Animals are good to think with.

Man is merely a more perfect animal than the rest. He reasons better.

What delight can there be, and not rather displeasure, in hearing the barking and howling of dogs? Or what greater pleasure is there to be felt when a dog followeth a hare than when a dog followeth a dog?

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.

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

Animals have these advantages over man: they never hear the clock strike, they die without any idea of death, they have no theologians to instruct them, their last moments are not disturbed by unwelcome and unpleasant ceremonies, their funerals cost them nothing, and no one starts lawsuits over their wills.

Men, my dear, are very queer animals—a mixture of horse nervousness, ass stubbornness, and camel malice.

Do you not see how God is praised by those in the heavens and those on earth? The very birds praised Him as they wing their way.

A good dog, sir, deserves a good bone.

Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It’s what separates us from the animals—except the weasel.

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.

Alas! We are ridiculous animals.

There are some who, if a cat accidentally comes into the room, though they neither see it nor are told of it, will presently be in a sweat and ready to die away.