Alas! We are ridiculous animals.

The righteous know the needs of their animals, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.

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

Animals are in possession of themselves; their soul is in possession of their body. But they have no right to their life, because they do not will it. 

It is remarkable that only small birds properly sing.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

A good dog, sir, deserves a good bone.

When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber.