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.
—Voltaire, 1769Quotes
Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It’s what separates us from the animals—except the weasel.
—The Simpsons, 1993A dog starved at his master’s gate / Predicts the ruin of the state.
—William Blake, 1807There be beasts that, at a year old, observe more, and pursue that which is for their good more prudently, than a child can do at ten.
—Thomas Hobbes, 1651Man is merely a more perfect animal than the rest. He reasons better.
—Napoleon Bonaparte, 1816Alas! We are ridiculous animals.
—Horace Walpole, 1777How like to us is that filthy beast the ape.
—Cicero, 45 BCHistories are more full of examples of the fidelity of dogs than of friends.
—Alexander Pope, 1709Be a good animal, true to your animal instincts.
—D.H. Lawrence, 1911If you are a dog and your owner suggests that you wear a sweater, suggest that he wear a tail.
—Fran Lebowitz, 1981Man is a troublesome animal and therefore is not very manageable.
—Plato, c. 349 BCI do not mean to call an elephant a vulgar animal, but if you think about him carefully, you will find that his nonvulgarity consists in such gentleness as is possible to elephantine nature—not in his insensitive hide, nor in his clumsy foot, but in the way he will lift his foot if a child lies in his way; and in his sensitive trunk, and still more sensitive mind, and capability of pique on points of honor.
—John Ruskin, 1860Happiness is a warm puppy.
—Charles Schulz, 1971