WIST Quotations

Watterson, Bill -- Calvin and Hobbes (1994-03-04)

Dave — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 20:33:30 +0000

CALVIN: It offends the human ego that nature is indifferent to us. Nature doesn’t care if people live or die. It refuses to be tamed. It does whatever it wants and acts like people don’t matter. It won’t confirm our right to be here. That drives people crazy. We can’t stand being ignored. It’s insulting and … hey!

HOBBES: YAWWNN. [wanders off]

CALVIN: I think that’s also why some people don’t like cats.

Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1994-03-04)

Billings, Josh -- Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax, 1876-02 (1876 ed.)

Dave — Thu, 21 May 2026 18:20:17 +0000

Kats are very humble, espeshily just after they hav committed sum nu kind ov deviltry.

[Cats are very humble, especially just after they have committed some new kind of deviltry.]

Josh Billings (1818–1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax, 1876-02 (1876 ed.)

Bukowski, Charles -- Interview (1987-09) by Sean Penn, “Tough Guys Write Poetry,” Interview Magazine, Vol. 17, No. 19

Dave — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 05:31:36 +0000

Having many cats is good. If you feel bad, you look at the cats and you feel better, because they know that everything is just the way it is. You don’t have to be nervous about anything. And they know it. They are saviors. The more cats you have, the longer you will live. If you have a hundred cats, you will live ten times longer than if you have ten. One day, this will be known and people will have thousands of cats. It’s truly ridiculous.

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) German-American author, poet
Interview (1987-09) by Sean Penn, “Tough Guys Write Poetry,” Interview Magazine, Vol. 17, No. 19

Collected in Bukowski, Sunlight Here I Am (2003) [ed. David Calonne].

Lessing, Doris -- Particularly Cats, ch. 5 (1967)

Dave — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 16:48:32 +0000

Oh cat; I’d say, or pray: be-ooootiful cat! Delicious cat! Exquisite cat! Satiny cat! Cat like a soft owl, cat with paws like moths, jeweled cat, miraculous cat! Cat, cat, cat, cat.

Doris Lessing (1919–2013) British author, biographer, playwright [b. Doris May Tayler]
Particularly Cats, ch. 5 (1967)

Greenburg, Dan -- In Bill Hayward, Cat People (1978)

Dave — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 20:53:32 +0000

There is, incidentally, no way of talking about cats that enables one to come off as a sane person.

Dan Greenburg (1936–2023) American writer, humorist, journalist
In Bill Hayward, Cat People (1978)

Greenburg, Dan -- In Bill Hayward, Cat People (1978)

Dave — Thu, 01 Feb 2024 16:43:19 +0000

Cats are dangerous companions for writers because cat watching is a near-perfect method of writing avoidance.

Dan Greenburg (1936–2023) American writer, humorist, journalist
In Bill Hayward, Cat People (1978)

Whitehead, Alfred North -- In Lucien Price, ed., Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead, Dialogue 25, 1941-12-10 (1954)

Dave — Wed, 13 Dec 2023 18:49:40 +0000

If a dog jumps in your lap, it is because he is fond of you. If a cat does the same thing, it is because your lap is warmer.

Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) English mathematician and philosopher
In Lucien Price, ed., Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead, Dialogue 25, 1941-12-10 (1954)

Van Vechten, Carl -- The Tiger in the House: A Cultural History of the Cat, ch. 2 (1920)

Dave — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 19:05:02 +0000

Now a cat will not take an excursion merely because a man wants a walking companion. Walking is a human habit into which dogs readily fall but it is a distasteful form of exercise to a cat unless he has a purpose in view.

Carl Van Vechten (1880–1964) American writer and photographer
The Tiger in the House: A Cultural History of the Cat, ch. 2 (1920)

Quindlen, Anna -- Article (1991-04-07), “Mr. Smith Goes to Heaven,” New York Times

Dave — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 16:20:20 +0000

A friend and mourner recalled that, growing up, she believed cats and dogs were the same animal, but that cats were the females and dogs the males. This is entirely credible.

