Cats

It doesn't matter if a cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice. ~~ Charles De Gaulle

When I play with my cat, who knows if I am not a pastime to her more than she is to me? ~~ Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

Let Hercules himself do what he may,
The cat will mew and the dog will have his day. ~~ William Shakespeare

"A cat may look at a king," said Alice. ~~ Lewis Carroll

But the wildest of all the wild animals was the Cat. He walked by himself, and all places were alike to him. ~~ Rudyard Kipling

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

What is the victory of a cat on a hot tin roof? -- I wish I knew … Just staying on it, I guess, as long as she can. ~~ Tennessee Williams

Little cat, are you as glad to have me to lie upon
As I am to feel your fur under my hand? ~~ Amy Lowell

When the mouse laughs at the cat there's a hole nearby. ~~ Nigerian proverb

Cat: a pygmy lion who loves mice, hates dogs, and patronizes human beings. ~~ Oliver Herford

Cats are like Baptists. They raise hell but you can't catch them at it. ~~ Unattributed

Dogs come when they're called; cats take a message and get back to you. ~~ Missy Dizick

If a cat spoke, it would say things like "Hey, I don't see the PROBLEM here." ~~ Roy Blount, Jr.

It is better to be a mouse in a cat's mouth than a man in a lawyer's hands. ~~ Spanish proverb

Your dog won't see you in your fluorescent hunting outfit any more than the deer will -- colorblind, you see. In fact, very few animals will see it except maybe your cat … ~~ Deane Jordan [1,001 Facts Somebody Screwed Up]

Cats seem to go on the principle that it never does any harm to ask for what you want. ~~ Joseph Wood Krutch

There is no snooze button on a cat who wants breakfast. ~~ Unattributed

Thousands of years ago, cats were worshipped as gods. Cats have never forgotten this. ~~ Unattributed

Cats are smarter than dogs. You can't get eight cats to pull a sled through snow. ~~ Jeff Valdez

We have all got our "good old days" tucked away inside our hearts, and we return to them in dreams like cats to favorite armchairs. ~~ Brian Carter

There's no dealing with a cat who knows you're awake. ~~ Brad Solomon

The cat could very well be man's best friend but would never stoop to admitting it. ~~ Doug Larson

Cats have it all -- admiration and endless sleep and company only when they want it. ~~ Rod McKuen

Cats don't caress us -- they caress themselves on us. ~~ Rivarol

You can keep a dog; but it is the cat who keeps people because cats find humans useful domestic animals. A dog will flatter you but you have to flatter a cat. A dog is an employee; the cat is a freelance. ~~ George Mikes

Never try to outstubborn a cat. ~~ Robert A. Heinlein

It is worthwhile to take pains to make children kind to animals … make children treat the cat and dog kindly, allow no teasing or harshness … If they behave properly to animals, they are more likely to behave rightly to their brothers and sisters. ~~ The Old Farmer's Almanac (1882)

What is play to the cat is death to the mouse. ~~ Danish proverb

Alcohol removes inhibitions -- like that scared little mouse who got drunk and shook his whiskers and shouted: Now bring on that damn cat! ~~ Eleanor Early

Authors like cats because they are such quiet, lovable, wise creatures, and cats like authors for the same reasons. ~~ Robertson Davies

Any cat who misses a mouse pretends it was aiming for the dead leaf. ~~ Charlotte Gray

If your cat falls out of a tree, go indoors to laugh. ~~ Patricia Hitchcock

A cat isn't fussy -- just so long as you remember he likes his milk in the shallow, rose-patterned saucer and his fish on the blue plate. From which he will take it, and eat it off the floor. ~~ Arthur Bridges

A cat who has taken umbrage is a terrible sight to see. ~~ Rosemary Nisbet

The really great thing about cats is their endless variety. One can pick a cat to fit almost any kind of décor, income, personality, mood. But under the fur, there still lies, essentially unchanged, one of the world's free souls. ~~ Eric Gurney

Only cat lovers know the luxury of fur-coated, musical hot water bottles that never go cold. ~~ Susanne Millen

There are people who reshape the world by force or argument, but the cat just lies there, dozing, and the world quietly reshapes itself to suit his comfort and convenience. ~~ Allen and Ivy Dodd

A cat can maintain a position of curled up somnolence on your knee until you are nearly upright. To the last minute she hopes your conscience will get the better of you and you will settle down again. ~~ Pam Brown

Cats like doors left open -- in case they change their minds. ~~ Rosemary Nisbet

I am indebted to the cat for a particular kind of honorable deceit, for a greater control over myself, for a characteristic aversion to brutal sounds, and for the need to keep silent for long periods of time. ~~ Colette

