quotations about cats
The cat lives alone. He has no need of society. He obeys only when he wishes, he pretends to sleep the better to see, and scratches everything he can scratch.
FRANCOIS RENE
attributed, The Cat Fanatic
A home without a cat, and a well-fed, well-petted, and properly revered cat, may be a perfect home, perhaps, but how can it prove its title?
MARK TWAIN
Pudd'nhead Wilson
We own a dog--he is with us as a slave and inferior because we wish him to be. But we entertain a cat--he adorns our hearth as a guest, fellow-lodger, and equal because he wishes to be there. It is no compliment to be the stupidly idolized master of a dog whose instinct is to idolize, but it is a very distinct tribute to be chosen as the friend and confidant of a cat.
H. P. LOVECRAFT
"Cats and Dogs"
Of all God's creatures there is only one that cannot be made the slave of the lash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with a cot it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat.
MARK TWAIN
notebook, Feb. 1894
Zoologists seem to consider the cerebration of cats and dogs about 50-50 -- but my respect always goes to the cool, sure, impersonal, delicately poised feline who minds his business and never slobbers.
H. P. LOVECRAFT
letter to E. Hoffmann Price, July 29, 1936
Through all this horror my cat stalked unperturbed. Once I saw him monstrously perched atop a mountain of bones, and wondered at the secrets that might lie behind his yellow eyes.
H. P. LOVECRAFT
"The Rats in the Walls"
Cats don't care if you're gay or straight, what your religion is, or whether you're conservative or liberal. They don't care if you're a few pounds overweight. Cats aren't threatened if you earn more than they do. Cat's don't have problems expressing affection in public, and if you piss 'em off, they walk away.
GLENDA MOORE
"Why Cats Are Better Than People"
It is a very onconvenient habit of kittens ... that, whatever you say to them, they always purr.
LEWIS CARROLL
Through the Looking Glass
Anyone who has owned many cats in long succession can define his or her life as a series of furry episodes.
ROGER CARAS
A Celebration of Cats
There are things that outweigh comfort, unless one is an old woman or a cat.
URSULA K. LE GUIN
The Left Hand of Darkness
Cats are like insects. They should be left outside to clean up the garbage.
MICHAEL MEWSHAW
Playing Away
Cats are like statesmen--they prefer places to persons.
EDMUND HODGSON YATES
Two
Beware of the night, child. All cats are black in the dark.
JEAN GENET
The Blacks
Some cats are like mystics or cloistered esthetes, finding waking life of no interest and entering it only for necessities such as eating, while others ... do not disdain the secular pastimes of hunting, lurking, and exploring.
VAL SCHAFFNER
The Algonquin Cat
Man has been worshipping cat for centuries and cat has every intention of keeping it that way.
JOHN TICKNER
Tickner's Cats
A cat ... plays for her own enjoyment, in a self-contained way, with no desire to share. Shut her up alone, and a ball, a fringe, or a looped piece of string is enough to make her give herself up to silent and graceful sport. While she is playing she does not say, "Man, I'm so awfully glad I've got you here!" She will play beside the bed of a corpse.
KAREL CAPEK
Intimate Things
In the night all cats are gray.
MIGUEL DE CERVANTES
Don Quixote
A cat has to be in a very bad mood if a human cannot coax him to purr.
DEREK TANGYE
A Cat in the Window
In ancient times, cats were worshipped as gods. They have never forgotten this.
ANONYMOUS
You now have learned enough to see
That Cats are much like you and me
And other people whom we find
Possessed of various types of mind.
For some are sane and some are mad
And some are good and some are bad
And some are better, some are worse --
But all may be described in verse.
T. S. ELIOT
"The Ad-dressing of Cats,", Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats