Monkeys are, without a doubt, the most entertaining and playful animal species.
Humans are believed to be relatives of these lively and joyful beings and share several physical, mental, and emotional characteristics. Due to their vitality and intellect, many individuals even consider monkeys to be their spirit animals.
Whether you're watching a baby monkey clinging to its mom or seeing them throw bananas at each other in a monkey cage, the antics of monkeys will surely brighten your day and mood.
Here are some fascinating monkey quotes by notable people like Winston Churchill, Harry Harlow, George Carlin, and Lee Kuan Yew, that will definitely bring a smile to your face!
Interesting Monkey Quotes
Since monkeys are the closest relatives to humans in the animal kingdom, they never fail to pique people's interests. Below are some great monkey quotes about the similarities between humans and monkeys and how individuals can acquire life lessons from these remarkable species.
“Without pain, without sacrifice we would have nothing. Like the first monkey shot into space.” - 'Fight Club', Chuck Palahniuk.
“If monkey became a man, then a man can become a hero.” - Amit Kalantri.
“The mind is a monkey, hopping around from thought to thought, image to image. Rarely do more than a few seconds go by in which the mind can remain single-pointed, empty.” - Dani Shapiro.
“Mother Nature is always speaking. She speaks in a language understood within the peaceful mind of the sincere observer. Leopards, cobras, monkeys, rivers and trees; they all served as my teachers when I lived as a wanderer in the Himalayan foothills.” - Radhanath Swami.
“If you put bananas in front of monkeys, monkeys will choose bananas because monkeys do not know that money can buy a lot of bananas. In reality, if you offer job and business to people, they would choose job.” - Jack Ma.
“The most accomplished monkey cannot draw a monkey, this only man can do; just as it is also only man who regards his ability to do this as a distinct merit.” - Georg Christoph Lichtenberg.
“Distraction is the main problem for us all what the Buddha called the monkey mind. We need to tame this monkey mind.” - Tenzin Palmo.
“We read our children stories starring elephants and monkeys and bears to teach them about nobility, curiosity and courage, to warn them against selfishness and stubbornness.” - Lydia Millet.
“Monkey can make a long jump with his muscles; and man, with his wisdom.” - Mehmet Murat Ildan.
"A person who misses a chance and the monkey who misses its branch can't be saved". - An Indian proverb.
“A determined soul will do more with a rusty monkey wrench than a loafer will accomplish with all the tools in a machine shop.” - Robert Hughes.
“I learned the way a monkey learns - by watching its parents.” - Prince Charles.
“Life is like the monkey bars: you have to let go to move forward. Once you make the decision to leap into entrepreneurship, be sure to loosen your grasp on old concepts so you can swing your way to new ones.” - Leah Busque.
“The fact that there are bigger injustices and wrongs doesn't make it right to sacrifice an innocent monkey. It doesn't alter the case at all.” - Brigid Brophy.
“Probably the difference between man and the monkeys is that the monkeys are merely bored, while man has boredom plus imagination.” - Lin Yutang.
“Don't sell your soul to buy peanuts for the monkeys.” - Dorothy Salisbury Davis.
“By trying often the monkey learns to jump from the tree.” - An African proverb.
“Poetry, it is often said and loudly so, is life's true mirror. But a monkey looking into a work of literature looks in vain for Socrates.” - Franz Grillparzer.
“Essentially, a parrot is a monkey with wings.” - Joseph Garner.
“Don`t stop doing what you love. Don`t let your future be ruined by a bunch of loony sand monkeys.” - Megan McCafferty.
“Never believe that body is permanent. Body is like a water bubble. Mind is like a mad monkey.” - Sri Sathya Sai Baba.
“If you look at the monkeys, you can learn many things about the men; if you look at the men, you can learn many things about the madness!” - Mehmet Murat Ildan.
“The only reason why God created man is because he was disappointed with the monkey.” - Mark Twain.
“Millions and millions of exuberant monkeys are creating an endless digital forest of mediocrity.” - Andrew Keen.
“In Kenya, you've got the great birds and monkeys leaping through the trees overhead. It's a chance to remember what the world is really like.” - Joanna Lumley.
