One of the problems of taking things apart and seeing how they work – supposing you’re trying to find out how a cat works—you take that cat apart to see how it works, what you’ve got in your hands is a non-working cat. The cat wasn’t a sort of clunky mechanism that was susceptible to our available tools of analysis.
—Douglas Adams (1952–2001) English Novelist, Scriptwriter
In a cat’s eye, all things belong to cats.
—English Proverb
The cat loves fish, but she’s loath to wet her feet.
—Common Proverb
It’s too dangerous a journey to risk the cat’s life.
—Charles Lindbergh (1902–74) American Aviator, Inventor, Conservationist
What is sport to the cat is death to the mouse.
—German Proverb
Persian pussy from over the sea demure and lazy and smug and fat none of your ribbons and bells for me ours is the zest of the alley cat
—Don Marquis (1878–1937) American Humorist, Journalist, Author
Watch a cat when it enters a room for the first time. It searches and smells about, it is not quiet for a moment, it trusts nothing until it has examined and made acquaintance with everything.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) Swiss-born French Philosopher
If there is one spot of sun spilling onto the floor, a cat will find it and soak it up.
—Unknown
No matter how much the cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
I urged that kings were dangerous. He said, then have cats. He was sure that a royal family of cats would answer every purpose. They would be as useful as any other royal family, they would know as much, they would have the same virtues and the same treacheries, the same disposition to get up shindies with other royal cats, they would be laughably vain and absurd and never know it, they would be wholly inexpensive, finally, they would have as sound a divine right as any other royal house…The worship of royalty being founded in unreason, these graceful and harmless cats would easily become as sacred as any other royalties, and indeed more so, because it would presently be noticed that they hanged nobody, beheaded nobody, imprisoned nobody, inflicted no cruelties or injustices of any sort, and so must be worthy of a deeper love and reverence than the customary human king, and would certainly get it.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
If animals could speak, the dog would be a blundering outspoken fellow; but the cat would have the rare grace of never saying a word too much.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
A cat is a tiger that is fed by hand.
—Common Proverb
The dog may be wonderful prose, but only the cat is poetry.
—French Proverb
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 title?
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
It is a very inconvenient habit of kittens (Alice had once made the remark) that whatever you say to them, they always purr.
—Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) (1832–98) British Anglican Author, Mathematician, Clergyman, Photographer, Logician
A cat is a lion in a jungle of small bushes.
—Indian Proverb
If a fish is the movement of water embodied, given shape, then cat is a diagram and pattern of subtle air.
—Doris Lessing (1919–2013) British Novelist, Poet
Never try to outstubborn a cat.
—Robert A. Heinlein (1907–88) American Science Fiction Writer
A cat pours his body on the floor like water.
—William Lyon Phelps (1865–1943) American Author, Critic, Scholar
Authors like cats because they are such quiet, lovable, wise creatures, and cats like authors for the same reasons.
—Robertson Davies (1913–95) Canadian Novelist, Playwright, Essayist
A cat has absolute emotional honesty: human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not.
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American Author, Journalist, Short Story Writer
I said something which gave you to think I hated cats. But gad, sir, I am one of the most fanatical cat lovers in the business. If you hate them, I may learn to hate you. If your allergies hate them, I will tolerate the situation to the best of my ability.
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959) American Novelist
Cats always seem so very wise, when staring with their half-closed eyes. Can they be thinking, “I’ll be nice, and maybe she will feed me twice?”
—Bette Midler (b.1945) American Actress, Singer
Take a cat, nourish it well with milk
And tender meat, make it a couch of silk,
But let it see a mouse along the wall
And it abandones milk and meat and all.
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1343–1400) English Poet, Philosopher, Diplomat, Bureaucrat
Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a function.
—Garrison Keillor (b.1942) American Author, Humorist, Radio Personality
The way to keep a cat is to try to chase it away.
—E. W. Howe (1853–1937) American Novelist, Editor
The ideal of calm exists in a sitting cat.
—Jules Renard (1864–1910) French Writer, Diarist
A cat bitten once by a snake dreads even rope.
—Arabic Proverb
There are no ordinary cats.
—Colette (1873–1954) French Novelist, Performer
Both ardent lovers and austere scholars, when once they come to the years of discretion, love cats, so strong and gentle, the pride of the household, who like them are sensitive to the cold, and sedentary.
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–67) French Poet, Art Critic, Essayist, Translator
Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.
—Robert A. Heinlein (1907–88) American Science Fiction Writer
I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
Cruel, but composed and bland,
Dumb, inscrutable and grand,
So Tiberius might have sat,
Had Tiberius been a cat.
—Matthew Arnold (1822–88) English Poet, Critic
Time spent with cats is never wasted.
—Colette (1873–1954) French Novelist, Performer
Beware of people who dislike cats
—Irish Proverb
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 the cat, it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
One small cat changes coming home to an empty house to coming home.
—Pam Brown (b.1948) Australian Poet
Your rat tail is all the fashion now. I prefer a bushy plume, carried straight up. You are Siamese and your ancestors lived in trees. Mine lived in palaces. It has been suggested to me that I am a bit of a snob. How true! I prefer to be.
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959) American Novelist
We love kitties, gawd bless their little whiskers, and we don’t give a damn whether they or we are superior or inferior! They’re confounded pretty, and that’s all we know and all we need to know!
—H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) American Science-fiction Writer
The person that had took a bull by the tail once had learnt sixty or seventy times as much as a person that hadn’t, and said a person that started in to carry a cat home by the tail was getting knowledge that was always going to be useful to him, and warn’t ever going to grow dim or doubtful. Chances are, he isn’t likely to carry the cat that way again, either. But if he wants to, I say let him!
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
I believe cats to be spirits come to earth. A cat, I am sure, could walk on a cloud without coming through.
—Jules Verne (1828–1905) French Novelist
When I play with my cat, who knows if I am not a pastime for her more than she is to me?
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
The smallest feline is a masterpiece.
—Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Polymath, Painter, Sculptor, Inventor, Architect
You will always be lucky if you know how to make friends with strange cats.
—Common Proverb
Cats are a mysterious kind of folk. There is more passing in their minds than we are aware of.
—Walter Scott (1771–1832) Scottish Novelist, Poet, Playwright, Lawyer
Cats are dangerous companions for writers because cat watching is a near-perfect method of writing avoidance.
—Dan Greenberg (b.1965) American Elected Rep, Politician
Bragging is not an attractive trait, but let’s be honest. A man who catches a big fish doesn’t go home through an alley.
—Ask Ann Landers (1918–2002) American Advice Columnist
When the cat’s away, the mice will play.
—English Proverb
It’s better to feed one cat than many mice.
—Norwegian Proverb
I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul.
—Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French Poet, Playwright, Film Director