Many famous people have sung the praises of cats over the years. The following are some of their insights regarding the cat’s finer qualities.
Quotations on Cat Intelligence
“The cat seldom interferes with other people’s rights. His intelligence keeps him from doing many of the fool things that complicate life.” ~Carl Van Vechten
“I have studied many philosophers and many cats. The wisdom of cats is infinitely superior.” ~Hippolyte Taine
“Cats are independent, by which I mean smart.” ~Dave Barry
“The smart cat doesn’t let on that he is.” ~H.G. Frommer
“If a cat does something, we call it instinct; if we do the same thing, for the same reason, we call it intelligence.” ~Will Cuppy
“Intelligence in the cat is underrated.” ~Louis Wain
“Cats are a mysterious kind of folk. There is more passing in their minds than we are aware of.” ~Sir Walter Scott
“A cat is nobody’s fool.” ~Heywood Brown
“Surely the cat, when it assumes the meatloaf position and gazes meditatively through slitted eyes, is pondering thoughts of utter profundity.” ~Mij Colson Barnum
“Curiosity is the very basis of education and if you tell me that curiosity killed the cat, I say only the cat died nobly.” ~Arnold Edinborough
“If cats could talk, they wouldn’t.” ~Nan Porter
“Cats are smarter than dogs. You can’t get eight cats to pull a sled through snow.” ~Jeff Valdez”
“A cat is the only domestic animal I know who toilet trains itself and does a damned impressive job of it.” ~Joseph Epstein
Quotations on Cat Beauty
“A cat improves the garden wall in sunshine, and the hearth in foul weather.” ~Judith Merkle Riley
“The smallest feline is a masterpiece.” ~Leonardo da Vinci
“There’s no need for a piece of sculpture in a home that has a cat.” ~Wesley Bates
“Like a graceful vase, a cat, even when motionless, seems to flow.” ~George F. Will
“Two things are aesthetically perfect in the world – the clock and the cat.” ~Emile Auguste Chartier
“Cats are a tonic, they are a laugh, they are a cuddle, they are at least pretty just about all of the time and beautiful some of the time.” ~Roger Caras
“The cat has been described as the most perfect animal, the acme of muscular perfection and the supreme example in the animal kingdom of the coordination of mind and muscle.” ~Roseanne Ambrose Brown
“Cats are living adornments.” ~Edwin Lent
“To respect the cat is the beginning of the aesthetic sense.” ~Erasmus Darwin
“Cats never strike a pose that isn’t photogenic.” ~Lillian Jackson Braun
Quotations on Feline Courage
“Way down deep, we’re all motivated by the same urges. Cats have the courage to live by them.” ~Jim Davis
“There is no more intrepid explorer than a kitten.” ~Jules Champfleury
“Confront a child, a puppy, and a kitten with a sudden danger; the child will turn instinctively for assistance, the puppy will grovel in abject submission, the kitten will brace its tiny body for a frantic resistance.” ~Hector Hugh Munro, under the pan name Saki
“With the qualities of cleanliness, affection, patience, dignity, and courage that cats have, how many of us, I ask you, would be capable of becoming cats?” ~Fernand Mery
“The cat has too much spirit to have no heart” ~Ernest Menaul
“Cats don’t bark and act brave when they see something small in fur or feathers, they kill it. Dogs tend to bravado. They’re braggarts. In the great evolutionary drama the dog is Sergeant Bilko, the cat is Rambo.” ~James Gorman
Quotations on Feline Honesty
“A cat has absolute emotional honesty: human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not.” Ernest Hemmingway
“A cat can be trusted to purr when she is pleased, which is more than can be said for human beings.” ~William Ralph Inge
“Cats seem to go on the principle that it never does any harm to ask for what you want.” ~Joseph Wood Krutch
Quotations on Feline Independence
“Of all God’s creatures, there is only one that cannot be made the slave of the lash. That one is the cat. If a man could be crossed with the cat it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat.” ~Mark Twain
“No tame animal has lost less of its native dignity or maintained more if its ancient reserve. The domestic cat might rebel tomorrow.” ~William Conway
“Always the cat remains a little beyond the limits we try to set for him in our blind folly.” ~Andre Norton
“A dog is like a liberal, he wants to please everybody. A cat doesn’t really need to know that everybody loves him.” ~William Kunstler
“The phrase ‘domestic cat’ is an oxymoron.” ~George F. Will
“Prowling his own quiet backyard or asleep by the fire, he is still only a whisker away from the wilds.” ~Jean Burden
Spiritual Cat Quotations
“I believe cats to be spirits come to earth. A cat, I am sure, could walk on a cloud without coming through.” ~Jules Verne
“God made the cat in order that man might have the pleasure of caressing the lion.” ~Fernand Mery
“Of all animals, he alone attains the contemplative life. He regards the wheel of existence from without, like the Buddha.” ~Andrew Long
“How we behave toward cats here below determines our status in heaven.” ~Robert A. Heinlein
“Sometimes he sits at your feet looking into your face with an expression so gentle and caressing that the depth of his gaze startles you. Who can believe that there is no soul behind those luminous eyes!” ~Theophile Gautier
“Cats are not impure; they keep watch about us.” ~The Prophet Mohammed
“Praise be to thee, O Ra, exalted Sekhem, thou art the Great Cat, the avenger of the gods and the judge of words and the president of the sovereign chiefs and the governor of the Holy Circle; thou art indeed the bodies of the Great Cat.” ~Inscription on the Royal Tombs at Thebes
For more cat quotes, see Funny Cat Quotations.
Jennifer Copley - Jennifer Copley, BFA, BEd, has a diverse base of expertise that includes research, writing, education, pet care, and various other ...
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