Animals are such agreeable friends—they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.
—George Eliot, 1857Quotes
In every man is a wild beast; most of them don’t know how to hold it back, and the majority give it full rein when they are not restrained by terror of law.
—Frederick the Great, 1759Be a good animal, true to your animal instincts.
—D.H. Lawrence, 1911Animals 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, 1769Do you not see how God is praised by those in the heavens and those on earth? The very birds praised Him as they wing their way.
—The Qur’an, c. 620Man is a troublesome animal and therefore is not very manageable.
—Plato, c. 349 BCMen, my dear, are very queer animals—a mixture of horse nervousness, ass stubbornness, and camel malice.
—T. H. Huxley, 1895A good dog, sir, deserves a good bone.
—Ben Jonson, 1633A bull contents himself with one meadow, and one forest is enough for a thousand elephants; but the little body of a man devours more than all other living creatures.
—Seneca the Younger, c. 64The fox knows lots of tricks, the hedgehog only one—but it’s a winner.
—Archilochus, c. 650 BCWhat delight can there be, and not rather displeasure, in hearing the barking and howling of dogs? Or what greater pleasure is there to be felt when a dog followeth a hare than when a dog followeth a dog?
—Thomas More, 1516Life is no way to treat an animal.
—Kurt Vonnegut, 2005Histories are more full of examples of the fidelity of dogs than of friends.
—Alexander Pope, 1709