50 Alligator Quotes About the Ancient Predator

By Clifton Sankofa | Published May 27, 2023

Learn about these untamed reptiles with our alligator quotes.

Alligators are majestic creatures known for their powerful jaws, sharp teeth, and thick skin.

Come and explore the world of reptiles with our alligator quotes below.

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What is an alligator?

An alligator, or gator, is a large reptile from the order Crocodilia.

Two species of alligator are still roaming the earth; the American Alligator and the Chinese Alligator.

Check out these astonishing facts about alligators below:

Alligators typically live from thirty-five to fifty years in the wild.
Alligators first appeared on Earth about thirty-seven million years ago.
The name “alligator” is an anglicized version of el largarto, the Spanish term for lizard.

Alligators are ectothermic or cold-blooded.

This means they must bask in the sun to raise their body temperatures and return to the water to cool themselves down.

In the United States, alligators populate the southeastern portion of the country.

You can find them in rivers, swamps, and bayous from Florida to Texas along the border of the Gulf of Mexico.

What is the difference between an alligator and a crocodile?

Alligators are commonly confused with their cousins, the crocodiles.

This confusion is understandable as all alligators are crocodilians, but not all crocodilians are alligators.

A great analogy is how all squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares.

Alligators are darker in color; their skin is grayish black, while crocodiles have an olive green or brown tint.

Gators have broad U-shaped snouts, and crocodiles have pointy V-shaped snouts.

Alligators prefer fresh water, and crocodiles enjoy saltwater or brackish water.

Crocodiles have glands in their mouths that expel salt from their systems, and alligators do not.

Alligators are native to the Southern US and China, while crocodiles are indigenous to Africa, Australia, India, and Central America.

Crocodiles and alligators are dangerous and should always be given the proper respect.

However, it is observable that alligators are much less aggressive than crocodiles.

For example, zoo keepers who clean alligator pools can tread around the animals safely.

Crocodiles would never allow this to occur and would respond aggressively to anyone intruding upon their space.

To learn more, check out our alligator quotes below.

Short alligator quotes about the majestic reptile

Alligators are majestic creatures who have immersed themselves into the fabric of American culture.

1. “See you later, alligator. After a while, crocodile.” — Bill Haley

2. “Feed the alligators, and you get bigger alligators.” — Helen Gurley Brown

3. “Turn the goddam music up! My heart feels like an alligator!” — Hunter S. Thompson

4. “Never insult an alligator until after you have crossed the river.” — Cordell Hull

5. “Maybe humans are just the pet alligators that God flushed down the toilet.” — Chuck Palahniuk

6. “Au revoir, jeweled alligators and white hotels, hallucinatory forests, farewell.” — J. G. Ballard

7. “All the pictures on the walls, they all white as lilies and smiling like alligators.” — Charlaine Harris

8. “People wrestle alligators but not once has someone done it without an audience.” — Doug Stanhope

9. “A gun is not a weapon! It’s a tool, like a butcher’s knife, or a harpoon, or an alligator.” — Homer

10. “I spent most of my 20s with these alligator wrestlers in the swamps of South Florida.” — Karen Russell

The best alligator quotes about the king of the swamp

Alligators are revered and respected as the top predator in the swamp.

11. “I’m Southern, so alligator tail is pretty interesting and yummy.” — LeAnn Rimes

12. “Three million alligators were killed in Florida between 1880 and 1900. Goody!” — Will Cuppy

13. “When I was a little kid, I was the first kid in my neighborhood to have a pet alligator.” — Benicio Del Toro

14. “The government competes in the private sector the way an alligator competes with a duck.” — Mike Pence

15. “Just take them rascals, rapists, killers, child abusers out in the swamp. Put ’em on their knees and tie ’em to a stump. Let the rattlers and the bugs and the alligators do the rest.” — Charlie Daniels

The top funny gator quotes to make you smile

These alligator quotes are hilarious and will add some smiles to your day.

16. “Really, it was difficult to determine which I had most reason to fear; dogs, alligators or men!” — Solomon Northup

17. “Writing is the hardest way of earning a living, with the possible exception of wrestling alligators.” — Richard Miller

18. “You know you’re old when someone compliments you on your alligator shoes, and you’re barefoot.” — Phyllis Diller

19. “It’s hard, when you’re up to your armpits in alligators, to remember you came here to drain the swamp.” — Ronald Reagan

20. “Alligator: The crocodile of America, superior in every detail to the crocodile of the effete monarchies of the Old World.” — Ambrose Bierce

21. “Down in Louisiana where the alligators grow so mean, there lived a girl that I swear to the world made the alligators look tame.” — Tony Joe White

22. “You’ve got forever, and somehow you can’t do much with it. You’ve got forever, and it’s a mile wide and an inch deep and full of alligators.” — Jim Thompson

23. “Nobody in the city of Los Angeles knows how to catch an alligator. We have no experience in recreation and parks, the zoo, or animal control.” — Janice Hahn

24. “An alligator lifts its head and swallows the ocean. Then the ocean floor becomes a desert covering the alligator in sand drifts. Changes do happen.” — Rumi

25. “Once, when I was golfing in Georgia, I hooked the ball into the swamp. I went in after it and found an alligator wearing a shirt with a picture of a little golfer on it.” — Buddy Hackett

Alligator quotes and sayings about the nature of reptiles

Alligators are one of the most fascinating beings on the planet.

