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
Cats only pretend to be domesticated if they think there’s a bowl of milk in it for them.
—Robin Williams (b.1951) American Actor, Comedian
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
A cat is a tiger that is fed by hand.
—Common 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
It’s too dangerous a journey to risk the cat’s life.
—Charles Lindbergh (1902–74) American Aviator, Inventor, Conservationist
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
The ideal of calm exists in a sitting cat.
—Jules Renard (1864–1910) French Writer, Diarist
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
If you want to be a psychological novelist and write about human beings, the best thing you can do is keep a pair of cats.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist
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
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
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
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
There are no ordinary cats.
—Colette (1873–1954) French Novelist, Performer
The dog may be wonderful prose, but only the cat is poetry.
—French Proverb
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
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
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
Never try to outstubborn a cat.
—Robert A. Heinlein (1907–88) American Science Fiction Writer
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
Time spent with cats is never wasted.
—Colette (1873–1954) French Novelist, Performer
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
The smallest feline is a masterpiece.
—Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Polymath, Painter, Sculptor, Inventor, Architect
It’s better to feed one cat than many mice.
—Norwegian Proverb
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
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 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
Beware of people who dislike cats
—Irish Proverb
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