An ape will be an ape, though clad in purple.

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

Imitate the ass in his love to his master.

One of the animals which a generous and sociable man would soonest become is a dog. A dog can have a friend; he has affections and character; he can enjoy equally the field and the fireside; he dreams, he caresses, he propitiates; he offends and is pardoned; he stands by you in adversity; he is a good fellow.

Animals are in possession of themselves; their soul is in possession of their body. But they have no right to their life, because they do not will it. 

Animals 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.

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

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.

Alas! We are ridiculous animals.

Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them.

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.

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

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