroughs, quote from Tarzan of the Apes


“Captain Billings," he drawled finally, "if you will pardon my candor, I might remark that you are something of an ass, don't you know.”
― Edgar Rice Burroughs, quote from Tarzan of the Apes


“When Tarzan killed he more often smiled than scowled, and smiles are the foundation of beauty.”
― Edgar Rice Burroughs, quote from Tarzan of the Apes



“Men were indeed more foolish and more cruel than the beasts of the jungle! How fortunate was he who lived in the peace and security of the great forest!”
― Edgar Rice Burroughs, quote from Tarzan of the Apes


“Teach me to speak the language of men.”
― Edgar Rice Burroughs, quote from Tarzan of the Apes


“His straight and perfect figure, muscled as the best of the ancient Roman gladiators must have been muscled, and yet with the soft and sinuous curves of a Greek god, told at a glance the wondrous combination of enormous strength with suppleness and speed.”
― Edgar Rice Burroughs, quote from Tarzan of the Apes


“[...] smiles are the foundation of beauty.”
― Edgar Rice Burroughs, quote from Tarzan of the Apes


“In his savage, untutored breast new emotions were stirring. He could not fathom them. He wondered why he felt so great an interest in these people—why he had gone to such pains to save the three men. But he did not wonder why he had torn Sabor from the tender flesh of the strange girl.

Surely the men were stupid and ridiculous and cowardly. Even Manu, the monkey, was more intelligent than they. If these were creatures of his own kind he was doubtful if his past pride in blood was warranted.

But the girl, ah—that was a different matter. He did not reason here. He knew that she was created to be protected, and that he was created to protect her”
― Edgar Rice Burroughs, quote from Tarzan of the Apes



“Hundreds of thousands of years ago our ancestors of the dim and distant past faced the same problems which we must face, possibly in these same primeval forests. That we are here today evidences their victory.

What they did may we not do? And even better, for are we not armed with ages of superior knowledge, and have we not the means of protection, defense, and sustenance which science has given us, but of which they were totally ignorant? What they accomplished, Alice, with instruments and weapons of stone and bone, surely that may we accomplish also.”
― Edgar Rice Burroughs, quote from Tarzan of the Apes


“[..] it has remained for man alone among all creatures to kill senselessly and wantonly for the mere pleasure of inflicting suffering and death.”
― Edgar Rice Burroughs, quote from Tarzan of the Apes


“Even brave men, and D'Arnot was a brave man, are sometimes frightened by solitude.”
― Edgar Rice Burroughs, quote from Tarzan of the Apes


“With man it is different. When he comes many of the larger animals instinctively leave the district entirely, seldom if ever to return; and thus it has always been with the great anthropoids. They flee man as man flees a pestilence.”
― Edgar Rice Burroughs, quote from Tarzan of the Apes


“Tut, tut! I have often admonished my pupils to count ten before speaking. Were I you, Mr. Philander, I should count at least a thousand, and then maintain a discreet silence.”
― Edgar Rice Burroughs, quote from Tarzan of the Apes



“And could she love where she feared?”
― Edgar Rice Burroughs, quote from Tarzan of the Apes


“P33- the wail of the living had answered the call of universal motherhood within her wild beast which the dead could not still.”
― Edgar Rice Burroughs, quote from Tarzan of the Apes


“Jane saw the little note and ignored it, for she was very angry and hurt and mortified, but—she was a woman, and so eventually she picked it up and read it. MY”
― Edgar Rice Burroughs, quote from Tarzan of the Apes


“Captain Billings," he drawled finally, "if you will pardon my candor, I might remark that you are something of an ass.”
― Edgar Rice Burroughs, quote from Tarzan of the Apes


“Scarcely had they closed their eyes than the terrifying cry of a panther rang out from the jungle behind them. Closer and closer it came until they could hear the great beast directly beneath them. For an hour or more they heard it sniffing and clawing at the trees which supported their platform, but at last it roamed away across the beach, where Clayton could see it clearly in the brilliant moonlight—a great, handsome beast, the largest he had ever seen.”
― Edgar Rice Burroughs, quote from Tarzan of the Apes



“p 18 - Hundreds of thousands of years ago our ancestors of the dim and distant past faced the same problems which we must face in the same primeval forest. That we are here today evidences their victory.”
― Edgar Rice Burroughs, quote from Tarzan of the Apes


“P33- the son of an english lord and an english lady nursed at the breast of kala, the great ape.”
― Edgar Rice Burroughs, quote from Tarzan of the Apes


“And so he learned to read. From then on his progress was rapid.”
― Edgar Rice Burroughs, quote from Tarzan of the Apes


“All he knew was that he could not eat the flesh of this black man, and thus hereditary instinct, ages old, usurped the functions of his untaught mind and saved him from transgressing a worldwide law of whose very existence he was ignorant.”
― Edgar Rice Burroughs, quote from Tarzan of the Apes


“Tarzan of the Apes was hungry, and here was meat; meat of the kill, which jungle ethics permitted him to eat. How may we judge him, by what standards, this ape-man with the heart and head and body of an English gentleman, and the training of a wild beast? Tublat, whom he had hated and who had hated him, he had killed in a fair fight, and yet never had the thought of eating Tublat's flesh entered his head. It would have been as revolting to him as is cannibalism to us. But who was Kulonga that he might not be eaten as fairly as Horta, the boar, or Bara, the deer? Was he not simply another of the countless wild things of the jungle who preyed upon one another to satisfy the cravings of hunger?”
― Edgar Rice Burroughs, quote from Tarzan of the Apes



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About the author

Edgar Rice Burroughs
Born place: in Chicago, Illinois, The United States
Born date September 1, 1875
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