50 Hippo Quotes about the Strong & Unique Animal

These hippo quotes will have you standing strong and claiming what is yours.

Hippo is the short version of “Hippopotamus,” one of the most iconic mammals in Africa and other parts of the world.

This semi-aquatic animal appears to be a fascinating and docile creature.

However, it is one of Earth’s most fearsome and powerful animals. 

MEarthe Physical Features

The hippopotamus is referred to as the third-largest mammal on Earth.

OnEarthinos and elephants are larger than hippos. 

Hence, these magnificent mammals are known for their massive features.

Some of them include:

• Strong Build
• Terrifying Teeth
• Thick Hide
• Territorial Behavior

Strong Build

The solid physical structure of a hippo is one of its most exceptional physical features. 

It has short legs and a barrel-shaped body.

The muscular frame could weigh up to several tons. 

Their robust jaws and tough skull give them a frightening appearance. 

Terrifying Teeth

Hippos have strong and sharp incisors.

The canines are powerful enough to tear even the most challenging branches.

Coupled with intensive bite force, these teeth serve as dreadful tools while defending the territory.

Thick Hide

Hippos have a strong and thick hide. 

The average thickness of their skin can reach up to 2.4 inches. 

This feature offers extensive protection against sharp branches and rocks. 

Their skin also secretes a pink-colored oil, which is natural moisture and sunscreen lotion.

Territorial Behavior

Hippos live in groups known as pods.

Besides, they are highly possessive regarding their female partners and territorial integrity.

They mark their territories through various methods, including:

• Vocalizations 
• Defecation 
• Scent marking

Ecological Importance

Hippos are crucial for the maintenance of their ecosystem.

Being grazers, hippos can consume vast quantities of vegetation.

Hippos graze at night, and their feeding habits allow systematic maintenance of the ecosystem.  

The hippo droppings are deposited in water bodies and act as natural fertilizers.

It also helps create a balance of wetland ecosystems by increasing nutrient-rich soil.

Funny Hippo Quotes

Here are the top ten funny hippo quotes for your enjoyment.

1. “I will be hipper than a hippopotamus.” — E-40

2. “I can go right, I can go left, I’m amphibious.” — Charles Shackleford

3. “Is a hippopotamus a hippopotamus or just a really cool opotamus?” — Mitch Hedberg

4. “Marriage! … Why, it is like living in a thimble with a hippopotamus!” — Phyllis Bottome

5. “The hippopotamus looks monogamous- he looks as if he would have to be.” — Will Cuppy

6. “It looks like a miniature hippopotamus with badly-fitting pantyhose all over.” — Roger Caras

7. “Once a month, a woman turns from a beautiful flower into an angry hippopotamus.” — Grace Helbig

8. “There is an eagle in me that wants to soar, and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud.” — Carl Sandburg

9. “Any of the nearby volumes might hold information about hippopotamus portals or contain hints about how he might get home.” — Brandon Mull

10. “The universal logo for a pizza hut is eight slices painted cross a disc of yellow plywood mounted in the mouth of a taxidermic hippopotamus.” — Noah Wareness

Insightful Hippo Quotes

The following quotes offer unique insights into the nature and characteristics of hippos. 

11. “I shoot the Hippopotamus with bullets made of platinum because if I use the leaden one, his hide is sure to flatten em.” — Hilaire Belloc

12. “The hippopotamus’s day Is passed in sleep; at night he hunts; God works in a mysterious way- The Church can sleep and feed at once.” — T. S. Eliot

13. “I have seen the hippopotamus, both asleep and awake; and I can assure you that, awake or asleep, he is the ugliest of the works of God.” — Thomas B. Macaulay

14. “The hippopotamus is a vegetarian and looks like a wall. Lions who eat only red meat are sleek and slim. Are nutritionists on the wrong track?” — Erma Bombeck

15. “A man is born an artist as a hippopotamus is born a hippopotamus, and you can no more make yourself one than you can make yourself a giraffe.” — John Ruskin

