Animals are good to think with.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

Histories are more full of examples of the fidelity of dogs than of friends.

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

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

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

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

Alas! We are ridiculous animals.