{"quotes":[{"text":"Yes, an actual full-sized camel. If you find that confusing, just think how the criosphinx must have felt.Where did the camel come from, you ask? I may have mentioned Walt’s collection of amulets. Two of them summoned disgusting camels. I’dmet them before, so I was less than excited when a ton of dromedary flesh flew across my line of sight, plowed into the sphinx, and collapsed on topof it. The sphinx growled in outrage as it tried to free itself. The camel grunted and farted.“Hindenburg,” I said. Only one camel could possibly fart that badly. “Walt, why in the world—?”“Sorry!” he yelled. “Wrong amulet!”The technique worked, at any rate. The camel wasn’t much of a fighter, but it was quite heavy and clumsy. The criosphinx snarled and clawedat the floor, trying unsuccessfully to push the camel off; but Hindenburg just splayed his legs, made alarmed honking sounds, and let loose gas.I moved to Walt’s side and tried to get my bearings.","author":"Rick Riordan","tags":["carter-kane","destruction","earthquakes","floods","funny","funny-and-random","giant-snake","humour","ra","rebellious","riordan","riots","sadie-kane","serpent","snake","sun","survive","tornado","tsunamis"],"id":27304,"author_id":"Rick+Riordan"},{"text":"The Serpent, to my interpretation, was pain.","author":"William Goldman","tags":["bible","christianity","eden","pain","serpent","snake","suffering"],"id":52987,"author_id":"William+Goldman"},{"text":"It has always been a mystery to me how Adam, Eve, and the serpent were taught the same language. Where did they get it? We know now, that it requires a great number of years to form a language; that it is of exceedingly slow growth. We also know that by language, man conveys to his fellows the impressions made upon him by what he sees, hears, smells and touches. We know that the language of the savage consists of a few sounds, capable of expressing only a few ideas or states of the mind, such as love, desire, fear, hatred, aversion and contempt. Many centuries are required to produce a language capable of expressing complex ideas. It does not seem to me that ideas can be manufactured by a deity and put in the brain of man. These ideas must be the result of observation and experience.","author":"Robert G. Ingersoll","tags":["adam-and-eve","aversion","bible","brain","centuries","contempt","deity","desire","experience","expression","fable","fantasy","fear","garden-of-eden","growth","hatred","ideas","impressions","knowledge","language","love","myth","observation","savage","senses","serpent","the-bible"],"id":53988,"author_id":"Robert+G.+Ingersoll"},{"text":"To obey the serpent is to live in once upon a time glory of God.","author":"Sunday Adelaja","tags":["glory","god","live","obey","serpent","time"],"id":55539,"author_id":"Sunday+Adelaja"},{"text":"God designed life to be enjoyed by all, but human being turned things around and made it to be endured.","author":"Bamigboye Olurotimi","tags":["adam","change","choice","design","desire","endure","endured","enjoyment","eve","fruit","garden-of-eden","human-being","life","serpent"],"id":123073,"author_id":"Bamigboye+Olurotimi"},{"text":"Only hinted at in some of these tales, and clearly stated in others, it is apparent that there was a long and continuing conflict between paganism and Christianity in the early centuries A.D. This may also be the explanation behind other well creation tales, such as the slaying by St Barry of a 'great serpent' in County Roscommon. The saint thrust his crozier at it before it disappeared into Lough Lagan, and where his knee touched the ground, a holy well, Tobar Barry, sprang up. Although the serpent may represent paganism, and the saint's victory is therefore the victory of Christianity over paganism, we cannot entirely ignore the possibility that some of the serpents in similar Irish tales may have been real water monsters, which are still seen from time to time in the lakes of Ireland and Scotland. These eerie, ugly monsters, with their aura of primeval mystery, appropriately symbolize the uncouth savagery which the Christians attributed to all non-Christian beliefs; but that is not to say that the monsters were totally symbolic and did not have a reality of their own.","author":"Colin Bord","tags":["christianity","lake-monster","pagan","sea-serpent","serpent","water-monster"],"id":139770,"author_id":"Colin+Bord"},{"text":"It is for your own good to love a dare-devil rather than a holy coward. A dare-devil is a unique devil, battling your fears, your pains, conquering your uncertainties, carrying you his arms, and flying out of the corrosive fire. The coward is a trickster serpent, which vanishes in your time of despair, and appears in time of equanimity.","author":"Michael Bassey Johnson","tags":["battle","conqueror","corrosive","cowardice","dare-devil","despair","dread","dreadful","equanimity","fear","fight","fire","food-for-thought","haven","love","pain","safe","salvation","security","serpent","strong-bond","trickster","true-friends","uncertainties","uncertainty"],"id":165939,"author_id":"Michael+Bassey+Johnson"},{"text":"Well, yeah, you listen to a talking snake and there's gonna be trouble.","author":"Mike Mignola","tags":["bprd","gary-gianni","great-old-ones","hellboy","horror","into-the-silent-sea","lovecraft","lovecraftian","mignola","mike-mignola","pirates","serpent","snake"],"id":180101,"author_id":"Mike+Mignola"},{"text":"Our problems started in Dallas, when the fire-breathing sheep destroyed the King Tut exhibit.","author":"Rick Riordan","tags":["carter-kane","destruction","earthquakes","floods","funny","funny-and-random","giant-snake","humour","ra","rebellious","riordan","riots","sadie-kane","serpent","snake","sun","survive","tornado","tsunamis"],"id":183407,"author_id":"Rick+Riordan"},{"text":"To operate in the serpent dimension is to reject laws of the kingdom.","author":"Sunday Adelaja","tags":["dimension","kingdom","laws","operate","reject","serpent"],"id":209131,"author_id":"Sunday+Adelaja"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":19,"pages":2,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}