16. “When a business accepts help from the government, it can be like going to bed with a hippopotamus. It’s nice and warm for the moment, but then your bedmate rolls over and crushes you.” — Donald Rumsfeld

17. “I found in one of the tombs an inscription saying, ‘If you touch my tomb, you will be eaten by a crocodile and hippopotamus.’ It doesn’t mean the hippo will eat you; it means the person wanted his tomb to be protected.” — Zahi Hawass

18. “I do feel that evolution is being controlled by some sort of divine engineer. I can’t help thinking about that. And this engineer knows exactly what he or she is doing and why, and where evolution is headed. That’s why we’ve got giraffes and hippopotami and the clap.” — Kurt Vonnegut

19. “Molecular genetics can show off some surprising relationships like, for example, the close relationship of whales to hippopotamuses, which I think nobody ever guessed until molecular data was looked at. The closest relatives of whales are hippopotamuses, even closer than any other cloven-hoofed animals.” — Richard Dawkins

20. “If you were to go to the National Museum in Addis Ababa, you would walk into a huge room filled with literally tens of tons of fossils, and most of them would be elephants and rhinos and hippopotamus and monkeys and giraffes and antelopes and so on. Hominids are very rare in the landscape, and it’s very rare to find them.” — Donald Johanson

Hippo Quotes that are Amazing & Amusing 

Discover the fun and delight that hippos bring with their massive bodies by reading these quotes highlighting the incredible and humorous side of these wonderful beasts.

21. “Hippopotamus, As the leaves fall to the ground Mechs now leave Japan” — Jo Walton

22. “They would probably search for him all over the zoo—the last place he’d been seen. He wondered if any evidence would implicate the hippo.” — Brandon Mull

23. “Frankly, I couldn’t be more astonished that this guy was involved in something like this than if you came riding through my apartment on a hippopotamus.” — Dan Rather

24. “There is a famous Russian cartoon in which a hippopotamus, in the bush, points out a zebra to another hippopotamus: ‘You see,’ he says, ‘now that’s formalism.” — Alain Robbe-Grillet

25. “I have never been able to entertain a God-idea which was not integrally related to the fact of chipmunks, squirrels, hippopotamuses, galaxies, and light years.” — Joseph Sittler

26. “Emily said … Well, I read that it’s important to sleep. While you sleep, the hippopotamus in your brain replays things that happened during the day, e.g., what you studied. So, therefore, it remembers it for you.” — Jaclyn Moriarty

27. “There is no need to worry about mere size. We do not necessarily respect a fat man more than a thin man. Sir Isaac Newton was very much smaller than a hippopotamus, but we do not on that account value him less.” — Bertrand Russell

28. “A man looking at a hippopotamus may sometimes be tempted to regard a hippopotamus as an enormous mistake, but he is also bound to confess that a fortunate inferiority prevents him personally from making such mistakes.” — Gilbert K. Chesterton

29. “Dressing, I chose the second shirt, the one softened in the mouth of a trained and perfumed albino hippopotamus and made entirely of pigeon’s wool because it goes better with the shoes than the one stitched with baby hair.” — Nick Harkaway

30. “A hippo sandwich is easy to make. All you do is simply take one slice of bread, one slice of cake, some mayonnaise, one onion ring, one hippopotamus, one piece of string, and a dash of pepper. That ought to do it. And now comes the problem… biting into it!” — Shel Silverstein

Hippo Quotes On Behemoths, Communication, and City Life

Here are some more insightful quotes from hippos on subjects such as behemoths, communication, and city life.

