Archive

Quotes

Happiness is a warm puppy.

—Charles Schulz, 1971

Man is a troublesome animal and therefore is not very manageable.

—Plato, c. 349 BC

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.

—Leigh Hunt, 1834

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

—Archilochus, c. 650 BC

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

—William Blake, 1807

Animals are good to think with.

—Claude Lévi-Strauss, 1962

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.

—Anna Sewell, 1877

Who sleepeth with dogs shall rise with fleas.

—John Florio, 1578

It is remarkable that only small birds properly sing.

—Charles Darwin, 1871

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

—Samuel Butler, c. 1890

How like to us is that filthy beast the ape.

—Cicero, 45 BC

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.

—Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1500

Of all the creatures that breathe and creep on the surface of the earth, none is more to be pitied than man.

—Homer, c. 750 BC