Johanne

Here is a large collection of cat quotes. Find your favorite quote about cats!

Enjoy!

Said about Cats by People starting with A

“A cat is there when you call her, if she doesn’t have something better to do.” Bill Adler

“Two cats can live as cheaply as one, and their owner has twice as much fun. Lloyd Alexander, American author

“It is useless to punish a cat. They have no conception of human discipline; if they do, the idea is unattractive to them.” Lloyd Alexander

“Cats are only human, they have their faults.” Kingsley Amis, English poet

“To anyone who has ever been owned by a cat, it will come as no surprise that there are all sorts of things about your cat you will never, as long as you live, forget. Not the least of these is the first sight of him or her.” Cleveland Amory

“Passion for place – there is no greater urge in feline nature.” Paul Annixter

“Cats can be very funny, and have the oddest ways of showing they’re glad to see you. Rudimace always peed in our shoes.” W.H. Auden, poet

Cat Quotes by People starting with B

“I cannot exist without a cat.” Peggy Bacon

“Most beds sleep up to six cats. Ten cats without the owner.” Stephen Baker

“Kittens are born with their eyes shut. They open them in about six days, take a look around, then close them again for the better part of their natural lives.” Stephen Baker

“To bathe a cat takes brute force, perseverance, courage of conviction – and a cat. The last ingredient is usually hardest to come by.” Stephen Baker

“A resent census taken among the cats shows that approximately one hundred percent are neurotic. That estimate is probably on the low side.” Stephen Baker

“Like those great sphinxes lounging through eternity in noble attitudes upon the desert sand, they gaze incuriously at nothing, calm and wise.” Charles Baudelaire, French poet

“It is easy to understand why the rabble dislikes cats. A cat is beautiful; it suggests ideas of luxury, cleanliness, and voluptuous pleasures.” Charles Baudelaire

“You are my cat and I am your human.” Hilaire Belloc, Anglo-French writer

“The cat is, above all things, a dramatist.” Margaret Benson

“He lives in the half-lights in secret places, free and alone – this mysterious little-great being whom his mistress calls “My Cat”.” Margaret Benson

“A plate is distasteful to a cat, a newspaper still worse; they like to eat sticky pieces of meat sitting on a cushioned chair or a nice Persian rug.” Margaret Benson

“As every cat owner knows, nobody owns a cat.” Ellen Perry Berkeley, writer

“If a cat spoke, it would say things like, “Hey, I don’t see the problem here.” Roy Blount Jr.

“Dogs come when they are called. Cats take a message and get back to you.” Mary Bly

“I’m used to dogs. When you leave them in the morning they stick their nose in the door crack and stand there like a portrait until you turn the key eight hours later. A cat would never put up with that kind of rejection. When you returned, she’d stalk you until you dozed off and then suck the air out of your body.” Erma Bombeck, American writer

“To understand a cat, you must realize that he has his own gifts, his own viewpoint, even his own morality.” Lillian Jackson Braun

“The most domesticated of cats somehow contrives to lead an outside life of its own.” Katherine Briggs

“I can say with sincerity that I like cats. A cat is an animal which has more human feeling than most other.” Emily Brontë

“A cat is nobody’s fool.” Heywood Broun

“A dog, I have always said, is prose; a cat is a poem.” Jean Burden, American poet

“Prowling his own quiet backyard or asleep by the fire, he is still only a whisker away from the wilds.” Jean Burden

“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, American author

“They say the test of literary power is whether a man can write an inscription. I say, “Can he name a kitten?” Samuel Butler

“If we treated everyone we meet with the same affection we bestow upon our favorite cat, they too would purr.” Martin Buxbaum, author

People starting with C talk about Cats

“Cat people are different, to the extent that they generally are not conformists. How can they be, with a cat running their lives?” Dr. Louis J. Camuti

“Quite obviously a cat trusts human beings, but she doesn’t trust another cat because she knows better than we do.” Karel Capek, Czech writer

“Cats can be cooperative when something feels good, which, to a cat is the way everything is supposed to feel as much of the time as possible.” Roger A. Caras

“Cats virtually always underestimate human intelligence just as we, perhaps, underestimate theirs.” Roger A. Caras

 “Cats don’t like change without their consent” Roger A. Caras

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

”Those who’ll play with cats must expect to be scratched.” Miguel de Cervantes

“A kitten is the delight of a household. All day long a comedy is played by this incomparable actor.” Jules Champfleury, French novelist

