Animal Influence Quotes

I call animals "guardians of Being," especially animals that live with humans. Because, for many humans, it's through their contact with animals they get in touch with that level of being.

Like many other much-loved humans, they believed that they owned their dogs, instead of realizing that their dogs owned them.

Chimpanzees have given me so much. The long hours spent with them in the forest have enriched my life beyond measure. What I have learned from them has shaped my understanding of human behavior, of our place in nature.

Behind me, I heard a young woman of 25 say, "If it weren’t for my horse, I wouldn’t have spent that year in college." Now, I'm gonna repeat that, because it bears repeating. "If it weren't for my horse..." as in, giddyup, giddyup, let's go — "I wouldn't have spent that year in college," which is a degree-granting institution. Don't think about that too long, or BLOOD will shoot out your NOSE!

Man is an idiot. He doesn't know how to do anything without copying, without imitating, without plagiarizing, without aping. It might even have been that man invented generation by coitus after seeing the grasshopper copulate.

A border collie named Orson inspired me to buy a 110-acre farm with four barns and a sheep. That led to a series of books about Bedlam Farm and about dogs, rural life, lambing and herding sheep.

Cats have intercepted my footsteps at the ankle for so long that my gait, both at home and on tour, has been compared to that of a man wading through low surf.

If you spend enough time around something like baboons, you start to look at humans differently.

We learned sexual technique from our dog. He taught how to beg, and he taught my wife how to roll over and play dead.

It may be doubted that there are many other animals which have played so important a part in the history of the world as have these lowly organized creatures.

Horses are such a powerful part of human development and have been since the early ages. We humans owe them so much.

If King Harold had had swans on his side, England would still be Saxon.

One can't be angry when one looks at a penguin.

I find it more consoling to think of myself as little than to think of myself as big. I think I've gotten that from animals, particularly dogs. Dogs live such a modest life, and they don't live long, and the more you're around them, you kind of accept that.

Who can . . . guess how much industry and providence and affection we have caught from the pantomime of brutes?

Children depend mightily on animals for comfort, inspiration, imagination, and art. And parents have long recognized this.

My childhood was spent with dogs, and I work with dogs surrounding me. This relationship is hardly unique - man-and-dog stories date back to ancient history, up to 10,000 years ago - but it feels that way to me. I used to have a love-hate relationship with dog stories because some got the dynamic right but most were dead wrong.