Being a child is horrible. It is slightly better than being a tree or a piece of heavy machinery but not half as good as being a domestic cat. ~~ Julie Burchill

I've always thought a hotel ought to offer optional small animals … I mean a cat to sleep on your bed at night, or a dog of some kind to act pleased when you come in. You ever notice how a hotel room feels so lifeless? ~~ Anne Tyler

Cats' names are more for human benefit. They give one a certain degree more confidence that the animal belongs to you. ~~ Alan Ayckbourn

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

A cat allows you to sleep on the bed. On the edge. ~~ Jenny De Vries

Nobody who is not prepared to spoil cats will get from them the reward they are able to give to those who do spoil them. ~~ Compton Mackenzie

A dog will flatter you but you have to flatter the cat. ~~ George Mikes

Cats are kindly masters, just so long as you remember your place. ~~ Paul Gray

A cat does not want all the world to love her -- only those she has chosen to love. ~~ Helen Thomson

One must love a cat on its own terms. ~~ Peter Gray

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

There are three reasons for breast-feeding: the milk is always at the right temperature; it comes in attractive containers; and the cat can't get it. ~~ Irena Chalmers

To some blind souls all cats are much alike. To a cat lover every cat from the beginning of time has been utterly and amazingly unique. ~~ Jenny de Vries

It would be a very good thing for the cat occasionally to find itself chased by the mouse. ~~ Andrew Bergman

However superior to any number of cats a mouse may feel in its own hole, it requires a good deal of self-suggestion to maintain this opinion in the presence of the cat. ~~ Francis Iles [Anthony Berkeley]

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

Each new kitten becomes its own cat, and none is repeated. I am four cats old, measuring out my life in friends that have succeeded but not replaced one another. ~~ Irving Townsend

A black cat dropped soundlessly from a high wall, like a spoonful of dark treacle, and melted under a gate. ~~ Elizabeth LeMarchand

Cats everywhere asleep on bookshelves like motorized bookends. ~~ Audrey Thomas

Cats always know whether people like or dislike them. They do not always care enough to do anything about it. ~~ Winifred Carriere

[The cat] sights a bird -- she chuckles -- she flattens -- then she crawls -- she runs without the look of feet -- her eyes increase to balls. ~~ Emily Dickinson

I love cats. I love their grace and their elegance. I love their independence and their arrogance, and the way they lie and look at you, summing you up, surely to your detriment, with that unnerving, unwinking, appraising stare. ~~ Joyce Stranger

[On cats:] There is nothing sweeter than his peace when at rest,

For there is nothing brisker than his life when in motion. ~~ Christopher Smart

A cat has absolute emotional honesty: human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not. ~~ Ernest Hemingway

The cat sees through shut lids. ~~ English proverb

No matter how tired or wretched I am, a pussycat sitting in a doorway can divert my mind. ~~ Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

God made the cat in order that man might have the pleasure of caressing the tiger. ~~ Fernand Mery

If cats could talk, they wouldn't. ~~ Nan Porter

Way down deep, we're all motivated by the same urges. Cats have the courage to live by them. ~~ Jim Davis

Artists like cats; soldiers like dogs. ~~ Desmond Morris

Cats can work out mathematically the exact place to sit that will cause the most inconvenience. ~~ Pam Brown

A cat is the only domestic animal I know who toilet trains itself and does a damned impressive job of it. ~~ Joseph Epstein

Dogs remember faces, cats remember places. ~~ English proverb

A cat is there when you call her -- if she doesn't have something better to do. ~~ Bill Adler

The phrase "domestic cat" is an oxymoron. ~~ George Will

Never wear anything that panics the cat. ~~ P. J. O'Rourke

Cat people are different, to the extent that they generally are not conformists. How could they be, with a cat running their lives? ~~ Louis J. Camuti, DVM

I saw the most beautiful cat today ... sitting by the side of the road, its two front feet neatly and graciously together. Then it gravely swished around its tail to completely encircle itself. It was so fit and beautifully neat, that gesture … ~~ Anne Morrow Lingbergh

Odd things animals. All dogs look up to you. All cats look down to you. Only a pig looks at you as an equal. ~~ Winston Churchill

[On a cat:] Calvin's life seems to me a fortunate one, for it was natural and unforced. He ate when he was hungry, slept when he was sleepy, and enjoyed existence to the very tips of his toes and the end of his expressive and slow-moving tail. ~~ Charles Dudley Warner

Dearest cat, honored guest of my old house,

Arch your supple, tingling back,

And curl upon my knee, to let me

Bathe my fingers in your warm fur. ~~ Francois LeMaitre

Cats are a mysterious kind of folk -- there is more passing in their minds than we are aware of. ~~ Sir Walter Scott

