Who hears the fishes when they cry?

It is remarkable that only small birds properly sing.

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.

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

Every ass thinks himself worthy to stand with the king’s horses.

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.

We call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words.

Man is merely a more perfect animal than the rest. He reasons better.

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.

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

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

Imitate the ass in his love to his master.

Alas! We are ridiculous animals.