Quotes
“If there is no heaven for dogs, then I want to go where they go when I die.”
–Anonymous
“The more people I meet the more I like my cat.”
–Anonymous
“The greatest pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too.”
–Samuel Butler
“If dogs could talk, perhaps we would find it as hard to get along with them as we do with people.”
–Capek
“A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself.”
–Billings
“The dog who meets with a good master is the happier of the two.”
–Maeterlinck
“I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul.”
–Jean Cocteau
“By associating with the cat one only risks becoming richer.”
–Colette
“Cats are designated friends.”
–Norman Corwin
“The smallest feline is a masterpiece.”
–Leonardo Da Vinci
“Cat: A pygmy lion who loves mice, hates dogs, and patronizes human beings.”
–Oliver Herford
“Thou art the Great Cat, the avenger of the Gods, and the judge of words, and the president of the sovereign chiefs and the governor of the holy Circle; thou art indeed…the Great Cat.”
–Inscription on the Royal Tombs at Thebes
“To err is human, to purr is feline.”
–Robert Byrne
“They say the test of literary power is whether a man can write an inscription. I say, “Can he name a kitten?”
–Samuel Butler
“I’ve met many thinkers and many cats, but the wisdom of cats is infinitely superior.”
–Hippolyte Taine
“Cats don’t like change without their consent.”
–Roger A. Caras
“Prowling his own quiet backyard or asleep by the fire, he is still only a whisker away from the wilds.”
–Jean Burden
“An ordinary kitten will ask more questions than any five year old.”
–Carl Van Vechten
“As every cat owner knows, nobody owns a cat.”
–Ellen Perry Berkeley
“If cats could talk, they wouldn’t.”
–Nan Porter
“Purring would seem to be, in her case, an automatic safety-valve device for dealing with happiness overflow.”
–Monica Edwards
“A cat is the only domestic animal I know who toilet trains itself and does a damned impressive job of it.”
–Joseph Epstein
“There are no ordinary cats.”
–Colette
“The phrase ‘domestic cat’ is an oxymoron.”
–George Will
“God made the cat in order that man might have the pleasure of caressing the tiger.”
–Fernand Mery
“Of all God’s creatures, there is only one that cannot be made the slave of the lash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with a cat it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat.”
–Mark Twain
“The cat has too much spirit to have no heart.”
–Ernest Menaul
“To bathe a cat takes brute force, perseverance, courage of conviction–and a cat. The last ingredient is usually hardest to come by.”
–Stephen Baker
“Cat people are different, to the extent that they generally are not conformists. How could they be, with a cat running their lives?”
–Louis J. Camuti, DVM
“Some people say that cats are sneaky, evil, and cruel. True, and they have many other fine qualities as well.”
–Missy Dizick
“Like a graceful vase, a cat, even when motionless, seems to flow.”
–George F. Will
“Cats are smarter than dogs. You can’t get eight cats to pull a sled through snow.”
–Jeff Valdez
“A cat is a puzzle for which there is no solution.”
–Hazel Nicholson
“As we all know, cats now rule the world.”
–John R.F. Breen
“Cats know how to obtain food without labor, shelter without confinement, and love without penalties.”
–W.L. George
“Cats seem to go on the principle that it never does any harm to ask for what you want.”
–Joseph Wood Krutch
“There is, indeed, no single quality of the cat that man could not emulate to his advantage.”
–Carl Van Vechten
“How we behave toward cats here below determines our status in heaven.”
–Robert A. Heinlein
“If you are worthy of its affection, a cat will be your friend but never your slave.”
–Theophile Gautier
“There is, indeed, no single quality of the cat that man could not emulate to his advantage.”
–Carl Van Vechten
“Cats are rather delicate creatures and they are subject to a good many different ailments, but I have never heard of one who suffered from insomnia.”
–Joseph Wood Krutch
“There is nothing sweeter than his peace when at rest, for there is nothing brisker than his life when in motion.”
–Christopher Smart
“If you are worthy of its affection, a cat will be your friend but never your slave.”
–Theophile Gautier
“It’s very hard to be polite if you’re a cat.”
–Anonymous
“Unlike us, cats never outgrow their delight in cat capacities, nor do they settle finally for limitations. Cats, I think, live out their lives fulfilling their expectations.”
–Irving Townsend
“Cats are absolute individuals, with their own ideas about everything, including the people they own.”
