quotations about cats
What a luxury a cat is, the moments of shocking and startling pleasure in a day, the feel of the beast, the soft sleekness under your palm, the warmth when you wake on a cold night, the grace and charm even in a quite ordinary workaday puss. Cat walks across your room, and in that lonely stalk you see leopard or even panther, or it turns its head to acknowledge you and the yellow blaze of those eyes tells you what an exotic visitor you have here, in this household friend, the cat who purrs as you stroke, or rub his chin, or scratch his head.
DORIS LESSING
The Old Age of El Magnifico
Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a purpose.
GARRISON KEILLOR
attributed, The Cat Lover's Book of Fascinating Facts
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"
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
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
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
There's nothing like the company of a cat. Your cat is a loyal friend, a warm sleeping-buddy, a playmate, a confidant, a presence.... Cats bring joy and delight to everyday life. Stroking a cat can even lower your blood pressure.
WENDY CHRISTENSEN
The Humane Society of the United States Complete Guide to Cat Care
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 autocrats of naked self-interest.
CAMILLE PAGLIA
Sexual Personae
Authors like cats because they are such quiet, lovable, wise creatures, and cats like authors for the same reason.
ROBERTSON DAVIES
"mehitabel"
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 four-legged poster children for OCD.
CAROLINE KNAPP
The Merry Recluse
You know what cats are like--fast on their feet and not very grateful.
HELEN MAGEE
What's French for Help
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
Cats are like Thoreau. You cannot explain them.
DAN SKLAR
Bicycles
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
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
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
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
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"