50 Cheetah Quotes About the Fastest Land Animal

Cheetahs are known for their speed, but what else are they known for?

These cheetah quotes might surprise you.

The word “cheetah” comes from the Sanskrit word, “chitraka”, which means “spotted one.”

They are the fastest land animals and can run up to 70 miles per hour.

Female cheetahs tend to be solitary creatures, only socializing while mating, while males hang around in small groups called coalitions.

Baby cheetahs aren’t much bigger than the average household kitten, though they will grow to be about 3 feet tall.

The little cubs will stay with their mother for about 18 months while she teaches them how to hunt and protect themselves.

Keep reading these cheetah quotes to gain more insight about these incredible animals.

Don’t forget to also check out these animal quotes celebrating their role in our lives.

Cheetah quotes about speed

1. “I don’t think my moped could outrun a cheetah.” — Jonathon Messinger

2. “To me, fast food is when a cheetah eats an antelope.” — George Carlin

3. “I ran like a cheetah – well, like a cheetah that smoked too much.” — John Green

4. “Have the will of a tiger, the speed of a cheetah and the heart of a lion.” — Kevin McCarty

5. “A coward may have the legs of a cheetah, but time has the legs of lightning.” — Matshona Dhliwayo

6. “You have to write as if you were being pursued by a cheetah across the Serengeti.” — Nicholas G. Carr

Cheetah quotes about their strength

7. “I’m a street walking cheetah with a heart full of napalm.” — Iggy Pop

8. “I saw this bloke chatting up a cheetah. He was trying to pull a fast one.” — Tim Vine

9. “Why should I stretch? Does a cheetah stretch before it chases its prey?” — Ken Griffy Jr.

10. “A hippie is someone who looks like Tarzan, walks like Jane and smells like Cheetah.” — Ronald Reagan

Cheetah quotes about their nature

11. “I want to show off how beautiful my subjects are, whether its a cheetah or a live girl or two of them together.” — Bunny Yeager

12. “I grew a love for helpless, defenseless things. People would give me lions and jaguars. I had cheetahs, monkeys.” — Dick Dale

13. “He just walked in and hugged the cheetah, was great friends with him. They were buddy-buddy in a minute.” — Carroll Ballard

14. “Nature’s orchestra includes not just Homo sapiens but elephants, whales, manatees, eagles, cheetahs, orangutans, and many others.” — Gregory Colbert

15. “If there is only one Creator who made the tiger and the lamb, the cheetah and the gazelle, what is He playing at? Is he a sadist who enjoys spectator blood sports? … Is he maneuvering to maximize David Attenborough’s television ratings?” — Richard Dawkins

16. “In the year 2007, seals, otters, lions, turtles, frogs, apes, snakes, butterflies, polar bears, cheetahs, whales are disappearing along with their variously furnished homes: cloud forests, rain forests, ice pack, boreal forests, coral reefs, forests of deciduous trees, conifer and palm.” — Eban Goodstein

17. “Cheetah genes cooperate with cheetah genes but not with camel genes, and vice versa. This is not because cheetah genes, even in the most poetic sense, see any virtue in the preservation of the cheetah species. They are not working to save the cheetah from extinction like some molecular World Wildlife Fund.” — Richard Dawkins

18. “These magnificent species of Africa – elephants, rhino, lions, leopards, cheetah, the great apes (Africa has four of the world’s five great apes) – this is a treasure for all humanity, and they are not for sale. They are not for trade. They need to be valued and preserved by humanity. We all need a global commitment to that.” — Patrick Bergin

19. “We climbed under the chain fence and knelt around Dad while he petted the cheetah. By then a few people had begun to gather. One man was calling to us to get back behind the chain fence. We ignored him. I knelt close to the cheetah. My heart was beating fast, but I wasn’t scared, only excited. I could feel the cheetah’s hot breath on my face. He looked right at me. His amber eyes were steady but sad as if he knew he’d never see the plains of Africa again.” — Jeannette Walls

More cheetah quotes and sayings

20. “Why should I stretch? Does a cheetah stretch before it chases its prey?” — Ken Griffey, Jr.

21. “There’s a cheetah walking high, liquid whispers dragonfly, charleston booties painted toes, drop the knot ivory soul.” — The Cars

If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of motivational hippie quote to inspire positivity.

