Throughout North America, you’ll find ducks paddling on ponds and waddling across grassy lawns. But did you know these feathered friends symbolize happiness, good luck, and travel? Here are some of the best duck quotes to caption photos and Instagram posts as you encounter these feathered friends while exploring the United States and Canada.
From mallard ducks, with their iridescent green heads, to wood ducks that look as if they’re wearing helmets, there are at least 30 different types of native duck species in North America. Whether it’s a brightly colored male or a low-key, brown-feathered female, ducks play an important role in mythology and folklore around the world.
For example, in many cultures and spiritual beliefs, a flock of ducks flying overhead is seen as a good omen – that opportunities are coming your way or your prayers are being heard. But being passed over by ducks in flight should also serve as a reminder that good fortune comes to those who work for it. Just like the ducks in flight may be seeking safety, a warmer environment, or more plentiful food sources, you must go out and do the work to reap rewards.
Ducks also symbolize travel. Many species of ducks will migrate up to 800 miles, enduring frigid temperatures and dodging hunters’ bullets in search of milder weather. So if a duck crosses your path, it is said to be a sign to start planning your next trip. Now that is a belief I can get behind 100%!
Do You Love Ducks?
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Beautiful Duck Quotes
“Ducks are masterfully designed…for both aquatic and terrestrial life.”
— Dave Holderread
“Duck love is recognizable in any language.”
— Edmond Manning
“The popularity of ducks — often described as the happiest animals in the barnyard — is increasing in many areas of the world.”
— Dave Holderread
Ugly Ducking Quotes
“‘Oh’, sighed the duckling, ‘how thankful I am for being so ugly; even a dog will not bite me.’ And so he lay quite still, while the shot rattled through the rushes, and gun after gun was fired over him.”
— Hans Christian Andersen
“But what did he see in the clear stream below? His own image; no longer a dark, gray bird, ugly and disagreeable to look at, but a graceful and beautiful swan.”
— Hans Christian Andersen
“The ugly duckling is a misunderstood universal myth. It’s not about turning into a blonde Barbie doll or becoming what you dream of being; it’s about self-revelation, becoming who you are.”
— Baz Luhrmann
“Prince Charles is the only member of the Royal Family who ever left Cinderella for the Ugly Duckling.”
— Des Hanafin
“In Los Angeles, I feel like the ugly duckling, like I’m from Venus or something.”
— Eva Green
“There are no ugly ducklings.”
— Loretta Young
“I grew up feeling like the ugly duckling, and things have not changed that much.”
— Nicollette Sheridan
“I am not beautiful. My mother once called me an ugly duckling. But, listed separately, I have a few good features.”
— Audrey Hepburn
“I don’t have ugly ducklings turning into swans in my stories. I have ugly ducklings turn into confident ducks.”
— Maeve Binchy
Famous Duck Quotes About "If It Looks Like a Duck…”
“If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it’s a duck!”
— Robin Cook
“When I see a bird that walks like a duck, and swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck.”
— James Whitcomb Riley
“If it looks like a duck and sounds like a duck, it could be a really ugly swan.”
— Timothy Radman
“An optimist is someone who figures that if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s the bluebird of happiness.”
— Robert Breault
“If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family Anatidae on our hands.”
— Douglas Adams
“I walk like a duck: very straight up and down. Or like a penguin. It’s a dead giveaway that I’m a dancer.”
— David Hallberg
Famous Quotes About Ducks and Water
“Like a duck on the pond. On the surface, everything looks calm, but beneath the water, those little feet are churning a mile a minute.”
— Gene Hackman
“Be like a duck. Calm on the surface, but always paddling like the dickens underneath.”
— Michael Caine
“Don’t be fooled. Looks can be deceptive. Like every working mother, I’m paddling away like a duck beneath the water.”
— Katherine Kelly
”Be like a duck, paddling and working very hard inside the water, but what everyone sees is a smiling and calm face.”
— Manoj Arora
“Have you seen a duck gliding smoothly on water? Does it ever look like it is paddling furiously underneath the surface? I don’t have to show that I am working very hard.”
