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
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
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
A cat is a tiger that is fed by hand.
—Common Proverb
If there is one spot of sun spilling onto the floor, a cat will find it and soak it up.
—Unknown
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
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
The smallest feline is a masterpiece.
—Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Polymath, Painter, Sculptor, Inventor, Architect
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
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
Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a function.
—Garrison Keillor (b.1942) American Author, Humorist, Radio Personality
Never try to outstubborn a cat.
—Robert A. Heinlein (1907–88) American Science Fiction Writer
The ideal of calm exists in a sitting cat.
—Jules Renard (1864–1910) French Writer, Diarist
One small cat changes coming home to an empty house to coming home.
—Pam Brown (b.1948) Australian Poet
The way to keep a cat is to try to chase it away.
—E. W. Howe (1853–1937) American Novelist, Editor
A cat is a lion in a jungle of small bushes.
—Indian Proverb
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
No matter how much the cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
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
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
Those who’ll play with cats must expect to be scratched.
—Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish Novelist
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
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
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
It doesn’t matter if a cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice.
—Deng Xiaoping (1904–97) Chinese Communist Statesman
Cats never strike a pose that isn’t photogenic.
—Lilian Jackson Braun (1913–2011) American Mystery 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
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
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
It’s too dangerous a journey to risk the cat’s life.
—Charles Lindbergh (1902–74) American Aviator, Inventor, Conservationist