Anna Quindlen (b. 1953) American journalist, novelist
Article (1991-04-07), “Mr. Smith Goes to Heaven,” New York Times

Part of an obituary for her dog, Jason Oliver C. Smith. Reprinted in Thinking Out Loud (1993).

Lovecraft, H. P. -- “The Cats of Ulthar,” Tryout (Nov 1920)

Dave — Tue, 15 Jun 2021 15:43:16 +0000

It is said that in Ulthar, which lies beyond the river Skai, no man may kill a cat; and this I can verily believe as I gaze upon him who sitteth purring before the fire. For the cat is cryptic, and close to strange things which men cannot see. He is the soul of antique Aegyptus, and bearer of tales from forgotten cities in Meroe and Ophir. He is the kin of the jungle’s lords, and heir to the secrets of hoary and sinister Africa. The Sphinx is his cousin, and he speaks her language; but he is more ancient than the Sphinx, and remembers that which she hath forgotten.

H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) American fabulist [Howard Phillips Lovecraft]
“The Cats of Ulthar,” Tryout (Nov 1920)

Gaiman, Neil -- Sandman, Book 3. Dream Country, # 18 “A Dream of a Thousand Cats” (1990-08)

Dave — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 16:38:09 +0000

THE PROPHET: All cats can see futures, and see echoes of the past. We can watch the passage of creatures from the infinity of now, from all the worlds like ours, only fractionally different. And we follow them with our eyes, ghost things, and the humans see nothing.

Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British author, screenwriter, fabulist
Sandman, Book 3. Dream Country, # 18 “A Dream of a Thousand Cats” (1990-08)

Lessing, Doris -- Particularly Cats, ch. 2 (1967)

Dave — Tue, 11 May 2021 18:13:03 +0000

If a fish is the movement of water embodied, given shape, then cat is a diagram and pattern of subtle air.

Doris Lessing (1919–2013) British author, biographer, playwright [b. Doris May Tayler]
Particularly Cats, ch. 2 (1967)

Davies, Robertson -- “Mehitabel,” Toronto Daily Star (21 Nov 1959)

Dave — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 16:42:00 +0000

Authors like cats because they are such quiet, lovable, wise creatures, and cats like authors for the same reasons.

Robertson Davies (1913–1995) Canadian author, editor, publisher
“Mehitabel,” Toronto Daily Star (21 Nov 1959)

Reprinted in The Enthusiasms of Robertson Davies (1990).

Hitchens, Christopher -- The Portable Atheist, Introduction (2007)

Dave — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 17:39:33 +0000

Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are god. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are god.

Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) English intellectual, polemicist, socio-political critic
The Portable Atheist, Introduction (2007)

Paglia, Camille -- Sexual Personae, ch. 2 (1990)

Dave — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 21:45:08 +0000

Cats are autocrats of naked self-interest. They are both amoral and immoral, consciously breaking rules. Their “evil” look at such times is no human projection: the cat may be the only animal who savors the perverse or reflects upon it.

Camille Paglia (b. 1947) American feminist academic and social critic
Sexual Personae, ch. 2 (1990)

Moore, Rosalie -- “Catalogue,” New Yorker (25 May 1940)

Dave — Tue, 12 Jan 2021 18:39:31 +0000

Cats sleep fat and walk thin.

Rosalie Moore (1910–2001) American poet [Gertrude Elizabeth Moore]
“Catalogue,” New Yorker (25 May 1940)

Knapp, Caroline -- “Lucille Versus Stumpy: The (Real) Truth About Cats and Dogs” (1998), The Merry Recluse (2004)

Dave — Tue, 05 Jan 2021 16:58:52 +0000

Cats are narcissistic. Their needs come before ours. They don’t understand the word No. They carry themselves with that aloof, arrogant sense of perpetual entitlement, they will jump up and insinuate themselves wherever they please — on your lap, on your newspaper, on your computer keyboard–and they really couldn’t care less how their behavior affects the people in their lives. I’ve had boyfriends like this; who needs such behavior in a housepet?

