When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber.
—Winston Churchill, 1945Quotes
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.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, 1821Man is merely a more perfect animal than the rest. He reasons better.
—Napoleon Bonaparte, 1816Man 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.
—William Hazlitt, 1819A good dog, sir, deserves a good bone.
—Ben Jonson, 1633The 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.
—St. Francis de Sales, 1609A dog starved at his master’s gate / Predicts the ruin of the state.
—William Blake, 1807If you are a dog and your owner suggests that you wear a sweater, suggest that he wear a tail.
—Fran Lebowitz, 1981One 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, 1834Who sleepeth with dogs shall rise with fleas.
—John Florio, 1578Men, my dear, are very queer animals—a mixture of horse nervousness, ass stubbornness, and camel malice.
—T. H. Huxley, 1895Who hears the fishes when they cry?
—Henry David Thoreau, 1849In every man is a wild beast; most of them don’t know how to hold it back, and the majority give it full rein when they are not restrained by terror of law.
—Frederick the Great, 1759