“When the monkey can’t reach the ripe banana with his hand, he says it is not sweet.” - Sudanese Proverb.
“If an army of monkeys were strumming on typewriters, they might write all the books in the British Museum.” - Arthur Eddington.
“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.
“Culture is roughly anything we do and the monkeys don't.” - Lord Raglan.
“A monkey glances up and sees a banana, and that’s as far as he looks. A visionary looks up and sees the moon.” - Eoin Colfer.
“With the tiger, you're always on edge, and you always have to keep your distance. The monkey is far less threatening so you're more relaxed around the monkey, and I think that's actually hazardous.” - Ed Helms.
“I can train a monkey to wave an American flag. That does not make the monkey patriotic.” - Scott Ritter.
“Evolution isn`t true, because if we evolved from monkeys, how can they still be here?” - Stephen Baldwin.
“Before every action ask yourself. Will this bring more monkeys on my back. Will the result of my action be a blessing or a heavy burden?” - Alfred Armand Montapert.
“When there are no great tigers in the deep mountains, even a monkey can become king.” - A Chinese proverb.
“Monkeys play by their sizes. Smaller tasks mostly come with smaller challenges. If you are willing to take step-by-step methods to solve bigger tasks, you will easily overcome challenges that attempt to stop you! Go, give a try!” - Israelmore Ayivor.
“The responses of the baby monkey are very similar to those of a human baby.” - Harry Harlow.
Funny Monkey Quotes
(Check out some fascinating monkey quotes by notable personalities like Prince Charles and Winston Churchill.)
From letting monkeys govern the country to marrying them, these amusing monkey quotes will make you laugh out loud.
“It is not so important to be serious as it is to be serious about the important things. The monkey wears an expression of seriousness which would do credit to any college student, but the monkey is serious because he itches.” - Robert M. Hutchins.
“In Mozambique, the story goes, monkeys do not talk, because they know if they utter even a single word some man will come and put them to work.” - Carl Sagan.
“Victor Vigny: A monkey glances up and sees a banana, and that's as far as he looks. A visionary looks up and sees the moon.
Conor Broekhart: Which resembles a giant banana.”
- Eoin Colfer.
“One of my most laughable moments was when we visited the monkeys in Ubud - they really seemed to like me and at one point, I had three males on my head and shoulders.” - Carolyn Murphy.
“People talk too much. Humans aren’t descended from monkeys. They come from parrots.” - Carlos Ruiz Zafón.
“You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can only make a monkey out of the voters every four years!” - Pat Paulsen.
“My favorite special skill on my resume is 'excellent monkey noises.'” - Ciara Renee.
“Instead of politicians, let the monkeys govern the countries; at least they will steal only the bananas!” - Mehmet Murat Ildan.
“I think life would be so much funnier if every day you saw someone walking down the street getting hit in the head by a monkey, don't you?” - Harland Williams.
“A blindfolded monkey throwing darts at a newspaper's financial pages could select a portfolio that would do just as well as one carefully selected by experts.” - Burton Malkiel.
“The quizzical expression of the monkey at the zoo comes from his wondering whether he is his brother's keeper, or his keeper's brother.” - Evan Esar.
“Friends didn't believe me when I told them about him, so I'd invite them over on Saturdays to watch the monkey watch TV.” - Eddie Rabbitt.
“We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.” - Robert Wilensky.
“Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room.” - Winston Churchill.
“No monkey ever reheated a frozen burrito.” - James S.A. Corey.
“If you marry a monkey for his wealth, the money goes, but the monkey remains.” - An Egyptian Proverb.
“The ability to gauge intelligence is itself a form of intelligence. Monkeys don`t ponder how smart monkeys are. Ditto for politicians.” - Jarod Kintz.
“God likes a little humor, as is evidence by the fact that he made the monkeys, the parrot -- and some of you people.” - Billy Sunday.
“Space. It seems to go on and on forever. Then you get to the end, and a monkey starts throwing barrels at you.” - Phillip Fry.
“Somebody give me a banana. I'm playing like a monkey, so I might as well eat like one.” - Chi Chi Rodriguez.
Short Monkey Quotes
Check out these short but thought-provoking quotes on monkeys.
“The monkey in his mother’s eye is a gazelle.” - An Arabic proverb.