“They smell and they snarl and they scratch, they have a singular aptitude for shredding rugs, drapes, and upholstery, they’re sneaky, selfish, and not particularly smart, they are disloyal, condescending, and totally useless in any rodent-free environment.” Jean-Michel Chapereau

“Two things are aesthetically perfect in the world – the clock and the cat.” Emile-August Chartier, French philosopher

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

“Even the stupidest cat seems to know more than any dog.” Eleanor Clark, American writer

 “I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul.” Jean Cocteau

“By associating with a cat, one only risks becoming richer.” Colette

“A cat’s heart is normally excited”. Colette

 “There are no ordinary cats.” Colette

 “A cat is a guest and not a plaything.” Colette

“My cat does not talk as respectfully to me as I do to her.” Colette

“A cat that lives with a good family is used to being talked to all the time.” Lettice Cooper

“For unlike a dog that will scare up a flock of birds and then rush away, a cat, even in bitter weather, will wait patiently for hours hoping to make a kill.” Thalassa Cruso

“If cats do something, we call it instinct; if we do the same thing, for some reason, we call it intelligence.” Will Cuppy, American writer

D – Cat Quotes

“The cat has always been associated with the moon. Like the moon it comes to life at night, escaping from humanity and wandering over housetops with its eyes beaming out through the darkness.” Patricia Dale-Green, author of “Cult of the cat”.

“To respect the cat is the beginning of the aesthetic sense.” Erasmus Darwin

“The great charm of cats is their rampant egotism, their devil-may-care attitude toward responsibility, their disinclination to earn an honest dollar.” Robertson Davies, Canadian novelist

“Way down deep, we are all motivated by the same urges. Cats have the courage to live by them.” Jim Davis, creator of the comic strip Garfield.

“One reason Garfield is interesting for cat lovers is that he confirms what they’ve always suspected about cats. In Garfield they see his human aspects – his refusal to diet, his inability to walk through a room without knocking things over, and his total pursuit of warm places to curl up and sleep. He champions a lot of unpopular causes, like ant-jogging, and what’s more he doesn’t apologize for them.” Jim Davis

“A cat with kittens nearly always decides sooner or later to move them.” Sidney Denham

“Cats do not go for a walk to get somewhere but to explore.” Sidney Denham

 “Cats are absolute individuals, with their own ideas about everything, including the people they own.” John Dingham

“Some people say that cats are sneaky, evil and cruel. True and they have many other fine qualities as well.” Missy Dizick

“The cat is truly aristocratic in type and origin.” Alexandre Dumas

“No amount of time can erase the memory of a good cat, and no amount of masking tape can ever totally remove his fur from your couch.” Leo Dworken, author

“Feline communicators divide naturally into two groups: acrobatic types who hang on the screen door when they want to come in, and the verbalizers who use yowling as a calling card.” Leo Dworken

E – List of Cat Quotes

“A man has to work so hard so that something of his personality stays alive. A tomcat has it so easy, he has only to spray and his presence is there for years on rainy days.” Albert Einstein
 
 “Contemporary physics is based on concepts somewhat analogous to the smile of the absent cat.” Albert Einstein
 
“Purring would seem to be, in her case, an automatic safety-valve device for dealing with happiness overflow.” Monica Edwards
 
“When a cat adopts you there is nothing to be done about it except to put up with it and wait until the wind changes.” T.S. Eliot
 
“A cat is the only domestic animal I know who toilet trains itself and does a damned impressive job of it.” Joseph Epstein
 
“When dogs leap onto your bed, it’s because they adore being with you. When cats leap onto your bed, it’s because they adore your bed.” Alisha Everett

G – Quotes about Cats

“There is the little matter of disposal of droppings in which the cat is far ahead of his rivals. The dog is somehow thrilled by what he or any of his friends have produced, hates to leave it, adores smelling it, and sometimes eats it. The cat covers it up if it can,” Paul Gallico

 
“Cats, incidentally, are a great warm-up for a successful marriage – they teach you your place in the household.” Paul Gallico

 
“Her function is to sit and be admired.” Georgina Strickland Gates
 
“The cat is a dilettante in fur.” Théophile Gautier, French poet.
 