22. “If I had butterscotch pants and a cheetah sweater… I’d be just fine.” — Greg Behrendt

23. “I’m into cotton underwear. I don’t need cheetah print leather to make me feel sexy.” — Nelly Furtado

24. “I go to bed wearing a very baggy one-piece cheetah suit, just because it makes my son laugh. My sexy lingerie has been locked in a drawer for a while.” — Sandra Bullock

25. “A competitive athlete is painful to look at; trying hard to become an animal rather than a man, he will never be as fast as a cheetah or as strong as an ox.” — Nassim Nicholas Taleb

26. “In the Serengeti, I would be the cheetah. I’m stronger, smarter, faster, and hungrier than everything else out there. And I don’t apologize to the gazelle when I take it down.” — Karen Marie Moning

27. “Obviously, if animals were included in the Olympics, humans wouldn’t take home any gold medals. We can’t run as fast as a cheetah, swim as well as a fish, or lift as much weight as an elephant.” — Linda Bender

28. “The ‘Cheetah Generation’ refers to the new and angry generation of young African graduates and professionals, who look at African issues and problems from a totally different and unique perspective.” — George Ayittey

29. “There are some girls who are turned on by my body and some others who are turned off. but for the majority, I just use it as a conversation piece. like someone walking a cheetah down 42nd Street would have a natural conversation piece. then when they get to talking to me they see I am not mean but gentle to them and that’s all they want to know” — Arnold Schwarzenegger

Cheetah quotes about how wonderful they are

30. “They can’t stop what they can’t catch.” — Unknown

31. “I don’t think my moped could outrun a cheetah.” — Johnathan Messinger

32. “A man with the heart of a chicken must have the legs of a cheetah.” — Unknown

33. “What the frick?! You got some cheetah blood in you or what? How did you run so fast?” — Wendy Higgins

34. “Did you see it? It was like a cross between a magpie nest and a ball of yarn after it’s been mauled by a cheetah.” — Marissa Meyer

35. “When the ancestors of the cheetah first began pursuing the ancestors of the gazelle, neither of them could run as fast as they can today.” — Richard Dawkins

36. “Bluefin tuna is sort of like the cheetah of the ocean. It’s the fastest fish. It’s a warm-blooded fish. But it’s got a $100,000 price tag on its head.” — Paul Watson

37. “One downside of living with a were-cheetah is that he purrs when he’s happy. At times, the apartment vibrated all day from MeShack’s enjoyment of life.” — Kenya Wright

38. “I can give or take elephants; I never can find the cheetah, but the zebras captivate me. They’d be one of the few things that would fit if we were lucky enough to live in a world that’s black or white.” — Jodi Picoult

39. “Take, for example, the African jungle, the home of the cheetah. On whom does the cheetah prey? The old, the sick, the wounded, the weak, the very young, but never the strong. Lesson: If you would not be prey, you had better be strong.” — G. Gordon Liddy

40. “The more I think about it, the more there is to be said for the sloth. He sleeps fifteen to eighteen hours a day and is known to have taken forty-eight days to travel four miles. He hangs in the trees after he’s dead. But he lives longer than the cheetah.” — Erma Bombeck

Thought provoking cheetah quotes about their speed

41. “I felt alone on a Serengeti plain with a cheetah circling.” — C.D. Reiss

42. “I’m going to focus on speed, doing little things like my turns and my starts, just speed.” — Ryan Lochte

43. “In ancient times, some humans tamed cheetahs.  They used cheetahs to hunt antelopes” — Lilly Carle

44. “Nothing in the universe can travel at the speed of light, they say, forgetful of the shadow’s speed.” — Howard Nemerov

45. “Pronghorn antelope were the second fastest mammals on earth—only an African cheetah could outrun them.” — C.J. Box

46. “Officially, the Iranian cheetah is thought to be extinct in Afghanistan, but I am sure a population remains. Dare mighty things. Go find it.” — Alex Deghan

47 “Life is a snail ride. Move at your own pace. Do what you want to do. And also move like a cheetah when you feel like it. And strike like a lion. People will learn.” — Joshua Aaron Guillory

48. “I drew when I was very, very young. My mom kept stuff I drew when I was 2 and a half years old, because it looked like, you know, like a jaguar as opposed to a cheetah.” — Dan Povenmire

49. “Cheetah bit me whenever he could. The ‘Tarzan’ movie apes were all homosexuals, eager to wrap their paws around Johnny Weismuller’s thighs. They were jealous of me, and I loathed them.” — Maureen O’Sullivan

50. “I shot a quick look at Logan to see how he reacted to that news and was met by the golden eyes of a Cheetah, sitting calmly on his chair. I guess I would have played animal charades if I could have, too, but it was hard to gauge the emotional reactions of an African predator.” — April White

What did you learn from these cheetah quotes? Can we save the cheetah?

There has been a long history of cheetahs being poached by humans for their fur, and, though the fur trade has become less popular over time, cheetahs are still endangered by the activities of humans.

As humans continue to destroy the cheetah’s natural habitat, either for farming or to build houses and businesses, the cheetah population continues to decrease.

Though they are not on the endangered species list, yet, they are considered vulnerable with their status getting closer and closer to “endangered.”

Conservation efforts are in effect to help the population grow again.

Of course, if humans were to stop poaching entirely and an effort was made to stop taking the cheetah’s land, the cheetah population would flourish again.

Did you enjoy these cheetah quotes and sayings?

Which quote was your favorite?

Let us know in the comments below.