–John Dingman
“I am as vigilant as a cat to steal cream.”
–William Shakespeare, Henry IV
“Most of us rather like our cats to have a streak of wickedness. I should not feel quite easy in the company of any cat that walked about the house with a saintly expression…”
–Beverly Nichols
“Cats are the ultimate narcissists. You can tell this because of all the time they spend on personal grooming. Dogs aren’t like this. dog’s idea of personal grooming is to roll in a dead fish.”
–James Gorman
“It is difficult to obtain the friendship of a cat. It is a philosophical animal…one that does not place its affections thoughtlessly.”
–Theophile Gautier
“Cats sleep Anywhere, Any table, Any chair, Top of piano, Window-ledge, In the middle, On the edge.”
–Eleanor Farjeon
“A cat’s got her own opinion of human beings. She don’t say much, but you can tell enough to make you anxious not to hear the whole of it.”
–Jerome K. Jerome
“Cats are connoisseurs of comfort.”
–James Herriot
“Do our cats name us? My former husband swore that Humphrey and Dolly and Bean Blossom called me The Big Hamburger.”
–Eleanora Walker
“The trouble with cats is that they’ve got no tact.”
–P.G. Wodehouse
“The little furry buggers are just deep, deep wells you throw all your emotions into.”
–Bruce Schimmel
“Ye shall not possess any beast, my dear sisters, except only a cat.”
–The Ancren Riewle (Nun’s Rule)
“When she walked…she stretched out long and thin like a little tiger, and held her head high to look over the grass as if she were treading the jungle.”
–Sarah Orne Jewett
“Who can believe that there is no soul behind those luminous eyes!”
–Theophile Gautier
“When I play with my cat who knows whether I do not make her more sport than she makes me?”
–Michel de Montaigne
“A man has to work so hard so that something of his personality stays alive. A tomcat has it so easy, he has only to spray and his presence is there for years on rainy days.”
–Albert Einstein
“”It is with the approach of winter that cats…wear their richest fur and assume an air of sumptuous and delightful opulence.”
–Pierre Loti
“There’s no need for a piece of sculpture in a home that has a cat.”
–Wesley Bates
“If a cat spoke, it would say things like, ‘Hey, I don’t see the problem here.’”
–Roy Blount, Jr.
“Way down deep, we’re all motivated by the same urges. Cats have the courage to live by them.”
–Jim Davis
“The smart cat doesn’t let on that he is.”
–H. G. Frommer
“There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face.”
–Ben Williams
“Whoever said you can’t buy happiness forgot about little puppies.”
–Gene Hill
“No one appreciates the very special genius of your conversation as much as the dog does.”
–Christopher Morley
“A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself.”
–Josh Billings
“The average dog is a nicer person than the average person.”
–Andrew A. Rooney
“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.”
–Unknown
“I’ve seen a look in dogs’ eyes, a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt, and I am convinced that basically dogs think humans are nuts.”
–John Steinbeck
“If your dog doesn’t like someone you probably shouldn’t either.”
–Unknown
“Old dogs, like old shoes, are comfortable. They might be a bit out of shape and a little worn around the edges, but they fit well.”
–Bonnie Wilcox ‘Old Dogs, Old Friends’
“The more people I meet the more I like my dog”
–Unknown
“In order to really enjoy a dog, one doesn’t merely try to train him to be semihuman. The point of it is to open oneself to the possibility of becoming partly a dog.”
–Edward Hoagland
“I once decided not to date a guy because he wasn’t excited to meet my dog. I mean, this was like not wanting to meet my mother.”
–Bonnie Schacter
“No Matter how little money and how few possessions, you own, having a dog makes you rich.”
–Louis Sabin
“Money will buy you a pretty good dog, but it won’t buy the wag of his tail.”
–Josh Billings
“A piece of grass a day keeps the vet away”
–Unknown Dog
“Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.”
–Roger Caras
“Dogs feel very strongly that they should always go with you in the car, in case the need should arise for them to bark violently at nothing right in your ear.”
–Dave Barry
“The dog was created specially for children. He is the god of frolic.”
–Henry Ward Beecher
“To his dog, every man is Napolean, hence the constant popularity of dogs.”
–Aldous Huxley
“Did you ever walk into a room and forget why you walked in? I think that is how dogs spend their lives.”
–Sue Murphy
“Histories are more full of examples of the fidelity of dogs than of friends.”