“I am too much alien and not enough monkey to fit in here.” - Melissa St. Hilaire.
“He who wants to plant corns must make peace with the monkeys.” - An African proverb.
“One monkey don't stop no show. Not one, not six. The struggle continues.” - Toni Cade Bambara.
“Don’t take yourself so seriously. You’re just a monkey with a plan.” - Naval Ravikant.
“It is a lot better to come from an evolved monkey than from a fallen angel.” - Marcellin Boule.
“The higher a monkey climbs, the more you see of its behind.” - Joseph Stillwell.
“A gorilla does not budge from a banana thrown at it by a monkey.” - 'Rise Up and Salute The Sun: The Writings Of Suzy Kassem', Suzy Kassem.
“Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.” - H. L. Mencken.
“Even monkeys fall from trees.” - Chris Bradford.
“The president is here, strong and firm as a monkey's tail.” - Jean-Claude Duvalier.
“Monkey see, monkey do. People tend to do like others without thinking.” - Wolfgang.
“Cats and monkeys; monkeys and cats; all human life is there.” - Henry James.
“Like in the zoo, you will always find lots of monkeys but very few lions.” - Nabil N. Jamal.
“But then, after all, we are all alike, for we are all derived from the monkey.” - Albert Einstein.
“Just cause you got the monkey off your back doesn't mean the circus has left town.” - George Carlin.
“A monkey seldom slips on a banana peel.” - 'Shambala Sect', VKBoy.
“Silence is of the gods; only monkeys chatter.” - Buster Keaton.
When you’re dealing with monkeys, you’ve got to expect some wrenches.” - Alvah Bessie.
“I find it easier to claim that I am friends with a monkey rather than with a man.” - Shahla Khan.
“We see the man when we look at the monkey; we see the monkey when we look at the man!” - Mehmet Murat Ildan.
“Monkeys are superior to men in this: when a monkey looks into a mirror, he sees a monkey.” - Malcolm de Chazal.
“The problem is to keep the monkey mind from running off into all kinds of thoughts.” - Lee Kuan Yew.
“The monkey knows which branch to swing on.” - Creole
Famous Monkey Quotes
Monkeys have always been among the most loved animals of humans. Read what prominent personalities like Mark Twain and Penelope Cruz say about monkeys below.
“If monkeys knew what man was going to be like, I think that they would have stopped evolving.” - Anthony T. Hincks.
“In discarding the monkey and substituting man, our Father in Heaven did the monkey an undeserved injustice.” - Mark Twain.
“When we were monkeys, we were more human because we were at least not destroying nature those days!” - Mehmet Murat Ildan.
“Our society spends a lot of money on prison bars. For the sake of our kids, let's invest in monkey bars.” - Darell Hammond.
“People go to the zoo and they like the lion because it`s scary. And the bear because it`s intense, but the monkey makes people laugh.” - Lorne Michaels.
“We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special.” - Stephen Hawking.
“I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man`s reasoning powers are not above the monkey`s.” - Mark Twain.
“When I would be myself, I was being big-headed. I was being egotistical. I was a megalomaniac, when it really was just having not to be a monkey for a few hours a day. And fulfilling the need to be a man.” - Jerry Lewis.
“Too much free time is certainly a monkey's paw in disguise. Most people can't handle a structureless life.” - Douglas Coupland.
“Instead of holding on to the Biblical view that we are made in the image of God, we come to realize that we are made in the image of the monkey.” - Lin Yutang.
“We are all a tiger with feelings. An elephant who never forgets. We are tiger, panther, monkey - we are all of these things, all of the life rhythms.” - Ruby Dee.
“Young people are intimidating. But I really want them to like me. There is something about a group of teens that turns me into a performing monkey.” - Shweta Bachchan Nanda.
“I really like the Caribbean. Anyplace in the Caribbean. I get there, and I feel like a monkey - the perfect state.” - Penelope Cruz.
“Comedians are the monkeys of acting. When you go to the zoo, everybody loves the monkey exhibit.” - Tracy Morgan.
“I am not nearly so interested in what monkey man was derived from as I am in what kind of monkey he is to become.” - Loren Eiseley.
“Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward.” - C. S. Lewis.
