Ludwig Wittgenstein Quotes

Whether animals admit it or not, they and I communicate.

The difference between an author and a horse is that the horse doesn't understand the horse dealer's language.

Closeness to animals creates the desire to understand them, and not just a little piece of them, but the whole animal. It makes us wonder what goes on in their heads even though we fully realize that the answer can only be approximated.

You don't know what mental telepathy exists from the human to the animal.

Lots of people talk to animals... Not very many listen, though... That's the problem.

Animals are certainly more sophisticated than we used to think. And we shouldn't lump together animals as a group. Crows and chimps and dogs are all highly intelligent in very different ways.

Every literary culture has among its first bearings the 'blether' of animals who seek to make sense of human existence.

If dogs could talk, perhaps we would find it as hard to get along with them as we do with people.

I have come to know Bugs so well that I no longer have to think about what he is doing in any situation.

Some people say that their pets will tell them when it's time to go. I don't believe that. No animal of mine has ever told me he was ready to die. I wish it were that simple. Dogs can communicate, but they cannot talk, nor do they think in our language or on our terms.

A mere ape in our world may be a scholar in its own, and the low life of any beast may be a source of deep satisfaction for the beast itself.

When the dog looks at you, the dog is not thinking what kind of a person you are. The dog is not judging you.

Sheep are never going to talk to you about cricket.

Cats can't understand English, so you tell a cat, 'Come on. Jump on the bed,' and he just looks at you like, 'What are you talking about?'

Our instinctual understanding of reality is the same as most other animals.

Dogs are not 'people' of another species. They are another species. To train and care for them properly, to show them how to live in our complex world, requires first and foremost that we understand that.

Human folk are as a matter of fact eager to find intelligence in animals.

Perhaps measuring animal intelligence by comparing it to human intelligence isn't the best litmus test.

I'm not a propagandist, I'm not a polemicist; my primary interest is just looking at and trying to understand how animals work.

When we see animals doing remarkable things, how do we know if we're simply seeing tricks or signs of real intelligence? Are talented animals just obeying commands, or do they have some kind of deeper understanding? One of the biggest challenges for animal researchers is to come up with tests that can distinguish between the two.

Animals do not admire each other. A horse does not admire its companion.

With land-roaming animals, I've just read so much about the sophistication of their emotional lives and their intelligence and the way they process information that betrays a greater intelligence.

When I'd written my 'Silverwing' series - I'd imbued the bats with full human awareness and vocabulary.

There has been so much underestimating of animal cognition that to perhaps overestimate it, as I probably do, is probably a healthy reaction.

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