Rabbits Quotes

“Sometimes you remind me a lot of James. He called it my 'furry little problem' in company. Many people were under the impression that I owned a badly behaved rabbit.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

“[Jem] 'It will help you sleep.'
'All I’ve been doing is sleeping!' [Tessa]
'And very amusing it is to watch, said Jem. 'Did you know you twitch your nose when you sleep, like a rabbit?'
'I do not,' she said, with a whispered laugh.
'You do,' he said. 'Fortunately, I like rabbits.”
― Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Prince

“This is a fierce bad rabbit;
look at his savage whiskers,
and his claws and his turned-up tail.”
― Beatrix Potter

“Rabbits need dignity and, above all, the will to accept their fate.”
― Richard Adams, Watership Down

“It was as easy as breathing to go and have tea near the place where Jane Austen had so wittily scribbled and so painfully died. One of the things that causes some critics to marvel at Miss Austen is the laconic way in which, as a daughter of the epoch that saw the Napoleonic Wars, she contrives like a Greek dramatist to keep it off the stage while she concentrates on the human factor. I think this comes close to affectation on the part of some of her admirers. Captain Frederick Wentworth in Persuasion, for example, is partly of interest to the female sex because of the 'prize' loot he has extracted from his encounters with Bonaparte's navy. Still, as one born after Hiroshima I can testify that a small Hampshire township, however large the number of names of the fallen on its village-green war memorial, is more than a world away from any unpleasantness on the European mainland or the high or narrow seas that lie between. (I used to love the detail that Hampshire's 'New Forest' is so called because it was only planted for the hunt in the late eleventh century.) I remember watching with my father and brother through the fence of Stanstead House, the Sussex mansion of the Earl of Bessborough, one evening in the early 1960s, and seeing an immense golden meadow carpeted entirely by grazing rabbits. I'll never keep that quiet, or be that still, again.

This was around the time of countrywide protest against the introduction of a horrible laboratory-confected disease, named 'myxomatosis,' into the warrens of old England to keep down the number of nibbling rodents. Richard Adams's lapine masterpiece Watership Down is the remarkable work that it is, not merely because it evokes the world of hedgerows and chalk-downs and streams and spinneys better than anything since The Wind in the Willows, but because it is only really possible to imagine gassing and massacre and organized cruelty on this ancient and green and gently rounded landscape if it is organized and carried out against herbivores.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Hitch 22: A Memoir

“This was their way of honoring the dead. The story over, the demands of their own hard, rough lives began to re-assert themselves in their hearts, in their nerves, their blood and appetites. Would that the dead were not dead! But there is grass that must be eaten, pellets that must be chewed, hraka that must be passed, holes that must be dug, sleep that must be slept. Odysseus brings not one man to shore with him. Yet he sleeps sound beside Calypso and when he wakes thinks only of Penelope.”
― Richard Adams, Watership Down

“You all know the argument from design: everything in the world is made just so that we can manage to live in the world, and if the world was ever so little different, we could not manage to live in it. That is the argument from design. It sometimes takes a rather curious form; for instance, it is argued that rabbits have white tails in order to be easy to shoot. I do not know how rabbits would view that application.”
― Bertrand Russell, Why I Am Not a Christian and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects

“We are very fond of books. You can learn nearly everything from them that rabbits can't teach you.”
― Alan Snow, Here Be Monsters! (1)

“Come, my child," I said, trying to lead her away. "Wish good-bye to the poor hare, and come and look for blackberries."

"Good-bye, poor hare!" Sylvie obediently repeated, looking over her shoulder at it as we turned away. And then, all in a moment, her self-command gave way. Pulling her hand out of mine, she ran back to where the dead hare was lying, and flung herself down at its side in such an agony of grief as I could hardly have believed possible in so young a child.

"Oh, my darling, my darling!" she moaned, over and over again. "And God meant your life to be so beautiful!”
― Lewis Carroll, Sylvie and Bruno

“Yuan opens his eyes. White rabbits wandering all around, poking him, touching him, rubbing their noses at his feet, or merely exploring the thick grass, ignoring his presence. As if showing their appearance alone is enough of a favor. Yuan sees the tiniest rabbit struggling to reach him. One of its legs wounded, and a dark rotten feather sticking to its body. The feather smells of death. There must be a dead bird somewhere.
Dead bird! Why didn’t he smell it earlier? Yuan, removing the feather, stretches his hand towards the rabbit. It hops on, sensing the burst of healing energy. All living creatures always sense what heals their woe—a code in their subconscious.”
― Misba, The High Auction

“They’ve still got their problems, just like all of us. They’re still sick men in lots of ways. But at least there’s that: they are sick men now. No more rabbits, Mack. Maybe they can be well men someday. I can’t say.”
― Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

“Removing the thought about the rotten feather, for now, Yuan calms his core, inhaling prana—the source energy from air. The animal’s wound healing. All the rabbits turn their necks now, watching him. At last, he deserves attention. They run to the Monk; jumping; climbing along the layered folds of his dark shawl; settling on his lap, thighs, and shoulders; competing with one another for the healing energy; seeking a share of the purity coming from the highest possible evolution in the universe. A monk’s purity procured through strict abstention won’t stain. Even a dead bird’s foul feather can’t tinge it.”
― Misba, The High Auction

“I had been agitating for a pet for some time. In my head I had a white rabbit called Ezra who bit people who ignored me. Ezra's pelt was as white as the soul in heaven but his heart was black...”
― Jeanette Winterson, The World and Other Places: Stories