— Salman Khan
“For me to go to America – which I find such a positive place – well, I took to it like a duck to water.”
— Victoria Beckham
Duck Quotes and Proverbs
“Ducks quack loudly before a rain.”
— German Proverb
“Some birds avoid water, the duck searches for it.”
— Hausa Proverb
“When the ducks are quacking, the frogs take it as a warning.”
— Malagasy Proverb
“Wild ducks and tomorrow both come without calling.”
— Russian Proverb
“Eat vegetables and fear no creditors, rather than eat duck and hide.”
— Hebrew Proverb
“A duck will not always dabble in the same gutter.”
— Danish Proverb
“Not the cry, but the flight of a wild duck, leads the flock to fly and follow.”
— Chinese Proverb
“The roast duck can fly no more.”
— Chinese Proverb
“To threaten the brave with death is like promising water to a duck.”
— Arab Proverb
“The neighbor’s chicken is a duck.”
— Bulgarian Proverb
“Envy can breed swans from bad duck eggs.”
— Russian Proverb
“If the world is flooded, it will be easy for the duck.”
— Turkish Proverb
“A wise duck takes care of its bill.”
— Native American Proverb
“It’s better to be an ugly duckling from your own village than a beauty from foreign parts.”
— Romanian Proverb
Funny Duck Quotes
“When the ducks are walking, you know it’s too windy to play golf.”
— Dave Stockton
“Popularity should be no scale for the election of politicians. If it would depend on popularity, Donald Duck and The Muppets would take seats in the Senate.”
— Orson Welles
“Was that you or the duck?”
— Groucho Marx
“Don’t take me under your wing and tell me that scent is duck sauce.”
— Josh Stern
“Guy goes into a bar with a duck under his arm. Bartender says, ‘Where’d you get the pig?’ Guy says, ‘This is a duck.’ Bartender says, ‘I was talking to the duck.’”
— Rodney Dangerfield
“I look like a duck. It’s the way my mouth curls up, or my nose tilts up. I should have played Howard the Duck.”
— Michelle Pfeiffer
Quotes About Duck Hunting
“The perils of duck hunting are great – especially for the duck.”
— Walter Cronkite
“You can’t aim a duck to death.”
— Beverly Sills
“Unlike a deer, a duck can see you in color and from a very long way off … if you can see a duck, it can see you.”
— Heather Carver
“The squeaky wheel gets the grease, but the quacking duck gets shot.”
— Carl Sandburg
“Most Texans think Hanukkah is some sort of duck call.”
— Richard Lewis
“I love partridge and duck casseroles and have been known to hunt my own game. It’s important to eat off the land where possible.”
— David Linley
“No, I’m not a good shot, but I shoot often.”
— Theodore Roosevelt
“A duck call in the hands of the unskilled is one of conservation’s greatest assets.”
— Nash Buckingham
Quotes About Eating Duck
“Singing songs like ‘The Man I Love’ or ‘Porgy’ is no more work than sitting down and eating Chinese roast duck, and I love roast duck.”
— Billie Holiday
“A duck tastes the same whether they’re shot sitting or flying.”
— Jase Robertson
“I’ve thrown vanilla beans into mustard. Nothing crazy or grainy, just normal Dijon. It’s great for duck. Smear some of that right on the duck, coupled with some roast plums, and it all comes together in that savory over sweet way we all love.”
— Alex Guarnaschelli
“Man who waits for roast duck to fly into mouth must wait very, very long time.”
— Jules Renard
“What is sauce for the goose may be sauce for the gander but is not necessarily sauce for the chicken, the duck, the turkey, or the guinea hen.”
— Alice B. Toklas
“Since my parents both worked, they hired me when I was 11 to make dinner every night. I got a quarter a day. But I was always making things like duck a l’orange and baked Alaska. I was a little bit nutty.”
— Teri Hatcher
“Confit is not something that comes to mind for summer. Usually, it means duck confit, made by cooking the legs and thighs in duck fat to preserve them for winter.”
— Geoffrey Zakarian
“I grew up in Beijing, and Beijing roast duck is my favorite. My mom makes it every year for Christmas Eve. How crispy the skin is is how good a duck restaurant is.”
