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

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.

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.

Who sleepeth with dogs shall rise with fleas.

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

I hate the sight of monkeys; they remind me so of poor relations.

Animals are good to think with.

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

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

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

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 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.

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