26. “Besides alligators, the only animals to be feared are the poisonous serpents.” — Henry Walter Bates

27. “I dislike the word ’emerging artist.’ Emerging connotes to me an alligator coming up from the water.” — Jack White

28. “Alligators and crocodiles are some of the most aggressive creatures on the planet. They’ll take down a boat if you come up to their nest.” — Jack Hanna

29. “If I could rest anywhere, it would be in Arkansas, where the men are of the real half-horse, half-alligator breed such as grows nowhere else on the face of the universal earth.” — Davy Crockett

30. “I’m also fascinated by the difference between terror and fear. Fear says, “Do not actually put your hand in the alligator,” while terror says, “Avoid Florida entirely because alligators exist.” — Mira Grant

Hilarious Gator quotes from The Other Guys

Gator is the alter ego of Allan Gamble in the comedy The Other Guys; here are some of his best lines.

31. “We don’t do that shit!” — Gator, The Other Guys

32. “Gator don’t take no mess!” — Gator, The Other Guys

33. “Gator’s bitches better be using jimmies!” — Gator, The Other Guys

34. “Gator needs his gat, you punk ass bitch!” — Gator, The Other Guys

35. “Gator needs some walking around money.” — Gator, The Other Guys

36. “Are you a big man? Huh? I’m talkin’ to you!” — Gator, The Other Guys

37. “Look, I’m wearin’ a belt. I got big boy pants on.” — Gator, The Other Guys

38. “Is this how you conduct yourself in a democracy?” — Gator, The Other Guys

39. “Gator turns vans upside down like they in a crazy washing machine!” — Gator, The Other Guys

40. “Do you wake up in the mornin’ and say, “I’m puttin’ on my big boy pants.” — Gator, The Other Guys

More Alligator Quotes about the Reptiles

Here are several more quotes that mention alligators.

41. “I’ve wrestled with alligators; I’ve tussled with a whale. I done handcuffed lightning And throw thunder in jail. You know I’m bad.” — Muhammad Ali

42. “My father being an outdoors person, he used to take us on quite a few adventures through the wild areas down there, introducing us to alligators and rattlesnakes and all the trees and plants.” — Jim Fowler

43.“The objective is for us to get those conversations, whether they’re by an alligator clip or ones and zeros. Whoever they are, whatever they are, I need them.” — Louis J. Freeh

44. “Writing fantasy lets me imagine a great deal more than, say, writing about alligators, and lets me write about places more distant than Florida, but I can tell you things about Florida and alligators, let you make the connection all on your own.” — Terry Brooks

45. “The sensation of writing a book is the sensation of spinning, blinded by love and daring. It is the sensation of a stunt pilot’s turning barrel rolls or an inchworm’s blind rearing from a stem in search of a route. At its worst, it feels like alligator wrestling, at the level of the sentence.” — Annie Dillard

A few more quotes mentioning alligators

If you can’t get enough, here are a few more alligator quotes.

46. “My hands looked like the hands of an alligator. So I fist bumped people instead of shaking hands for a few years.” — Berhan Ahmed

47. “I’m that same David Crockett, fresh from the backwoods, half-horse, half-alligator, a little touched with the snapping turtle; can wade the Mississippi, leap the Ohio, ride upon a streak of lightning, and slip without a scratch down a honey locust [tree].” — Davy Crockett

48. “In the case of Hilton Head, which was developed in 1970 on what had been a mosquito alligator-infested swampy barrier island, land value has leaped from nearly zero to now unaffordable.” — Susan Orlean

49. “If all I can say is I’m not in this swamp, I’m not in this swamp, then there is not a rope in front of me, and there is not an alligator behind me, and there is not a girl sitting at the edge eating a hot dog and if I believe that, then dying would be the only answer because then Death couldn’t come and say Peachy to me anymore and after all, she has a brother who believes in hope.” — Tori Amos

50. “It’s so hard for me to sit back here in this studio, looking at a guy out here, hollering my name!—When last year I spent more money, on spilled liquor, in bars from one side of this world to the other, than you made! You’re talking to the Rolex wearing, diamond-ring-wearin’, kiss-stealin, whoa! Wheelin dealin’, limousine riding, jet flying son of a gun and I’m having a hard time holding these alligators down!” — Ric Flair

Are alligators endangered?

The bad news is that from 1800 to 1900, alligators were almost hunted to extinction.

Humans have been hunting alligators for food but also for their skins, which are used to make leather.

Poaching and habitat loss pushed the gator to the brink of extinction.

The good news is that in 1967, the alligator was placed on the endangered species list.

The Endangered Species Act of 1973 prohibited alligator hunting and allowed for the species to rebound its population.

The U.S. government protected alligators by making alligator preserves and declaring hunting illegal.

In addition to new legislation, alligator farms have been breeding thousands of alligators to add to their depleted population.

Today the Fish and Wildlife Service regulates the trade of legal alligator skins and products.