— Lulu Wang
“My idea of fast food is a mallard.”
— Ted Nugent
“Hams in wine, pressed duck, pate de foie gras, rare fruits in and out of season, were spread in profusion.”
— Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind
Wise Duck Quotes
“If you keep your feathers well oiled, the water of criticism will run off as from a duck’s back.”
— Ellen Swallow Richards
“I let that negativity roll off me like water off a duck’s back. If it’s not positive, I didn’t hear it.”
— George Foreman
“If you should rear a duck in the heart of the Sahara, no doubt it would swim if you brought it to the Nile.”
— Mark Twain
“A healthy duck will be bright and will try to get away from people.”
— Nyiri Murtagh
“You don’t have a snail problem, you have a duck deficiency.”
— Bill Mollison
“Don’t quack like a duck, soar like an eagle.”
— Ken Blanchard
Quotes About Ducks That Make You Think
“How fleeting are all human passions compared with the massive continuity of ducks.”
— Dorothy L. Sayers
“No matter how organized your ducks are, life can turn in two seconds. So, you can’t keep on waiting. Because if you keep on waiting, it’s gone.”
— Diem Brown
“Poetry is a sky dark with a wild-duck migration.”
— Carl Sandburg
“Does a one-legged duck swim in circles?”
— Rhodri Morgan
“A writer without a pen would be like a duck without water!”
— Donovan
“He was so benevolent, so merciful a man that, in his mistaken passion, he would have held an umbrella over a duck in a shower of rain.”
— Douglas William Jerrold
“My dear Mama, you are definitely the hen who hatched a famous duck.”
— Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
“Working with network executives is like being nibbled to death by ducks.”
— Eric Sevareid
“I had the sense of direction of a lame duck that couldn’t follow the flock in front of him to get to where he needed to be.”
— Lani Lynn Vale, For the Love of Beard
Daffy Duck Quotes
“I think you’re pretty tough, don’t I?!”
— Daffy Duck
“I’m so crazy I don’t know this isn’t possible.”
— Daffy Duck
“Help me, please. I’m too moist and tender to retire.”
— Daffy Duck
“I can’t stand pain, it hurts me!”
— Daffy Duck
“I’m not crazy, I just don’t give a darn!”
— Daffy Duck
“Consequences, Schmonsequences, as long as I’m rich.”
— Daffy Duck
“I’m a huge fan of Warner Brothers cartoons. I would spend many hours alone after school watching Daffy Duck. I think Daffy Duck is one of the great comedic villains.”
— Roger Bart
“I fantasize and idealize myself as Bugs Bunny, but I know deep down I’m Daffy Duck.”
— Patton Oswalt
“A fellow with the inventiveness of Albert Einstein but with the attention span of Daffy Duck.”
— Tom Shales
Donald Duck Quotes
“I am like a cartoon strip; I am like Donald Duck; everybody knows me in Italy.”
— Roberto Benigni
“In retrospect, I would say from Donald Duck I have learned more about life than from all the schools I ever attended.”
— Gottfried Helnwein
“Oh, boy, oh, boy, a pinata! …What’s a pinata?”
— Donald Duck
“Pretend you’re a southern sheriff. Or Mae West. Or Donald Duck. Buy a western hat and walk around the house like a cowboy. The point of all this, of course, is to draw yourself out of your accustomed groove.”
— Steve Allen
“Aw, phooey!”
— Donald Duck
“Need some fashion tips? For me, it’s all about the hat! Whaddya think? Nice, right?”
— Donald Duck
Daisy: What’s a girl gotta do to get a drink around here?
Donald: Well, you just go up and ask at the bar and then exchange one for money.
(three days later)
Donald: … wait a second.”
“Don’t get confused between my personality and my attitude … my personality is who I am, and my attitude depends on who you are.”
— Donald Duck
“Happiness is the richest thing we will ever own.”
— Donald Duck
Daisy Duck Quotes
“If I was to pick a cartoon character I am most like, I would say Daisy Duck because she is very stubborn, she has a very feminine sense, and she knows what she likes.”
