quotations about cats
If a fish is the movement of water embodied, given shape, then cat is a diagram and pattern of subtle air.
DORIS LESSING
On Cats
Cats are like lesbians. They are creatures of narrow habit about which men can only glimpse the silken machinery of their minds.
KINKY FRIEDMAN
Spanking Watson
There are things that outweigh comfort, unless one is an old woman or a cat.
URSULA K. LE GUIN
The Left Hand of Darkness
Cats invented self-esteem.
ERMA BOMBECK
attributed, The Cat Fanatic
Cats are like supermodels; they want you to please them.
EMILY YOFFE
What the Dog Did
If cats have been the friends of man for so many centuries, could nature not have adapted itself, just a little, away from the formula: five or six kittens to a litter, four times a year?
DORIS LESSING
Particularly Cats
Cats are like donkeys and camels, they won't ever quite give in to human tyranny, they won't try to imitate the human soul.
RICHARD ALDINGTON
Artifex
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"
Those who'll play with cats must expect to be scratched.
MIGUEL DE CERVANTES
Don Quixote
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"
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
In the night all cats are gray.
MIGUEL DE CERVANTES
Don Quixote
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
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 don't care if you're gay or straight, what your religion is, or whether you're conservative or liberal. They don't care if you're a few pounds overweight. Cats aren't threatened if you earn more than they do. Cat's don't have problems expressing affection in public, and if you piss 'em off, they walk away.
GLENDA MOORE
"Why Cats Are Better Than People"
Authors like cats because they are such quiet, lovable, wise creatures, and cats like authors for the same reason.
ROBERTSON DAVIES
"mehitabel"
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
Beware of the night, child. All cats are black in the dark.
JEAN GENET
The Blacks
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
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