“Painting cats is a question of genius.” Théophile Gautier
 
“He loved books, and when he found one open on the table he would lie down on it, turn over the edges of the leaves with his paw, and, after a while, fall asleep, for all the world as if he had been reading a fashionable novel.” Théophile Gautier
 
“It is no easy task to win the friendship of a cat. He is a philosopher, sedate, tranquil, a creature of habit, a lover of decency and order. He does not bestow his regard lightly, and, though he may consent to be your companion, he will never be your slave.” Théophile Gautier
 
 “A cat is a tiger that is fed by hand.” Yakaoka Genrin
 
“Cats know how to obtain food without labor, shelter without confinement, and love without penalties.” W.L. George
 
“Cats are the ultimate narcissists. You can tell this because of all the time they spend on personal grooming. A dog’s idea of personal grooming is to roll in a dead fish.” James Gorman
 
“Cats are dangerous companions for writers because cat watching is a near perfect method of writing avoidance.” Dan Greenburg
 
“Cat lovers can readily be identified. Their clothes always look old and well used. Their sheets look like bath towels and their bath towels look like a collection of knitting mistakes.” Eric Gurney, cartoonist

H and I – Said about Cats

“My cat is an elegant eater of garbage, meat and cream.” John Inglis Hall
 
“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
 
“Never try to out stubborn a cat.” Robert A. Heinlein
 
 “A cat has absolute emotional honesty: human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not.” Ernest Hemingway
 
 “One cat just leads to another.” Ernest Hemingway
 
“Cat: A pygmy lion who loves mice, hates dogs, and patronizes human beings.” Oliver Herford, American writer
 
“Cats, like women, should be respected as individuals rather than admired as decoration, but there’s no harm, given the choice, in taking up with a strikingly attractive specimen of either.” Barbara Holland
 
“I have noticed that what cats most appreciate in a human being is not the ability to produce food which they take for granted – but his or her entertainment value.” Geoffrey Household
 
“The way to keep a cat is to try to chase it away.” E.W. Howe
 
“Cats at fireside live luxuriously and are the picture of comfort.” Leigh Hunt
 
“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, English author
 
“The tail in cats is the principal organ of emotional expression.” Aldous Huxley
 
“A cat can be trusted to purr when she is pleased, which is more than can be said for human beings.” William Inge, American novelist 

J and K – Cat Quotes

“Cats and monkeys, monkeys and cats – all human life is there.” Henry James
 
“A cat’s got her own opinion of human beings. She doesn’t say much, but you can tell enough to make you anxious not to hear the whole of it.” Jerome K. Jerome
 
“My cat has taken to mulled port and rum punch. Poor old dear! He is all the better for it.” Jerome K. Jerome
 
“Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a function.” Garrison Keillor, American author
 
“Meow is like aloha – it can mean anything.” Hank Ketchum, American cartoonist
 
 “Cats are rather delicate creatures and they are subject to a good many different ailments, but I have never heard of one who suffered from insomnia.” Joseph Wood Krutch, American author
 
“Cats seem to go on the principle that it never does any harm to ask for what you want.” Joseph Wood Krutch

“We quickly discovered that two kittens were much more fun than one.” Allan Lacy
 
 “It is easier to hold quicksilver between your fingers and thumb as to keep a cat who means to escape.” Andrew Lang
 
“A child is a person who can’t understand why someone would give away a perfectly good kitten.” Doug Larson
 
“The cat could very well be man’s best friend but would never stoop to admitting it.” Doug Larson
 
“Cats are living adornments.” Edwin Lent
 
“Oh cat; I’d say, or pray: be-ootiful cat! Delicious cat! Exquisite cat! Satiny cat! Cat like a soft owl, cat with paws like moths, jeweled cat, miraculous cat! Cat, cat , cat, cat.” Doris Lessing
 
 “No matter how much cats fight, there always seems to be plenty of kittens.” Abraham Lincoln
 
 “The best exercise for a cat is another cat.” Jo and Paul Loeb, American authors
 
“The cat is not really a domestic animal, and his chief charm lies in the fact that he still walks by himself.” Konrad Lorenz
 
 “The cat is cryptic, and close to strange things which men cannot see.” H.P. Lovecraft
 
“Every cat is really the most beautiful woman in the room.” E. V. Lucas

 

