People who hate cats tend to be proud of the fact, and brag about it as if it proved something honest and straightforward in their natures. Nobody brags about hating dogs. To hate dogs would be meanspirited and peculiarly unpatriotic; dogs are a very American concept, fraternal, hearty, and unpretentious, while cats are inscrutable like the wily Oriental and elitist like the European esthete. In advertising cats turn up selling perfume (wily) and expensive rugs and furniture (elitist) , while dogs sell such solid family values as station wagons, life insurance, and sporting goods.
Quotations about:
pet
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
Near this spot
are deposited the Remains of one
who possessed Beauty without Vanity,
Strength without Insolence,
Courage without Ferocity,
and all the Virtues of Man without his Vices.
This Praise, which would be unmeaning Flattery
if inscribed over human Ashes,
is but a just tribute to the Memory of
BOATSWAIN, a DOGGeorge Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824) English poet
“Epitaph to a Dog” (1808)
(Source)
Carved on the headstone over Boatswain's grave at Newstead Abbey, the family's ancestral home. Byron acquired the dog at age fifteen; Boatswain died of rabies, an endemic disease in England at the time, five years later. Byron wanted to be buried beside him, but the sale of the property made that impossible.
While the rest of the poem is considered Byron's, these first lines may have been written by his friend, John Cam Hobhouse. More discussion here.
We miss so much out of life if we don’t love. The more we love the richer life is — even if it is only some little furry or feathery pet.
People who wish to salute the free and independent side of their evolutionary character acquire cats. People who wish to pay homage to their servile and salivating roots own dogs.
Anna Quindlen (b. 1953) American journalist, novelist
“Mr. Smith Goes to Heaven,” New York Times (7 Apr 1991)
(Source)
Part of an obituary for her dog, Jason Oliver C. Smith. Reprinted in Thinking Out Loud (1993).
The cat does not merely experience contentment, he exudes it. You cannot be in the presence of a contented cat and not have some of that contentment rub off on you. Which surely is a good part of the reason we love cats so.
Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson (b. 1941) American author
The Nine Emotional Lives of Cats: A Journey Into the Feline Heart, ch. 3 (2002)
(Source)
We own a dog — he is with us as a slave and inferior because we wish him to be. But we entertain a cat — he adorns our hearth as a guest, fellow-lodger, and equal because he wishes to be there. It is no compliment to be the stupidly idolised master of a dog whose instinct it is to idolise, but it is a very distinct tribute to be chosen as the friend and confidant of a philosophic cat who is wholly his own master and could easily choose another companion if he found such an one more agreeable and interesting.
H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) American fabulist [Howard Phillips Lovecraft]
“Cats and Dogs” (23 Nov 1926), Leaves (Summer 1937)
(Source)
Reprinted as "Something about Cats" in Something About Cats: And Other Pieces (1949) [ed. Derleth].
The domestic cat is a contradiction. No animal has developed such an intimate relationship with mankind, while at the same time demanding and getting such independence of movement and action.
Desmond Morris (b. 1928) English zoologist, ethologist, author
Catwatching, Introduction (1986)
(Source)
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.
Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.
Anatole France (1844-1924) French poet, journalist, novelist, Nobel Laureate [pseud. of Jaques-Anatole-François Thibault]
(Attributed)
Widely attributed to France, but unsourced.
After we do the washing-up, I get to spend the rest of the evening reading FAQs on cat maintenance on the web. It takes about half an hour to come to the unwelcome realization that they’re almost as complex as home-brew gaming PCs, and have even more failure modes. (When your gaming PC malfunctions it doesn’t stealthily dump core in your shoes.)
Charles "Charlie" Stross (b. 1964) British writer
The Rhesus Chart (2014)
I will never laugh at anyone for grieving over a loved beast. I think God wants us to love Him more, not to love creatures (even animals) less. We love everything in one way too much (i.e., at the expense of our love for Him), but in another way we love everything too little. No person, animal, flower, or even pebble has ever been loved too much — i.e., more than every one of God’s works deserves.
C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer and scholar [Clive Staples Lewis]
Letter to Mary Willis Shelburne (18 Aug 1956)
(Source)
I am sorry to hear of the little dog’s death. The animal creation is a strange mystery. We can make some attempt to understand human suffering: but the sufferings of animals from the beginning of the world till now (inflicted not only by us but by one another) — what is one to think? And again, how strange that God brings us into such intimate relations with creatures of whose real purpose and destiny we remain forever ignorant. We know to some degree what angels and men are for. But what is a flea for, or a wild dog?
C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer and scholar [Clive Staples Lewis]
Letter to Mary Willis Shelburne (26 Oct 1962)
To his dog, every man is Napoleon; hence the constant popularity of dogs.
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
(Attributed)
In Reader's Digest (1934).
Love me, love my dog.
John Heywood (1497?-1580?) English playwright and epigrammist
Proverbes, Part 2, ch. 9 (1546)
(Source)
Earlier noted as a common proverb by Bernard of Clairvaux in the 11th Century: "Qui me amat, amet et canem meum [Who loves me will love my dog also] in his First Sermon on the Feast of St Michael.
When I play with my cat, who knows if I am not a pastime to her more than she is to me.
[Quand je me joue á ma chatte, qui sçait si elle passe son temps de moy plus que je ne fay d’elle.]
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
“Apology for Raymond Sebond,” Essays, Book 2, ch. 12 (1580) [tr. Frame (1958)]
Alternate translation: "When I play with my cat, who knows whether she isn't amusing herself with me more than I am amusing myself with her?"
The great 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 (1835-1902) English novelist, satirist, scholar
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler “Dogs” (1912)
(Source)
