quotations about cats
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
The cat lives alone. He has no need of society. He obeys only when he wishes, he pretends to sleep the better to see, and scratches everything he can scratch.
FRANCOIS RENE
attributed, The Cat Fanatic
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
In ancient times, cats were worshipped as gods. They have never forgotten this.
ANONYMOUS
Zoologists seem to consider the cerebration of cats and dogs about 50-50 -- but my respect always goes to the cool, sure, impersonal, delicately poised feline who minds his business and never slobbers.
H. P. LOVECRAFT
letter to E. Hoffmann Price, July 29, 1936
Cats are like Thoreau. You cannot explain them.
DAN SKLAR
Bicycles
We own a dog--he is with us as a slave and inferior because we wish him to be. But we entertain a cat--he adorns our hearth as a guest, fellow-lodger, and equal because he wishes to be there. It is no compliment to be the stupidly idolized master of a dog whose instinct is to idolize, but it is a very distinct tribute to be chosen as the friend and confidant of a cat.
H. P. LOVECRAFT
"Cats and Dogs"
Cats, no less liquid than their shadows,
Offer no angles to the wind.
They slip, diminished, neat, through loopholes
Less than themselves.
A.S.J. TESSIMOND
Cats
Cats are like statesmen--they prefer places to persons.
EDMUND HODGSON YATES
Two
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
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
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
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
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
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