Archive

Quotes

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.

—Increase Mather, 1684

If you are a dog and your owner suggests that you wear a sweater, suggest that he wear a tail.

—Fran Lebowitz, 1981

The righteous know the needs of their animals, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.

—Book of Proverbs, c. 500 BC

It is remarkable that only small birds properly sing.

—Charles Darwin, 1871

Keep running after a dog, and he will never bite you.

—François Rabelais, 1535

Life is no way to treat an animal.

—Kurt Vonnegut, 2005

Man, when perfected, is the best of animals, but when separated from law and justice, he is the worst of all. 

—Aristotle, c. 350 BC

Who hears the fishes when they cry?

—Henry David Thoreau, 1849

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

—Plautus, c. 200 BC

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

—Archilochus, c. 650 BC

Every creature in the world is like a book and a picture, to us, and a mirror.

—Alain de Lille, c. 1200

The elephant, although a gross beast, is yet the most decent and most sensible of any other upon earth. Although he never changes his female, and hath so tender a love for her whom he hath chosen, yet he never couples with her but at the end of every three years, and then only for the space of five days.

—St. Francis de Sales, 1609

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

—William Blake, 1807