–Alexander Pope
“Do not make the mistake of treating your dogs like humans or they will treat you like dogs.”
–Martha Scott
“Every dog must have his day.”
–Jonathan Swift
“I loathe people who keep dogs. They are cowards who have not got the guts to bite people themselves.”
–August Strindberg
“I have always thought of a dog lover as a dog that was in love with another dog.”
–James Thurber
“My cat does not talk as respectfully to me as I do to her.”
–Colette
“Cats seem to go on the priciple that it never does any harm to ask for what you want.”
–Joseph Wood Krutch
“Are cats lazy? Well, more power to them if they are. Which one of us has not entertained the dream of doing just as he likes, when and how he likes, and as much as he likes?”
–Fernand Mery
“If a dog jumps in your lap, it is because he is fond of you; but if a cat does the same thing, it is because your lap is warmer”
–Alfred North Whitehead
“In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods, they have never forgotten this.”
–Unknown
“I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.”
–Winston Churchhill
“Don’t accept your dog’s admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful.”
–Ann Landers
“If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons.”
–James Thurber
“If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. It is the principal difference between a dog and a man.”
–Mark Twain
“Authors like cats because they are such quiet, lovable, wise creatures, and cats like authors for the same reasons.”
–Robertson Davies
“Way down deep, we’re all motivated by the same urges. Cats have the courage to live by them.”
–Jim Davis
“If toast always lands butter-side down, and cats always land on their feet, what happens if you strap toast on the back of a cat and drop it?”
–Steven Wright
“The reason a dog has so many friends is that he wags his tail instead of his tongue”
–Anonymous
“The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog.”
–George Graham Vest
“Every boy who has a dog should also have a mother, so the dog can be fed regularly.”
–Anonymous
“Even the tiniest poodle is lionhearted, ready to do anything to defend home, master, and mistress.”
–Louis Sabin
“Dogs have given us their absolute all. We are the center of their universe, we are the focus of their love and faith and trust. They serve us in return for scraps. It is without a doubt the best deal man has ever made.”
–Roger Caras
“A dog is one of the remaining reasons why some people can be persuaded to go for a walk.”
–O. A. Battista
“A dog is man’s best friend, and vice versa.”
–Anonymous
“A dog teaches a boy fidelity, perseverance, and to turn around three times before lying down.”
–Roger Caras
“The dog has got more fun out of man than man has got out of the dog, for man is the more laughable of the two animals.”
–James Thurber
“A good dog deserves a good home.”
–Proverb
“A watchdog is a dog kept to guard your home, usually by sleeping where a burglar would awaken the household by falling over him.”
–Anonymous
“There’s just something about dogs that makes you feel good. You come home, they’re thrilled to see you. They’re good for the ego.”
–Janet Schnellman
“Every dog isn’t a growler, and every growler isn’t a dog.”
–Anonymous
“A dog’s bark may be worse than his bite, but everyone prefers his bark.”
–Anonymous
“The ideal dog food would be a ration that tastes like a postman.”
–Anonymous
“A dog can express more with his tail in minutes than his owner can express with his tongue in hours.”
–Anonymous
“There is only one smartest dog in the world, and every boy has it.”
–Anonymous
“Every dog may have his day, buy it’s the puppies that have the weakends.”
–Anonymous
“It’s no coincidence that man’s best friend cannot talk.”
–Anonymous
“A dog’s bark may be worse than his bite, but it’s never quite so personal”
–Anonymous
“A dog knows his master, a cat does not”
–Eleasar B. Zadok
“Dogs laugh, but they laugh with their tails.”
–Max Eastman
“Scratch a dog and you’ll find a permanent job.”
–Franklin P. Jones
“I can train any dog in 5 minutes. It’s training the owner that takes longer.”
–Barbara Woodhouse
“You think dogs will not be in heaven? I tell you, they will be there long before any of us.”
–Robert Louis Stevenson
“You can’t keep a good man down — or an over affectionate dog.”
–Anonymous
“I wonder if other dogs think poodles are members of a weird religious cult.”
–Rita Rudner
“No animal I know of can consistently be more of a friend and companion than a dog.”
–Stanley Leinwoll
“When most of us talk to our dogs, we tend to forget they’re not people.”
–Julia Glass
“You own a dog; you feed a cat.”
–Jim Fiebig
“Any time you think you have influence, try ordering around someone else’s dog.”
