49+ All Time Famous Lion Quotes

Quotes about lions often draw on the symbolism and characteristics associated with these majestic creatures. Lions are often used as symbols of strength, courage, leadership, and nobility. Here are a few lion quotes that convey various meanings.

Lion Quotes

1. “It’s better to be a lion for a day than a sheep all your life.”
— Elizabeth Kenny

2. “A lion runs the fastest when he is hungry.”
— Salman Khan

3. “An injured lion still wants to roar.”
— Randy Pausch

4. “A lioness has got a lot more power than the lion likes to think she has.”
— Jacki Weaver

5. “A lion doesn’t concern itself with the opinion of sheep.”
— George R.R. Martin

6. “A lion is called a ‘king of beasts’ obviously for a reason.”
— Jack Hanna

7. “To beat a lion, you have to have the heart of a lion.”
— Keith Thurman

8. “I can be a lioness when defending my people.”
— Shakira

9. “The lion is passion; the lion is fire. Lions call you to them.”
— Michael Samuels

10. “At a certain point, even if the one alpha male is dominant, at a certain point, there’s a younger lion that is stronger, and everyone knows it.”
— Josh Lucas

11. “A truly strong person does not need the approval of others any more than a lion needs the approval of sheep.”
— Vernon Howard

12. “I try to think of myself as a lion, bringing down the kill, controlling the jungle. A lion controls his jungle.”
— John Daly

13. “I never thought much of the courage of a lion tamer. Inside the cage, he is at least safe from people.”
— George Bernard Shaw

14. “Most women defend themselves. It is the female of the species – it is the tigress and lioness in you which tends to defend when attacked.”
— Margaret Thatcher

15. “Female lions have always seemed like the best. They were really strong and took care of their babies and are beautiful.”
— Brooke Shields

16. “Courage is poorly housed that dwells in numbers; the lion never counts the herd that are about him, nor weighs how many flocks he has to scatter.”
— Aaron Hill

17. “Intelligence entails a strong mind, but genius entails a heart of a lion in tune with a strong mind.”
— Criss Jami

18. “I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.”
— Alexander the Great

19. “The lion is an emblem of the dream of absolute power – and, as a wild rather than a domestic animal, he belongs to a world outside the realm of society and culture.”
— Charles H. Hinnat

20. “The one excellent thing that can be learned from a lion is that whatever a man intends doing should be done by him with a whole-hearted and strenuous effort.”
— Chanakya

21. “I laugh in the face of danger.”
— Simba

22. “Truth is in the eye of the beholder.”
— Scar

23. “I’m only brave when I have to be.”
— Mufasa

24. “I guess even a king gets scared, huh?”
— Simba

25. “Don’t you understand? You’re our only hope.”
— Nala

26. “I was first in line until that little hairball was born.”
— Scar

27. “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”
— Timon

28. “There’s more to being king than getting your way all the time.”
— Mufasa

29. “Hey Uncle Scar, when I’m king, what’ll that make you?”
— Simba

30. “Simba, let me tell you something my father told me. Look at the stars. The great kings of the past look down on us from those stars.”
— Mufasa

31. “An optimist is someone who gets treed by a lion but enjoys the scenery.”
— Walter Winchell

32. “An elephant is the king of the jungle for the simple reason a lion is only brave when there is loads of them.”
— Dereck Chisora

33. “A lion’s work hours are only when he’s hungry; once he’s satisfied, the predator and prey live peacefully together.”
— Chuck Jones

34. “Only in art will the lion lie down with the lamb, and the rose grow without thorn.”
— Martin Amis

35. “I’ve got a friend who is a lion tamer. He used to be a school teacher til he lost his nerve.”
— Les Dawson

36. “There is something about seeing rhinos and lions running free that excites you. It’s not that you feel afraid; it’s more like you’re liberated by seeing them.”
— Michael Douglas

37. “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.”
— Uday Kotak

38. “No other creatures of the savannah sleep as deeply or as soundly as lions, but after all, lions are the main reason for not sleeping soundly.”
— Elizabeth Marshall Thomas

39. “The difference between a brave man and a coward is a coward thinks twice before jumping in the cage with a lion.”
— Charles Bukowski

40. “All the other animals in the forest naturally expect me to be brave, for the Lion is everywhere thought to be the King of Beasts. I learned that if I roared very loudly, every living thing was frightened and got out of my way.”
— L Frank Baum

41. “I was once, I think, bitten on the nose by a lion cub.”
— Newt Gingrich

42. “Love transforms our fear into courage like the once cowardly Lion of Oz.”
— Chris T. Atkinson

43. “I think having wild, huge hair is me being my own version of a lioness.”
— Jillian Hervey

44. “There was never a woman like her. She was gentle as a dove and brace as a lioness.”
— Andrew Jackson

45. “The lion doesn’t care that the sheep laugh at him. Remember that.”
— B.J. Penn

46. “I refuse to be outworked, and I consider myself to have the heart of a lion.”
— Draymond Green

47. “I was the shyest human ever invented, but I had a lion inside me that wouldn’t shut up!”
— Ingrid Bergman

48. “If you could cross a lion and a monkey, that’s what I’d be, because monkeys are funny and lions are strong.”
— Marlon Wayans

49. “I am now an old lioness; if I see my young ones getting out of order, I’ve got to be able to say to them, this is not how lions behave. This is not right.”
— Joanna Lumley

50. “Women are like lionesses at the gate of the home. Whatever happens in the home and family happens because she cares about it, and it matters to her.”
— Julie B. Beck