Most of us rather like our cats to have a streak of wickedness. I should not feel quite easy in the company of any cat that walked about the house with a saintly expression … ~~ Beverly Nichols

Cats are notoriously sore losers. Coming in second best, especially to someone as poorly coordinated as a human being, grates their sensibility. ~~ Stephen Baker

Your cat will never threaten your popularity by barking at three in the morning. He won't attack the mailman or eat the drapes, although he may climb the drapes to see how the room looks from the ceiling. ~~ Helen Powers

With the qualities of cleanliness, discretion, affection, patience, dignity, and courage that cats have, how many of us, I ask you, would be capable of being cats? ~~ Fernand Mery

Do our cats name us? My former husband swore that Humphrey and Dolly and Bean Blossom called me The Big Hamburger. ~~ Eleanora Walker

There is something about the presence of a cat … that seems to take the bite out of being alone. ~~ Louis J. Camuti, DVM

It [the Cheshire Cat] vanished quite slowly, beginning with the end of the tail, and ending with the grin, which remained some time after the rest of it had gone. ~~ Lewis Carroll

At dinner time he would sit in a corner, concentrating, and suddenly they would say, "Time to feed the cat," as if it were their own idea. ~~ Lillian Jackson Braun

The cat does not offer services. The cat offers itself. Of course he wants care and shelter. You don't buy love for nothing. Like all pure creatures, cats are practical. ~~ William S. Burroughs

Cats are absolute individuals, with their own ideas about everything, including the people they own. ~~ John Dingman

Happy owner, happy cat. Indifferent owner, reclusive cat. ~~ Chinese proverb

It is impossible for a lover of cats to banish these alert, gentle, and discriminating friends, who give us just enough of their regard and complaisance to make us hunger for more. ~~ Agnes Repplier

It is with the approach of winter that cats … wear their richest fur and assume an air of sumptuous and delightful opulence. ~~ Pierre Loti

Unlike us, cats never outgrow their delight in cat capacities, nor do they settle finally for limitations. Cats, I think, live out their lives fulfilling their expectations. ~~ Irving Townsend

The cat is, above all, a dramatist. ~~ Margaret Benson

Of all the [cat] toys available, none is better designed than the owner himself. A large multipurpose plaything, its parts can be made to move in almost any direction. It comes completely assembled and it makes a sound when you jump on it. ~~ Stephen Baker

If I called [the cat] she would pretend not to hear, but would come a few moments later when it could appear that she had thought of doing so first. ~~ Arthur Weigall

A cat's rage is beautiful, burning with pure cat flame, all its hair standing up and crackling blue sparks, eyes blazing and sputtering. ~~ William S. Burroughs

To bathe a cat takes brute fore, perseverance, courage of conviction -- and a cat. The last ingredient is usually the hardest to come by. ~~ Stephen Baker

If animals could speak, the dog would be a blundering, outspoken, honest fellow -- but the cat would have the rare grace of never saying a word too much. ~~ Philip Gilbert Hamerton

The ideal of calm exists in a sitting cat. ~~ Jules Reynard

Cats are designated friends. ~~ Norman Corwin

Most cats do not approach humans recklessly… Much ceremony must be observed, and a number of diplomatic feelers put out, before establishing a state of truce. ~~ Lloyd Alexander

[On cats:] The little furry buggers are just deep, deep wells you throw all your emotions into. ~~ Bruce Schimmel

It always gives me a shiver when I see a cat seeing what I can't see. ~~ Eleanor Farjeon

[On cats:] Who can believe that there is no soul behind those luminous eyes! ~~ Theophile Gautier

Oh, a cat's a cat. Babou's only too long when he really wants to be. Are we even sure he's black? He's probably white in snowy weather, dark blue at night, and red when he goes to steal strawberries. ~~ Colette

Poets generally love cats -- because poets have no delusions about their own superiority. ~~ Marion Garretty

Cats -- a standing rebuke to behavioral scientists … least human of all creatures. ~~ Lewis Thomas

God is really another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant and the cat. He has no real style. He just goes on trying other things. ~~ Pablo Picasso

He who plays with cats must bear the scratches. ~~ Algerian proverb

Dogs often remind us of the human, all-too human. Cats, never. ~~ Mason Cooley

The cat is utterly sincere. ~~ Fernand Mery

Domestic cats are not antisocial and independent. In fact, they are highly social, but often their social behavior is subtle and overlooked. When given a chance to form a social unit … they organize themselves much like a pride of lions. ~~ Deane Jordan [1,001 Facts Somebody Screwed Up]

You have now learned to see

That cats are much like you and me
And other people whom we find
Possessed of various types of mind. ~~ T. S. Eliot (See Said Who?)