Quotes about animals

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.

— Joseph Addison

Of all the wonders of nature, a tree in summer is perhaps the most remarkable; with the possible exception of a moose singing Embraceable You in spats.

— Woody Allen

We know what the animals do, what are the needs of the beaver, the bear, the salmon, and other creatures, because long ago men married them and acquired this knowledge from their animal wives. Today the priests say we lie, but we know better.

— Native Americans

At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.

— Aristotle

Drinking, when we are not thirsty and making love all year round, madam; that is all there is to distinguish us from other animals.

— Pierre De Beaumarchais

The dog is the god of frolic.

— Henry Ward Beecher

I shoot the Hippopotamus with bullets made of platinum, because if I use the leaden one his hide is sure to flatten em.

— Hilaire Belloc

A peasant becomes fond of his pig and is glad to salt away its pork. What is significant, and is so difficult for the urban stranger to understand, is that the two statements are connected by an and not by a but.

— John Berger

Bats have no bankers and they do not drink and cannot be arrested and pay no tax and, in general, bats have it made.

— John Berryman

A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than you love yourself.

— Josh Billings

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

— Samuel Butler

A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg.

— Samuel Butler

The poor dog, in life the firmest friend. The first to welcome, foremost to defend.

— Lord Byron

Animals awaken, first facially, then bodily. Men's bodies wake before their faces do. The animal sleeps within its body, man sleeps with his body in his mind.

— Malcolm De Chazal

Always remember, a cat looks down on man, a dog looks up to man, but a pig will look man right in the eye and see his equal.

— Winston Churchill

What an ugly beast the ape, and how like us.

— Marcus T. Cicero

Poor little Foal of an oppressed race! I love the languid patience of thy face.

— Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Shall we never have done with that cliche, so stupid that it could only be human, about the sympathy of animals for man when he is unhappy? Animals love happiness almost as much as we do. A fit of crying disturbs them, they'll sometimes imitate sobbing, and for a moment they'll reflect our sadness. But they flee unhappiness as they flee fever, and I believe that in the long run they are capable of boycotting it.

— Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

Mankind differs from the animals only by a little and most people throw that away.

— Confucius

The following general definition of an animal: a system of different organic molecules that have combined with one another, under the impulsion of a sensation similar to an obtuse and muffled sense of touch given to them by the creator of matter as a whole, until each one of them has found the most suitable position for its shape and comfort.

— Denis Diderot

Who can guess how much industry and providence and affection we have caught from the pantomime of brutes?

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

The elephant, not only the largest but the most intelligent of animals, provides us with an excellent example. It is faithful and tenderly loving to the female of its choice, mating only every third year and then for no more than five days, and so secretly as never to be seen, until, on the sixth day, it appears and goes at once to wash its whole body in the river, unwilling to return to the herd until thus purified. Such good and modest habits are an example to husband and wife.

— St. Francis De Sales

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 Hegel

Animals are stylized characters in a kind of old saga -- stylized because even the most acute of them have little leeway as they play out their parts.

— Edward Hoagland

Animals used to provide a lowlife way to kill and get away with it, as they do still, but, more intriguingly, for some people they are an aperture through which wounds drain. The scapegoat of olden times, driven off for the bystanders sins, has become a tender thing, a running injury. There, running away is me: hurt it and you are hurting me.

— Edward Hoagland

Nothing to be done really about animals. Anything you do looks foolish. The answer isn't in us. It's almost as if we're put here on earth to show how silly they aren't.

— Russell Hoban

Animals often strike us as passionate machines.

— Eric Hoffer

Be as a bird perched on a frail branch that she feels bending beneath her, still she sings away all the same, knowing she has wings.

— Victor Hugo

From the oyster to the eagle, from the swine to the tiger, all animals are to be found in men and each of them exists in some man, sometimes several at the time. Animals are nothing but the portrayal of our virtues and vices made manifest to our eyes, the visible reflections of our souls. God displays them to us to give us food for thought.

— Victor Hugo

Cats and monkeys; monkeys and cats; all human life is there.

— Henry James

Mankind's true moral test, its fundamental test (which lies deeply buried from view), consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals. And in this respect mankind has suffered a fundamental debacle, a debacle so fundamental that all others stem from it.

— Milan Kundera

Don't accept your dog's admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful.

— Ann Landers

Be a good animal, true to your animal instincts.

— D. H. Lawrence

I distrust camels, and anyone else who can go a week without a drink.

— Joe E. Lewis

Animals are considered as property only. To destroy or to abuse them, from malice to the proprietor, or with an intention injurious to his interest in them, is criminal. But the animals themselves are without protection. The law regards them not substantively. They have no RIGHTS!

— Shirley Lord

Eagles do not beget Doves.

— Motto

The cow is of the bovine ilk: One end is moo, the other, milk.

— Ogden Nash

I fear animals regard man as a creature of their own kind which has in a highly dangerous fashion lost its healthy animal reason -- as the mad animal, as the laughing animal, as the weeping animal, as the unhappy animal.

— Friedrich Nietzsche

Happiness to a dog is what lies on the other side of a door.

— Charleton Jr. Ogburn

Four legs good, two legs bad.

— George Orwell

In a few generations more, there will probably be no room at all allowed for animals on the earth: no need of them, no toleration of them. An immense agony will have then ceased, but with it there will also have passed away the last smile of the world's youth.

— Ouida

Nothing can be more obvious than that all animals were created solely and exclusively for the use of man.

— Thomas Love Peacock

There is something in the unselfish and self-sacrificing love of a brute, which goes directly to the heart of him who has had frequent occasion to test the paltry friendship and gossamer fidelity of mere Man.

— Edgar Allan Poe

The owl of ignorance lays the egg of pride.

— Proverb

An eagle does not catch flies.

— Proverb

The fatter the flea the leaner the dog.

— German Proverb

Who loves me loves my dog.

— Latin Proverb

Cows are amongst the gentlest of breathing creatures; none show more passionate tenderness to their young when deprived of them; and, in short, I am not ashamed to profess a deep love for these quiet creatures.

— Thomas De Quincey

No matter how eloquently a dog may bark, he cannot tell you that his parents were poor, but honest.

— Bertrand Russell

Man is a clever animal who behaves like an imbecile.

— Albert Schweitzer

What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, man would die from a great loneliness of spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to man. All things are connected.

— Chief Seattle

Those who wish to pet and baby wild animals, love them. But those who respect their natures and wish to let them live normal lives, love them more.

— Edwin Way Teale

What is a country without rabbits and partridges? They are among the most simple and indigenous animal products; ancient and venerable families known to antiquity as to modern times; of the very hue and substance of Nature, nearest allied to leaves and to the ground.

— Henry David Thoreau

The keeping of bees is like the direction of sunbeams.

— Henry David Thoreau

The better I know men the more I admire dogs.

— Source Unknown

If it wasn't for dogs, some people would never go for a walk.

— Source Unknown

A fence should be horse high, hog tight and bull strong.

— Source Unknown

A camel is a horse designed by a committee.

— Source Unknown

Animals have these advantages over man: They have no theologians to instruct them, their funerals cost them nothing, and no one starts lawsuits over their wills.

— Voltaire

They do not sweat and whine about their condition, they do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins, they do not make me sick discussing their duty to God, not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago.

— Walt Whitman

The best thing about animals is they don't talk much.

— Thornton Wilder

Animals are such agreeable friends, they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.

— George Eliot