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)
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Quotations about:
dogs
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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)
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I do not know whether dogs can think, or what thinking is, or whether human beings can think. But whether human beings can think or not, I know that those who love dogs think that dogs can think. This, I am afraid, is the sum total of my contribution to human knowledge on this important subject.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“Do Dogs Think?,” New York American (1932-06-15)
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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.
Almost any dog thinks almost any human is the Great Spirit, the Primal Creator, and the Universal Force Behind the Sun and Tides. What human can resist?
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)
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