Jean Craighead George Quotes

There's something about cats' self-sufficiency and their seemingly individualistic ways that I find compelling.

A cat cares for you only as a source of food, security and a place in the sun.

The dog is guided by kindly instinct to the man or woman whose heart is open to his advances. The cat often leaves the friend who courts her, to honor, or to harass, the unfortunate mortal who shudders at her unwelcome caresses.

Cats don't need you that much. They like to come and get stroked now and then, and they need you to feed them. But other than that, they're not very demanding, are they? I quite like that.

Cats will amusingly tolerate humans only until someone comes up with a tin opener that can be operated with a paw.

I'm a cat, and you have to earn my trust.

Dogs like everyone. Cats choose who to like.

Cats are the lap-dancers of the animal world. Soon as you stop shelling out, they move on, find another lap. They're furry little sociopaths. Pretty and slick -- in love with themselves. When's the last time you saw a seeing-eye cat?

No animal has more liberty than the cat, but it buries the mess it makes. The cat is the best anarchist.

Nowadays we don't think much of a man's love for an animal; we laugh at people who are attached to cats. But if we stop loving animals, aren't we bound to stop loving humans too?

A cat never discusses his business with humans, not even Princesses. A cat never explains and never apologizes. A cat never alibis. You must accept a cat as it is and for what it is and not expect more than the pleasure of its company.

You can keep a dog: but it is the cat who keeps people, because cats find humans useful domestic animals.

Furthermore, unlike Man's other great good friend the horse, the cat is no sweating serf of Man. The only labor she condescends to perform is to catch mice and rats, and that's fun.

I would like to see anyone, prophet, king or God, convince a thousand cats to do the same thing at the same time.

My cats, the ones that I have, were feral when I found them so the relationship that I have with them 10 years in is very mutual, earned, and evolved over time. It was never an easy thing. I like that they have a certain distance and have their own sense of selves.

No favor can win gratitude from a cat.

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

So you know cats are interesting. They are kind of like girls. If they come and talk to you it's great. But if you try to talk to them it doesn't always go so well.

Cats are independent, by which I mean smart.

Cats, as you know, are quite impervious to threats.

Human beings are drawn to cats because they are all we are not — self-contained, elegant in everything they do, relaxed, assured, glad of company, yet still possessing secret lives.

Cats invented self-esteem.

Zoologists seem to consider the cerebration of cats and dogs about 50-50 -- but my respect always goes to the cool, sure, impersonal, delicately poised feline who minds his business and never slobbers.

Just give food without showing affection, [animals] might not get sort of 100% satisfaction. So they also, you see, when we human beings, we show affection, the poor animal also respond to us.

The cat is domestic only as far as suits its own ends.