“I scrubbed in the water while Ellie Mae chased a jackrabbit that was wandering on the shore. She nearly caught the rabbit, but the rabbit called for reinforcements. Soon nearly eighty rabbits emerged from the brush and began chasing my dog across the Texas plains. These were not rabbits like we have in Florida. Some of these were carrying tomahawks, and a few were on horseback.”
― Sean Dietrich , Will the Circle Be Unbroken?: A Memoir of Learning to Believe You’re Gonna Be Okay

“It would be difficult to identify an animal more universally admired than the rabbit. Maybe it’s that rabbits are ubiquitous in nature and yet somewhat mysterious—fully present while remaining mostly concealed. We respect their independence and resourcefulness. To see a rabbit or a hare (who are closely related to rabbits) in the wild, possibly nibbling on vegetation or hopping about with their mates, is to experience a moment of pure joy. For an instant, time stands still.”
― Mark Hawthorne, The Way of the Rabbit

“Would that the dead were not dead! But there is grass that must be eaten, pellets that must be chewed, (...) holes that must be dug, sleep that must be slept. Odysseus brings not one man to shore with him. Yet he sleeps sound beside Calypso and when he wakes thinks only of Penelope.”
― Richard Adams, Watership Down

“Pound for pound, these animals don’t add up to much. Dog fanciers with a couple of Rottweilers trump us in terms of sheer biomass. But, when it comes to sheer insistence, even the largest, most unruly dogs—or for that matter, your average herd of cattle—are no match for our ducks, geese, parrots, parakeets, turkeys, cats, rabbits, and other birds.”
― Bob Tarte, Enslaved by Ducks

“Another item that appeared in the backyard was rabbits. Bear would chase them away.”
― J. Wesley Porter, A Spiritual Dog: "Bear"

“in the morning we found the rabbits
intent on a meticulous and general campaign of copulation”
― Primo Levi, The Periodic Table

“Rabbits will always have a special place in my heart. They are often discredited as being good pets because they don’t ‘do anything’—ask any rabbit owner and watch how they laugh!”
-Shenita Etwaroo”
― Shenita Etwaroo

“Crouching sadly beneath the bush, all of Forethought’s excitement began to drain away. He was in the act of turning around when he heard a little buzzing voice say, 'Don’t stop now! Just keep going. You’re almost their rabbit!”
― Bobby B-Bobby, Just Keep Going Rabbit

“The rabbit’s high profile in pop culture represents not just the public’s love of furry and playful critters but also the appeal of rabbits as animals who are thoroughly present. They remind us to be our best selves, detached from the exterior world while remaining engaged with others. If all this sentiment sounds a little too philosophical to be attributed to the humble rabbit, think for a moment what lagomorphs have come to symbolize—rebirth, balance, rejuvenation, speed, awareness, resurrection, fertility, spring, purity, resourcefulness, abundance, creativity, magic, harmony—and then consider how many of these are life-affirming qualities or at least characteristics that bring deep meaning to our existence.”
― Mark Hawthorne, The Way of the Rabbit

“So if I can shoot rabbits, then I can shoot fascists”
― Welsh volunteer

“I'm scared of rabbits. Aren't you scared of rabbits?" I heard Darcie say to him once.

"Rabbits are afraid of everything," he replied. "That's what makes them dangerous.”
― Laura van den Berg, Find Me

“Bushes were lying flat, laid back on the ground as close as a rabbit lays back his ears.”
― Richard Hughes, A High Wind in Jamaica

“Physiologically, Gef was not a mongoose. He did not possess the almost canine forepaws of his supposed species but tiny articulated, three-fingered (and a thumb) appendages that could manipulate items and, as occasion demanded, squeeze the life out of the rabbits he would gift.”
― Thomm Quackenbush, The Curious Case of the Talking Mongoose

“They have to make it into a story about five brown rabbits and three white rabbits having a rabbit cotillion. That’s where I get lost. Cotillion looks like licit loon to me.”
― Gordon Korman, The Unteachables

“And if little children would grow up good and loved and happy, they must learn, like the soft-eared dog, to do as they are told. It is not a nice sight to see boys and girls pouting and crying because they cannot always have the things they wish. We once felt sorry to see a rosy-cheeked child with his mouth full of sweetmeats worrying his mother for more. She looked very pale and ill, as if she could scarcely bear the noise he made; but when she told him more would make him sick, he cried with passion. Now Carlo would like a race round the yard after the young rabbits, who eat their supper in peace on the low table under which he lies; but he does not do what he likes, because, though he is only a dog, he learned to obey. And should a dog behave better than a child?”
― Edwin Henry Landseer, The Landseer series of picture books: containing sixteen coloured illustrations

“Of course the rabbits must be killed, as they are good food for man, and the land would be overrun with them if they were not destroved; still we cannot but regret that putting them to death should give delight rather than pain. Dogs know no better than to take pleasure in worrying and killing the furry creatures that cannot defend themselves; but kind-hearted children will never enjoy such cruel sport. They would say, “You tell us the poor rabbits must be destroyed; but we have watched them frisking for joy in the twilight, and we would rather not see them die.”
― Edwin Henry Landseer, The Landseer series of picture books: containing sixteen coloured illustrations

“Rabbits aren't supposed to have adventures. Our temperaments aren't suited to them.”
― Patricia C. Wrede, Calling on Dragons