“She reminds me of a turtle; you can never quite know wha ta turtle is thinking.”

“The turtle stands on a turtle, which stands on a turtle. That's the universe in whole, boy. It's turtles all the way down.”

“And today the great Yertle, that Marvelous he, Is king of the Mud. That is all he can see.And the turtles of course... all the turtles are freeAs turtles and, maybe, all creatures should be.”

“And the turtles, of course...all the turtles are free, as turtles and, maybe, all creatures should be.”

“Turtles don't feel, stupid," said Jem."Were you ever a turtle, huh?”

“The place where the story happened was a world on the back of four elephants perched on the shell of a giant turtle. That's the advantage of space. It's big enough to hold practically anything, and so, eventually, it does.People think that it is strange to have a turtle ten thousand miles long and an elephant more than two thousand miles tall, which just shows that the human brain is ill-adapted for thinking and was probably originally designed for cooling the blood. It believes mere size is amazing.There's nothing amazing about size. Turtles are amazing, and elephants are quite astonishing. But the fact that there's a big turtle is far less amazing than the fact that there is a turtle anywhere.”