When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber.

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

Man and animals are really the conduit of food, the sepulcher of animals, and resting place of the dead, one causing the death of the other, making themselves the covering for the corruption of other dead bodies.

Cows are among the gentlest of breathing creatures; none show more passionate tenderness to their young when deprived of them—and, in short, I am not ashamed to profess a deep love for these quiet creatures.

Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It’s what separates us from the animals—except the weasel.

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.

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

Happiness is a warm puppy.

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

Who sleepeth with dogs shall rise with fleas.

Man is the only animal for whom his own existence is a problem which he has to solve and from which he cannot escape.

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.

Men, my dear, are very queer animals—a mixture of horse nervousness, ass stubbornness, and camel malice.