–The Cockle Bur
“The cat is the mirror of his human’s mind… the dog mirrors his human’s physical appearance.”
–Winifred Carriere
“Old Yeller was bought for 3 dollars from a shelter; his real name was Spike.”
–World Features Syndicate
“Disney’s “Shaggy Dog” was bought for 2 dollars at a pound.”
–World Features Syndicate
“… none are as fiercely loyal as dog people. In return, no doubt, for the never-ending loyalty of dogs.”
–Linda Shrieves, Orlando Sentinel
“Happiness is a warm puppy.”
–Charles Schulz
“A collie has the brain of a man, and the ways of a woman.”
–Scottish Proverb
“Many dogs will give a greeting grin much like a human smile.”
–Richard A. Wolters
“Intelligent dogs rarely want to please people whom they do not respect.”
–W.R. Koehler
“There is no faith which has never yet been broken except that of a truly faithful dog.”
–Konrad Lorenz
“The old saw about old dogs and new tricks only applies to certain people.”
–Daniel Pinkwater
“I have caught more ills from people sneezing over me and giving me virus infections than from kissing dogs.”
–Barbara Woodhouse
“When a man has pity on all living creatures then only is he noble.” Buddha (563? – 483? B.C.)
He that will not be merciful to his beast is a beast himself. Thomas fuller (1608-1661)
True benevolence or compassion, extends itself through the whole of existence and sympathises with the distress of every creature capable of sensation. Joseph Addison (1672-1719)
I could not have slept to night if I had left that helpless little creature to perish on the ground. (Reply to friends who chided him for delaying them by stopping to return a fledgling to its nest.) Attr. Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
Human dignity begins to assert itself only at the point where man is distinguishable from the beast by pity for it. Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
The love for all living creatures is the noblest attribute of man. Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages. Thomas Edison (1847-1931)
We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion, they would depict the devil in human form. William Ralph Inage (1860-1954)
It is man’s sympathy with all creatures that first makes him truly a man. Dr Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965)
Cruelty has cursed the human family for countless ages. It is almost impossible for one to be cruel to animals and kind to humans. If children are permitted to be cruel to their pets and other animals, they easily learn to get the same pleasure from the misery of fellow-humans. Such tendencies can easily lead to crime. Fred A.McGrand (1895-)
I hope to make people realize how totally helpless animals are, how dependent on us, trusting as a child must that we will be kind and take care of their needs …[they] are an obligation put on us, a responsibility we have no right to neglect, nor to violate by cruelty. James Herriot (1916-)
Out of 135 criminals, including robbers and rapists, 118 admitted that when they were children they burned, hanged and stabbed domestic animals. Ogonyok (1979) (soviet anti-cruelty magazine)
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. Mahatma Gandhi (statesman and philosopher)
Compassion for animals is intimately connected with goodness of character and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man. Arthur Schopenhauer (philosopher)
The awful wrongs and sufferings forced upon the innocent, helpless, faithful animal race form the blackest chapter in the whole world’s history. Edward freeman (1823-1892)
Show me the enforced laws of a state for the prevention of cruelty to animals and I in turn will give you a correct estimate of the refinement, enlightenment, integrity and equity of that commonwealth’s people. L.T.Danshiell (1914-)
People often say that humans have always eaten animals, as if this is a justification for continuing the practice. According to this logic, we should not try to prevent people from murdering other people, since this has also been done since the earliest of times. Isaac Bashevis singer (author, Nobel 1978)
He is very imprudent, a dog; he never makes it his business to inquire whether you are in the right or the wrong, never asks whether you are rich or poor, silly or wise, sinner or saint. You are his pal. That is enough for him. Jerome K.Jerome (1859-1927)
Ever consider what pets must think of us? I mean, here we come back from a grocery store with the most amazing haul – chicken, pork, half a cow. They must think we’re the greatest hunters on earth! ~Anne Tyler, The Accidental Tourist
It is an important and popular fact that things are not always what they seem. For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much – the wheel, New York, wars and so on – whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man – for precisely the same reasons. ~Douglas Adams, The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Lots of people talk to animals…. Not very many listen, though…. That’s the problem. Benjamin Hoff, The Tao of Pooh
Animals have these advantages over man: they never hear the clock strike, they die without any idea of death, they have no theologians to instruct them, their last moments are not disturbed by unwelcome and unpleasant ceremonies, their funerals cost them nothing, and no one starts lawsuits over their wills. Voltaire, letter to Count Schomberg, 31 August 1769
I guess cows aren’t into the four food groups, especially when they are two of them. ~Anthony Clark
Animals are such agreeable friends – they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms. ~George Eliot
It often happens that a man is more humanely related to a cat or dog than to any human being. ~Henry David Thoreau
I have been studying the traits and dispositions of the “lower animals” (so called) and contrasting them with the traits and dispositions of man. I find the result humiliating to me. ~Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth, 1907
If all the beasts were gone, men would die from a great loneliness of spirit, for whatever happens to the beasts also happens to the man. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons of the Earth. ~Chief Seattle of the Suwamish Tribe, letter to President Franklin Pierce
To insult someone we call him “bestial.” For deliberate cruelty and nature, “human” might be the greater insult. ~Isaac Asimov, Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations, 1988
“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” ~ Anatole France
“My little dog — a heartbeat at my feet.” ~ Edith Wharton
“I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contained,
I stand and look at them long and long.” ~ Walt Whitman
“There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face.” ~ Ben Williams
“A dog maybe a man’s best friend but a horse made history…” ~ Anonymous
“Did you ever walk into a room and forget why you walked in?