M – Cat Quotes

“The happiest houses are those which kitten-bearing is held over as a permanent attraction.” James Mason, actor
 
 “A cat does not negotiate with the mouse.” Robert K. Massie
 
”If there is one spot of sun spilling onto the floor, a cat will find it and soak up.” Joan Asper McIntosh
 
“Cats have it all – admiration and endless sleep and company only when they want it.” Rod McKuen
 
“The only mystery about the cat is why it ever decided to become a domestic animal.” Compton Mackenzie
 
“For me, one of the pleasures of cats’ company is their devotion to bodily comfort.” Compton Mackenzie
 
“A meow massages the heart.” Stuart McMillan
 
“The cat has too much spirit to have no heart.” Ernest Menault
 
“Are cats lazy? Well, more power to them if they are. Which one of us has not entertained the dream of doing just as he likes, and as much as he likes?” Fernand Méry
 
 “With 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 Méry, author

“God made the cat in order that man might have the pleasure of caressing the tiger.” Fernand Méry
 
“Oh, the cats of this town have their secrets.” Mary Virginia Micka
 
“You can keep a dog; but it is the cats 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 in “How to be decadent.”
 
“Some men are born to cats; others have cats thrust upon them.” Gilbert Millstein, author
 
“When I play with my cat, who knows whether she isn’t amusing herself with me more than I am with her?” Montaigne 
 
 “Cats are mysterious beings. You never know if they love you or if they condescend to occupy your house. The mystery is what makes them the most attractive beast.” Paul Moore
 
“The playful kitten, with its pretty tigerish gambols, is infinitely more amusing than half the people one is obliged to live with in the world.” Lady Sydney Morgan
 
 “Artists like cats, soldiers like dogs.” Desmond Morris
 
“The dog may be man’s best friend, but it is rarely allowed out on its own to wander from garden to garden or street to street. The obedient dog has to be taken out for a walk. The headstrong cat walks alone.” Desmond Morris
 
 “My cats are compromised. I do not entirely trust them – they may be spies, like dolphins, reporting to some unknown authority.” Jan Morris
 
“Dogs are disciplined, horses are enslaved, cows and pigs are exploited. Only cats join us as opportunistic partners. They do things for us, we do things for them, and when both sides feel like it we share the pleasure of each other’s company.” Jan Morris
 
“Cats do not belong to people. They belong to places.” Wright Morris
 
“I wonder what goes through his mind when he sees us peeing in his water bowl.” Penny Ward Moser
 
“When my cats aren’t happy, I’m not happy. Not because I care about their mood but because I know they’re just sitting there thinking up ways to get even.” Penny Ward Moser

N and O – About Cats

“I have a catholic taste in cats, in the sense that almost anything feline one four legs goes straight to my heart.” Beverley Nichols, British author, composer and playwright
 
“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.” Beverley Nichols
 
“Anyone, but anybody, any lout, any half-wit, any scruffy, self-centered moron, can command the affection and the servile obedience of a dog, but it takes intelligence and understanding – sometimes I think a certain psychic rapport – to win the affection of a cat.” Beverley Nichols
 
“A cat is a puzzle for which there is no solution.” Hazel Nicholson
 
“Always the cat remains a little beyond the limits we try to set for him in our folly.” André Norton
 
“Perhaps it is because cats do not live by human patterns, do not fit themselves into prescribes behavior, that they are so united to creative people.” André Norton
 
“My theory is that the writer senses a deep and profound kinship with the cat.” Joyce Carol Oates
 
“Never wear anything that panics the cat.” P.J. O’Rourke
 

P and Q – Quotes about Cats

“The cat lets Man support her. But unlike the dog, she is no hand licker. Furthermore, unlike Man’s other great good friend, the horse, the cat is no sweating serf of Man, The only labor she condescends to preform is to catch mice and rats, and that’s fun.” Vance Packard
 
“You can’t look at a sleeping cat and be tense.” Jane Pauley
 
“Cats refuse to take the blame for anything – including their own sins.” Elizabeth Peters
 
“If cats could talk, they wouldn’t.” Nan Porter
 
“The problem with cats is that they get the exact same look on their face whether they see a moth or an ax-murderer.” Paula Poundstone

R – Cat Quotes

“The more you rub a cat on the rump, the higher she sets her tail.” John Ray, English naturalist
 
