quotations about Adam & Eve
Do you, good people, believe that Adam and Eve were created in the Garden of Eden and that they were forbidden to eat from the tree of knowledge? I do. The church has always been afraid of that tree. It still is afraid of knowledge. Some of you say religion makes people happy. So does laughing gas. So does whiskey.
CLARENCE DARROW
attributed in a eulogy for Darrow by Emanuel Haldeman-Julius, 1938
That was the birth of sin. Not doing it, but KNOWING about it. Before the apple, [Adam and Eve] had shut their eyes and their minds had gone dark. Now, they peeped and pried and imagined. They watched themselves.
D.H. LAWRENCE
"Nathaniel Hawthorne and 'The Scarlet Letter'", Studies in Classic American Literature
The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the Lord God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
BIBLE
Genesis 3:21-24
Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is, knows how deep a debt of gratitude we owe to Adam, the first great benefactor of our race. He brought death into the world.
MARK TWAIN
Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar
The rib of Adam, the eyes of Eve
The sons of Cain receive no reprieve
CLUTCH
"Ghost", Blast Tyrant
God took one look at Adam and said, "Wow. This guy's going to need all the help he can get." And here we are.
NANCY MEHL
Simple Secrets
Adam was commonly known as a hunk,
But he transformed into this hardcore junkie
Eve was so pleasant in the centerfold
Now she is counting the holes in her soul
THE FLOWER KINGS
"Adam & Eve"
If Adam and Eve were not hunter-gatherers, then they were certainly gatherers. But, then, consumer desire, or self-embitterment, or the 'itch,' as Schopenhauer called it, appeared in the shape of the serpent. This capitalistic monster awakens in Adam and Eve the possibility that things could be better. Instantly, they are cast out of the garden and condemned to a life of toil, drudgery, and pain. Wants supplanted needs, and things have been going downhill ever since.
TOM HODGKINSON
The Freedom Manifesto
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, "Where are you?" He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid." And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?" The man said, "The woman you put here with me--she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." Then the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
BIBLE
Genesis 3:6-13
I've never seen such a bunch of apple-eaters.
J.D. SALINGER
Nine Stories
Adam and Eve are basically the forgotten patriarch and matriarch of the Bible. People either dismiss them as fairy tales--they're made up; we've moved on. Or people dump on them for ruining life for the rest of us. Adam and Eve (but mostly Eve) have been almost universally blamed for being selfish, lustful, disgraceful, and for single-handedly bringing shame, sin, and even death into the world.
BRUCE FEILER
The First Love Story: A Journey Through the Tangled Lives of Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve
It's the oldest game in town
Just a one way street
To a faded magazine
Kiss and tell
Money talks it never lies
Kiss and tell
Give and take eye for an eye
BRYAN FERRY
"Kiss and Tell"
It began I believe when Adam found Eve he woke up and made her his wife
On that very first day she asked in dismay am I the first girl in your life
Wives don't like old girlfriends you know that's a fact of life
Wives don't like old girlfriends and girlfriends don't like old wives
CHET ATKINS & SUZY BOGGUSS
"Wives Don't Like Old Girlfriends"
Adam chewed it over,
Thought it through--
It dawned on him
That outside Eden
They were eaters or eaten.
GREGORY ORR
"To Notice", River Inside the River
Was the apple applesauce
Eve ate in the garden?
Aren't you all at a total loss?
No? I beg your pardon!
SAMUEL HOFFENSTEIN
Poems in Praise of Practically Nothing
Our grandsire Adam, ere of Eve possess'd,
Alone, and ev'n in Paradise unbless'd,
With mournful looks the blissful scene survey'd,
And wander'd in the solitary shade.
The Maker saw, took pity, and bestow'd
Woman, the last, the best reserv'd of God.
ALEXANDER POPE
January and May
Of Adam's first wife, Lilith, it is told
(The witch he loved before the gift of Eve)
That, ere the snake's, her sweet tongue could deceive
And her enchanted hair was the first gold.
And still she sits, young while the earth is old,
And, subtly of herself contemplative,
Draws men to watch the bright web she can weave,
Till heart and body and life are in its hold.
DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI
Body's Beauty
In the end, Eve decided to share with Adam--she could not bear the thought that she might after all die and that Adam would then wed "another Eve." And Adam? Adam, in Milton's conception, was not deceived. He understood at once that Eve had made a catastrophic mistake, but he immediately decided to share her fate. "How can I live without thee?"
STEPHEN GREENBLATT
The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve
We've all heard of Adam and Eve,
Didn't they believe?
Yet they made us all grieve.
But now I can finally see,
That it was actually me,
Taking the apple off the tree.
CHRISTOPHER R. ABBOTT
"Adam and Eve"
Let's go down to the apple tree
Naive as Adam and Eve
Oh oh oh, oh oh oh
Let's go down to the apple tree
Fighting against gravity
NINA NESBITT
"The Apple Tree", Peroxide