I think that is how dogs spend their lives.” ~ Sue Murphy
“To err is human, to forgive, canine” ~ Anonymous
“To err is human, to purr, feline” ~ Robert Byrne
“There’s no need for a piece of sculpture in a home that has a cat.” ~ Wesley Bates
“Who can believe that there is no soul behind those luminous eyes!” ~ Theophile Gautier
“A horse gallops with his lungs,
Perseveres with his heart,
And wins with his character.” ~ Tesio
“You can say any foolish thing to a dog, and the dog will give you a look that says, ‘My God, you’re right! I never would’ve thought of that!’” ~ Dave Barry
“There is nothing in which the birds differ more from man than the way in which they can build and yet leave a landscape as it was before.” ~ Robert Lynd
“The dog was created especially for children. He is the God of frolic.” ~ Henry Ward Beecher
“Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.” ~ Roger Caras
“Thousands of years ago, cats were worshipped as gods. Cats have never forgotten this.” ~ Anonymous
“A dog is the only thing on earth that will love you more than you love yourself.” ~ Josh Billings
“If I have any beliefs about immortality it is that certain dogs I know will go to heaven, and very very few people.” ~ James Thurber
“A hen is only an egg’s way of making another egg.” ~ Samuel Butler
“I’ve met many thinkers and many cats, but the wisdom of cats is infinitely superior.” ~ Hippolyte Taine
“Every boy should have two things: a dog, and a mother willing to let him have one” ~ Anonymous
“We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.” ~ Immanual Kant
“A dog has lots of friends because he wags his tail and not his tongue.” ~ Anonymous
“The dog represents all that is best in man.” ~ Etienne Charlet
“A canter is the cure for all evil.” ~ Benjamin Disraeli
“Dogs have owners, cats have staff.” ~ Anonymous
“The Cat. He walked by himself, and all places were alike to him.” ~ Rudyard Kipling
“Don’t accept your dog’s admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful.” ~ Ann Landers
“In the beginning, God created man, but seeing him so feeble, He gave him the cat” ~ Warren Eckstein
“The bird of paradise alights only upon the hand that does not grasp.” ~ John Berry
“And God took a handful of southernly wind, blew His breath over it and created the horse.” ~ Bedouin Legend
“The average dog is a nicer person than the average person.” ~ Andrew A. Rooney
“A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.” ~ Chinese Proverb
“Dogs come when they’re called; cats take a message and get back to you later.” ~ Mary Bly
“Animals are such agreeable friends – they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.” ~ George Elliot
“The Trouble with a kitten is that eventually it becomes a Cat” ~ Ogden Nash
“The greatest pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself, too.” ~ Samuel Butler
“A Horse! A Horse! my kingdom for a horse!” ~ Shakespeare
“If a dog jumps in your lap, it is because he is fond of you; but if a cat does the same thing, it is because you lap is warmer.” ~ Alfred North Whitehead
“…he will be our friend for always and always and always.” ~ Rudyard Kipling
“The best thing about animals is that they don’t talk much.” ~ Thornton Wilder
“When I play with my cat, who knows whether she is not amusing herself with me more than I with her.” ~ Montaigne
“An animal’s eyes have the power to speak a great language.” ~ Martin Buber