quotations about cats
If dogs are like high school, cats are like a really tough Ph.D. program.
SIOBHAN ADCOCK
30 Things Everyone Should Know How to Do Before Turning 30
Finding a cat--or having a cat find you--can change your world as much as marriage, divorce, love, death, or even winning the lottery can, and sometimes more.
KINKY FRIEDMAN
foreword, The Power of Purrs
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
One feels so immensely flattered when chosen by a discriminating cat, for it is an affection which can only be won by merit, and never bought. A dog will love any wreck of humanity who chances to own him, but one needs to be self-respecting to earn the love of a cat. Pussies show their regard in such dignified little ways. When you open the hall door your cat will come half way down stairs to meet you, and will then turn and walk up before you with tail erect, and you feel as heartily welcome as though a dog had jumped all over you and knocked your hat off in the exuberance of his greeting. You notice cats never follow, never even walk by your side--they precede by a sort of divine right.
KATE A. HALL
"Cat Farming in California"
All cats were at first wild, but were at length tamed by the industry of Mankind; it is a Beast of prey, even the tame one, more especially the wild, it being in the opinion of many nothing but a diminutive lion.
WILLIAM SALMON
The Complete English Physician
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
I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul.
JEAN COCTEAU
attributed, How to Hide Your Cat from the Landlord
Cats are like Thoreau. You cannot explain them.
DAN SKLAR
Bicycles
Beware of the night, child. All cats are black in the dark.
JEAN GENET
The Blacks
Cats are rather delicate creatures and they are subject to a good many different ailments, but I never heard of one who suffered from insomnia.
JOSEPH WOOD KRUTCH
The Twelve Seasons
Cats are like women: allow them to nurse and attend you when ill, and they are sure to love you.
GORDON STABLES
Cats: Their Points and Characteristics
The uncertainty of cats has been thrown in their teeth, but to the true cat-lover this uncertainty is a most attractive trait. One may live in a house for six months with a cat and never receive from it a single kindly word or look. It will perhaps sit quietly on your lap as long as you hold it there, for it hates struggling; but the moment your vigilance is relaxed down it jumps, and licks itself carefully, as a sign that your caresses are anything but agreeable. It will purr when you go down on your knees on the hearthrug and rub it under the chin; but it is purring at itself, not you. Your hand is only a stroking machine. It is not in the least afraid of you, but in a hundred ways it shows that it has no use for your caresses, and that it would rather not be encumbered by unasked attention. Yet, suddenly, and without any cause, this very same cat will one day become, for half an hour or an hour, your dearest friend.
"The Cat in Literature,"
Living Age, vol. 217
Cats are like insects. They should be left outside to clean up the garbage.
MICHAEL MEWSHAW
Playing Away
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
Cats are like statesmen--they prefer places to persons.
EDMUND HODGSON YATES
Two
I've found that the way a person feels about cats--and the way they feel about him or her in return--is usually an excellent gauge by which to measure a person's character.
P.C. CAST & KRISTIN CAST
Marked
Giving the cat a name, like marriage, is not an easy thing. Soon I experienced the selection of name for a baby, a dog, a book, a warship, a sports team, even the king, the pope or a hurricane is just child's play compared to the selection of the cat's name.
CLEVELAND AMORY
The Cat Who Came for Christmas
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
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
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