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.

Who sleepeth with dogs shall rise with fleas.

Man is the only animal for whom his own existence is a problem which he has to solve and from which he cannot escape.

Of all the creatures that breathe and creep on the surface of the earth, none is more to be pitied than man.

Who hears the fishes when they cry?

How like to us is that filthy beast the ape.

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. 

From the oyster to the eagle, from the pig to the tiger, all animals exist in man, and each one of them is in a man. Sometimes even several of them at a time. Animals are nothing else than the figures of our virtues and our vices, straying before our eyes, the visible phantoms of our souls. God shows them to us in order to induce us to reflect.

There 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.

We call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words.

The 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.

A good dog, sir, deserves a good bone.

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