— Britney Spears
“Fashion isn’t just about clothing, you know. You also have to know how to accessorize.”
— Daisy Duck
“Goody, goody!”
— Daisy Duck
“You want love? Buy a dog.”
— Daisy Duck
Duck Captions for Photos and Duck Quotes for Instagram
- A duck can swim, but does it really waddle?
- A very happy duck
- Addicted to quack
- April showers bring May flowers
- Aren’t rubber ducks the cutest?
- As cute and yellow as the sun
- Be like a duck and let it roll off your back
- Consider us quackers
- Dive in, the water’s fine!
- Diving head first into the weekend
- Duck, duck, goose
- Ducks are always more entertaining in groups, so let’s get this party started!
- Easily distracted by birds
- Eat, sleep, feed ducks, repeat
- Everything is just ducky
- Feeling squeaky clean
- For us hunting isn’t a sport. It’s a way to be intimate with nature.
- Getting my ducks in a row
- Good morning, ducks!
- Good things come in small packages
- Happiness is a warm bath.
- Happiness is like a rubber duck – you don’t know when you’ll find it, but when you do, it makes you smile.
- Have a quacktastic day!
- Hello, little duckie!
- Hello there, friend
- Hello world, it’s nice to meet you!
- Hey there duck, did you just quack your way into my heart?
- I am in love with two ducks: Donald and Peking
- I don’t give a duck.
- I don’t wear bows, I shoot them.
- I like big ducks and I cannot lie.
- I’m having a quack attack!
- I’m just sitting here looking at the ducks.
- If I could live on rubber duckies and coffee, I would.
- If I quack up, you’ll be the first to know.
- If you can dream it, you can quack it.
- Immerse yourself in the outdoors. It will cleanse your soul and make you a better person.
- It’s easy being cute.
- It’s hard to resist a tall, dark, and handsome duck.
Just a girl who loves ducks - Just keep swimming.
- Just look at this scenery.
- Let your worries drift away.
- Let’s get wild.
- Let’s splash around!
- Let’s take a bath!
- Life isn’t always black and white – sometimes it’s shades of duck.
- Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
- Love is in the air.
- Make a splash!
- Many a shot goes into the heather.
- My drink brings all the ducks to the yard.
- No bathroom is complete without a rubber duck!
- Not giving one duck
- Oh ducky, I love you!
- Oh, what fun!
- One duck can make a whole pond.
- Quack is back
- Quack quack!
- Release the quackin’.
- Rub-a-dub-dub, there’s a duck in my tub!
- Rub-a-dub-dub, time to scrub the tub!
- Rubber duck to the rescue!
- Rubber duckie, you’re the one. You make bath time so much fun!
- Say hello to your new bathtime buddy.
- Shake it off.
- Splash day
- Splish, splash!
- Take a moment to chill with me.
- The #1 rule of duck hunting is to go where the ducks are.
- There’s no such thing as too many ducks.
- Waddling into the weekend
- Waddling through picturesque puddles
- Water off a duck’s back
- We all float together.
- We’re going to make a splash today.
- What a ducky day!
- What floats your boat?
- What the duck?
- What the quack?
- When things get tough, just keep swimming.
- When you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, just quack yourself to happiness.
- Who quacks the loudest? Why me, of course!
- You don’t need a reason to be happy.
- You had me at quack.
- You’re the duck to my pond.
- You’re the duck to my sauce.
- You’re the duckiest!
- Zero ducks given.
What’s Your Favorite Duck Quote?
Is there a quote about ducks missing from this list? What duck quote do you love most? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
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I have not heard before that the duck is a symbol of travel. It’s inspiring. I also did not think there were so many exciting and beautiful quotes about ducks. I like these birds, but now they fascinate me even more. Great list of quotes.
Aw, thank you! I think they’re pretty cool creatures. (Then again, I like most creatures except ticks, mice, and mosquitoes. LOL!)
Fun post on duck quotes – I’m a Daffy Duck fan – so enjoyed his quotes. 🙂
These quacked me up for sure. I especially love the witty ones from Donald Duck!