Caroline Knapp (1959–2002) American writer and columnist
“Lucille Versus Stumpy: The (Real) Truth About Cats and Dogs” (1998), The Merry Recluse (2004)

A rejoinder to her friend, Ron Rosenbaum, "Stumpy Versus Lucille: The Great Pet Debate," New York Observer (8 Aug 1998), where he extolled the virtues of cats over dogs.

Krutch, Joseph Wood -- The Twelve Seasons, “February” (1949)

Dave — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 22:42:25 +0000

Cats are rather delicate creatures and they are subject to a good many ailments, but I never heard of one who suffered from insomnia.

Joseph Wood Krutch (1893–1970) American educator, writer, critic, naturalist
The Twelve Seasons, “February” (1949)

Enright, Anne -- The Gathering (2007)

Dave — Tue, 08 Dec 2020 19:00:40 +0000

Cats, I always think, only jump into your lap to check if you are cold enough, yet, to eat.

Anne Enright (b. 1962) Irish writer
The Gathering (2007)

Pratchett, Terry -- Discworld No. 5, Sourcery (1988)

Dave — Tue, 01 Sep 2020 14:37:38 +0000

“I meant,” said Ipslore bitterly, “what is there in this world that truly makes living worthwhile?”
Death thought about it.
Cats, he said eventually, Cats are nice.

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author
Discworld No. 5, Sourcery (1988)

This quote is more often repeated in paraphrase, e.g., "What is there in this world that truly makes living worthwhile? Cats. Cats are nice."

Schweitzer, Albert -- (Attributed)

Dave — Tue, 03 May 2016 20:34:50 +0000

There are two means of refuge from the misery of life: music and cats.

[Zweierlei eignet sich als Zuflucht vor den Widrigkeiten des Lebens: Musik und Katzen.]

Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) Alsatian philosopher, physician, philanthropist, polymath
(Attributed)

Widely attributed to Schweitzer, but no original source found.

Heinlein, Robert A. -- Friday [Friday Jones] (1982)

Dave — Tue, 06 Oct 2015 13:51:10 +0000

The coldest depth of Hell is reserved for people who abandon kittens.

Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) American writer
Friday [Friday Jones] (1982)

Pratchett, Terry -- Discworld No. 14, Lords and Ladies (1992)

Dave — Wed, 12 Aug 2015 15:32:32 +0000

Technically, a cat locked in a box may be alive or it may be dead. You never know until you look. In fact, the mere act of opening the box will determine the state of the cat, although in this case there were three determinate states the cat could be in: these being Alive, Dead, and Bloody Furious.

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author
Discworld No. 14, Lords and Ladies (1992)

Clarke, Susanna -- Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (2004)

Dave — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 16:39:52 +0000

For, though the room was silent, the silence of half a hundred cats is a peculiar thing, like fifty individual silences all piled one on top of another.

Susanna Clarke (b. 1949) British author
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (2004)

Gaiman, Neil -- Sandman, Book 3. Dream Country, # 18 “A Dream of a Thousand Cats” (1990-08)

Dave — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:22:48 +0000

CYNICAL CAT: Little one, I would like to see anyone — prophet, king or God — persuade a thousand cats to do anything at the same time.

Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British author, screenwriter, fabulist
Sandman, Book 3. Dream Country, # 18 “A Dream of a Thousand Cats” (1990-08)

Eliot, T. S. -- Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, “The Song of the Jellicles” (1939)

Dave — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 18:50:38 +0000

Jellicle Cats come out tonight,
Jellicle Cats come one come all:
The Jellicle Moon is shining bright —
Jellicles come to the Jellicle Ball.

T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) American-British poet, critic, playwright [Thomas Stearns Eliot]
Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, “The Song of the Jellicles” (1939)