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

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.

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.

Man is a noble animal, splendid in ashes and pompous in the grave.

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

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

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.

A good dog, sir, deserves a good bone.

Who sleepeth with dogs shall rise with fleas.

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

Animals are such agreeable friends—they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.

Animals, in their generation, are wiser than the sons of men, but their wisdom is confined to a few particulars, and lies in a very narrow compass.

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