There are some who, if a cat accidentally comes into the room, though they neither see it nor are told of it, will presently be in a sweat and ready to die away.

A dog starved at his master’s gate / Predicts the ruin of the state.

The fox knows lots of tricks, the hedgehog only one—but it’s a winner.

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.

There be beasts that, at a year old, observe more, and pursue that which is for their good more prudently, than a child can do at ten.

Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps, for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are and what they ought to be.

Man is no man, but a wolf, to a stranger.

I hate the sight of monkeys; they remind me so of poor relations.

A good dog, sir, deserves a good bone.

Man is a troublesome animal and therefore is not very manageable.

Go to the ant, you lazybones; consider its ways, and be wise.

A 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.

I do not mean to call an elephant a vulgar animal, but if you think about him carefully, you will find that his nonvulgarity consists in such gentleness as is possible to elephantine nature—not in his insensitive hide, nor in his clumsy foot, but in the way he will lift his foot if a child lies in his way; and in his sensitive trunk, and still more sensitive mind, and capability of pique on points of honor.