“Cats, even when robust, have scant liking for the boisterous society of children, and are apt to exert their utmost ingenuity to escape it.” Agnes Repplier, American writer
 
“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
 
“A kitten is chiefly remarkable for rushing about like mad at nothing whatever, and generally stopping before it gets there.” Agnes Repplier
 
“I would never wound a cat’s feelings, no matter how downright aggressive I might be to humans.” A.L. Rowse

S – Speak about Cats

“He seems the incarnation of everything soft and silky and velvety, without a sharp edge in his composition, a dreamer whose philosophy is sleep and let sleep.” Saki
 
“The little furry buggers are just deep wells you throw all your emotions into.” Bruce Schimmel
 
“Because of our willingness to accept cats as superhuman creatures, they are the ideal animals with which to work creatively.” Roni Schotter
 
“A sleeping cat is ever alert.” Fred Schwab
 
“There are two means of refuge from the misery of life – music and cats.” Albert Schweitzer
 
 “Cats are a mysterious kind of folk. There is more passing in their minds than we are aware of. It comes no doubt from them being too familiar with warlocks and witches.” Sir Walter Scott
 
 “I have found my love of cats most helpful in understanding women.” John Simon
 
“I never knew a moral cat.” Jack Smith
 
“A charm of cats is that they seem to live in a world of their own, just as much as if were a dimension of space.” Harriet Prescott Spofford
 
“Since each of us is blessed with only one life, why not live it with a cat?”  Robert Stearns
 
“When it comes to the advantages of cats versus dogs as pets, there is no competition. Try going away for a weekend, leaving your German shepherd alone with a bowl of dry food, some water, and a litter box.” Robert Stearns
 
“If only cats grew into kittens.” R. Stern
 
“To escort a cat on leash is against the nature of the cat.” Adlai Stevenson

T – Quotes about Cats

“Anyone who has ever known a cat really well feels that this cat is superior to most Harvard professors in brain power.” Gladys Tabor
 
“Any normal, ordinary cat can keep any human in a state of frustration.” Gladys Tabor
 
 “I’ve met many thinkers and many cats, but the wisdom of cats is infinitely superior.” Hippolyte Taine
 
“Every cat I’ve known has had a distinct personality. Unmistakably. I’ve never known two cats even vaguely alike.” Amy Taubin
 
“She sits composedly sentinel, with paws tucked under her, a good part of her days at present, by some ridiculous little hole, the possible entry of a mouse.” Henry David Thoreau
 
“What sort of philosophers are we who know absolutely nothing about the origin and destiny of cats?” Henry David Thoreau
 
“Another cat?  Perhaps. For love there is also a season; its seeds must be resown. Bur a family cat is not replaceable like a wornout coat or set of tires. 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</span

“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
 
“Of all God’s creatures there is only one that cannot be made the slave of the lash. That one is the cat.” Mark Twain
 
“One of the striking differences between a cat and a lie is that a cat has only nine lives.” Mark Twain
 
“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 earn its title?” Mark Twain
 
“If man could be crossed with a cat, it would improve man but deteriorate the cat.” Mark Twain
 
“A cat is more intelligent than people believe, and can be taught any crime.” Mark Twain

V – Opinions about Cats

“A mouse in the paws is worth two in the pantry.” Louis Wain
 
“Rarely do you see a cat discomfited. They have no conscience, and they never regret.” B. Webster
 
 “Did St. Francis really preach to the birds? Whatever for? If he really likes the birds he would have done better to preach to the cat.” Rebecca West
 
 “A cat is a snake in furs.” Edith Wharton
 
“The phrase “domestic cat” is an oxymoron.” George Will
 
“Cats find malicious amusement in doing what they are not wanted to do, and that with an affection of innocence that materially aggravates their deliberate offense.” Helen Winslow, author
 
“Women, poets, and especially artists, like cats; delicate natures only can realize their sensitive nervous systems.” Helen Winslow
 
(The Gutenberg Project has a delightful free book:  Concerning Cats: My Own and Some Others by Helen M. Winslow)
 
“The trouble with cats is that they’ve got no tact.” P.G. Wodehouse, English humorist and writer
 
The real objection to the great majority of cats is their insufferable air of superiority.” P.G. Wodehouse

X, Y and Z

“It doesn’t matter if the cat is black, or white, as long as it catches mice.” Deng Xiaoping