What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, man would die from a great loneliness of spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to man. All things are connected.

[Published in Brother Eagle, Sister Sky: A Message from Chief Seattle, 1990; it was shown in 1992 to have been largely a forgery by television scriptwriter Ted Perry for a historical epic in 1971. The sentiment, nevertheless, stands incontrovertable.]

I think I could turn and live with the animals, they are so placid and self-contained, I stand and look at them long and long.

The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot.

From the oyster to the eagle, from the swine to the tiger, all animals are to be found in men and each of them exists in some man, sometimes several at the time. Animals are nothing but the portrayal of our virtues and vices made manifest to our eyes, the visible reflections of our souls. God displays them to us to give us food for thought.

Nothing to be done really about animals. Anything you do looks foolish. The answer isn't in us. It's almost as if we're put here on earth to show how silly they aren't.

We know what the animals do, what are the needs of the beaver, the bear, the salmon, and other creatures, because long ago men married them and acquired this knowledge from their animal wives. Today the priests say we lie, but we know better.

In a few generations more, there will probably be no room at all allowed for animals on the earth: no need of them, no toleration of them. An immense agony will have then ceased, but with it there will also have passed away the last smile of the world's youth.

He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.

It is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions.

If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.

Anyone who has accustomed himself to regard the life of any living creature as worthless is in danger of arriving also at the idea of worthless human lives.

The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.

Mankind's true moral test, its fundamental test (which lies deeply buried from view), consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals. And in this respect mankind has suffered a fundamental debacle, a debacle so fundamental that all others stem from it.

Shall we never have done with that cliché, so stupid that it could only be human, about the sympathy of animals for man when he is unhappy? Animals love happiness almost as much as we do. A fit of crying disturbs them, they'll sometimes imitate sobbing, and for a moment they'll reflect our sadness. But they flee unhappiness as they flee fever, and I believe that in the long run they are capable of boycotting it.

Animals are such agreeable friends -- they ask no questions; they pass no criticisms.

Human wandering through the zoo
What do your cousins think of you

The zoo cannot but disappoint. The public purpose of zoos is to offer visitors the opportunity of looking at animals. Yet nowhere in a zoo can a stranger encounter the look of an animal. At the most, the animal's gaze flickers and passes on. They look sideways. They look blindly beyond.

In order to really enjoy a dog, one doesn't merely try to train him to be semihuman. The point of it is to open oneself to the possibility of becoming partly a dog.

Don't accept your dog's admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful.

The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too.

Did you ever walk into a room and forget why you walked in? I think that is how dogs spend their lives.

There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face.

My dog is usually pleased with what I do, because she is not infected with the concept of what I "should" be doing.

Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring - it was peace.

Qui me amat, amet et canem meum.
(Love me, love my dog)

To his dog, every man is King; hence the constant popularity of dogs.

Heaven goes by favour. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.

In order to keep a true perspective of one's importance, everyone should have a dog that will worship him and a cat that will ignore him.

Women and cats will do as they please and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.

Scratch a dog and you'll find a permanent job.

I care not for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.

If you eliminate smoking and gambling, you will be amazed to find that almost all an Englishman's pleasures can be, and mostly are, shared by his dog.

In the world which we know, among the different and primitive geniuses that preside over the evolution of the several species, there exists not one, excepting that of the dog, that ever gave a thought to the presence of man.

I've seen a look in dogs' eyes, a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt, and I am convinced that basically dogs think humans are nuts.

Every dog must have his day.

When a dog runs at you, whistle for him.

My little dog -- a heartbeat at my feet.

Children and dogs are as necessary to the welfare of the country as Wall Street and the railroads.

The world was conquered through the understanding of dogs; the world exists through the understanding of dogs.

The disposition of noble dogs is to be gentle with people they know and the opposite with those they don't know ... How, then, can the dog be anything other than a lover of learning since it defines what's its own and what's alien.

The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog ... He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer; he will lick the wounds and sores that come in encounter with the roughness of the world ... When all other friends desert, he remains.

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

The little furry buggers are just deep, deep wells you throw all your emotions into.

Never try to outstubborn a cat.

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

Way down deep we are all motivated by the same urges, Cats have the courage to live by them.

There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.

I have studied many philosophers and many cats. The wisdom of cats is infinitely superior.

The reason cats climb is so that they can look down on almost ever other animals. It's also the reason they hate birds.

Cats are rather delicate creatures and they are subject to a good many aliments, but I never heard of one who suffered from insomnia.

Cats seem to go on the principle that it never does any harm to ask for what you want

In order to keep a true perspective of one's importance, everyone should have a dog that will worship him and a cat that will ignore him.

Which is more beautiful -- feline movement or feline stillness?

Women and cats will do as they please and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.

I care not for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.

When I play with my cat, who knows if I am not a pastime to her more than she to me?

Of all animals, he alone attains to the contemplative life.

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

A kitten is so flexible that she is almost double; the hind parts are equivalent to another kitten with which the fore part plays. She does not discover that her tail belongs to her until you tread on it.