31. “We’ve got crazy little sites going up against established media behemoths.” — Edward Snowden

32. “There’s just a certain sensibility to Ron’s lyrics that’s been consistent since day one, album one, through to the ‘Hippopotamus’ album.” — Russell Mael

33. “I like snakes. I like hummingbirds. There’s nothing on earth I don’t like. Frogs. Salamanders. The bunnies, the giraffes, the hippopotamuses.” — Ted Turner

34. “I have a hippopotamus skull next to my bed, called Gregory. When I was six, my three sisters and I clubbed together and paid £4 for it in a junk shop.” — Deborah Moggach

35. “A city is where you can sign a petition, boo the chief justice, fish off a pier, gaze at a hippopotamus, buy a flower at the corner, or get a good hamburger or a bad girl at 4 a.m.” — Herb Caen

36. “I had all kinds of allergy problems with certain meats and with fruits and vegetables with pesticides. So I turned to bear, caribou, venison, hippopotamus, buffalo, elk, and moose.” — Billy Casper

37. “Could we communicate more like manatees, who stay in communication in all kinds of emergencies, place their bodies in a way that protects children, touch each other to remember and know?” — Alexis Pauline Gumbs

38. “Logic is immaturity weaving its nets of gossamer wherewith it aims to catch the behemoth of knowledge. Logic is a crutch for the cripple, but a burden for the swift of foot and a greater burden still for the wise.” — Mikhail Naimy

39. “He said he would come in,’ the White Queen went on, `because he was looking for a hippopotamus. Now, as it happened, there wasn’t such a thing in the house, that morning.’ Is there generally?’ Alice asked in an astonished tone. Well, only on Thursdays,’ said the Queen.” — Lewis Carroll

40. “Manatees are real; mermaids aren’t. Rhinoceroses exist, and sea monsters don’t. There are no more sea serpents guarding deadly whirlpools. There are pirates, yes, but there is nothing romantic about them. The rest is all stories, and stories have been put in their place.” — Jodi Lynn Anderson

Amphibious Quotes

Hippopotamuses’ amphibious nature has been the subject of many discussions and writings over the years.

41. “He hits from both sides of the plate. He’s amphibious.” — Yogi Berra

42. “None can lead this life who are not almost amphibious.” — Henry David Thoreau

43. “Left hand, right hand, it doesn’t matter. I’m amphibious.” — Charles Shackleford

44. “We are amphibious creatures, weaponed for two elements, having two sets of faculties, the particular and the catholic.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

45. “No amphibious attack in history has approached this one in size. Along miles of coastline, there were hundreds of vessels and small boats afloat and ant-like files of advancing troops ashore.” — Dwight D. Eisenhower

46. “The amphibious landing of U.S. Marines on September 1950 at Inchon, on the west coast of Korea, was one of the most audacious and spectacularly successful amphibious landings in all naval history.” — Bernard Brodie

47. “By their victory, the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Marine Divisions and other units of the Fifth Amphibious Corps have made an accounting to their country which only history will be able to value fully.” — Chester W. Nimitz

48. “If rightly made, a boat would be a sort of amphibious animal, a creature of two elements, related by one half its structure to some swift and shapely fish, and by the other to some strong-winged and graceful bird.” — Henry David Thoreau

49. “There is no more sagacious animal than the Icelandic horse. He is stopped by neither snow nor storm, nor impassable roads, nor rocks, glaciers, or anything. He is courageous, sober, and surefooted. He never makes a false step, never shies. If there is a river or fjord to cross, you will see him plunge in at once, just as if he were amphibious, and gain the opposite bank.” — Jules Verne

50. “Christianity has done its utmost to close the circle and declared even doubt to be sin. One is supposed to be cast into belief without reason, by a miracle, and from then on to swim in it as in the brightest and least ambiguous of elements: even a glance towards land, even the thought that one perhaps exists for something else as well as swimming, even the slightest impulse of our amphibious nature.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

Which One of these Hippo Quotes is your Favorite? 

The hippopotamus is famous for its remarkable size, power, aggression, and ecological role.

This is why hippos are so popular among people, irrespective of their age and social background.

The exciting features of a hippo encourage people to share hippo quotes with their friends and family.

If you are one of them, this article would be more than helpful.

By browsing our list of hippo quotes, you can find a quote that inspires you the most.

You can share such a quote with us via our comments section.

We would love to learn about your choice.