Inspiring Animal Quotes to Uplift Your Spirit

"An animal’s eyes have the power to speak a great language."

- Martin Buber

"If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans."

- James Herriot

"A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him, that of plants and animals as that of his fellow men, and when he devotes himself helpfully to all life that is in need of help."

- Albert Schweitzer

"Those who wish to pet and baby wild animals ‘love’ them. But those who respect their natures and wish to let them live normal lives, love them more."

- Edwin Way Teale

"Animals don’t lie. Animals don’t criticize. If animals have moody days, they handle them better than humans do."

- Betty White

"Such short little lives our pets have to spend with us, and they spend most of it waiting for us to come home each day. It is amazing how much love and laughter they bring into our lives and even how much closer we become with each other because of them."

- John Grogan

"I really don’t think I could consent to go to Heaven if I thought there were no animals there."

- George Bernard Shaw

"There is no religion without love, and people may talk as much as they like about their religion, but if it does not teach them to be good and kind to other animals as well as humans, it is all a sham."

- Anna Sewell

"You cannot share your life in a meaningful way with any animals such as a dog, cat, rabbit, bird, rat, pig, horse and so many more and not know that we are not the only sentient and sapient beings on the planet."

- Jane Goodall

"No one appreciates the very special genius of your conversation as the dog does."

- Christopher Morley

"Animals are such agreeable friends — they ask no questions, they pass no criticism."

- George Eliot

"We don’t own the planet Earth, we belong to it. And we must share it with our wildlife."

- Steve Irwin

"As anyone who has ever been around a cat for any length of time well knows, cats have enormous patience with the limitations of the human mind."

- Cleveland Amory

"It’s not enough to love animals; we must actively protect and preserve them. It’s our duty and responsibility as custodians of this planet."

- Daphne Sheldrick

"Any glimpse into the life of an animal quickens our own and makes it so much the larger and better in every way."

- John Muir

"The animal does not question life. It lives. Its very reason for living is life; it enjoys and relishes life."

- Ray Bradbury

"A dog doesn’t care if you are rich or poor, educated or illiterate, clever or dull. Give him your heart and he will give you his."

- John Grogan

"You can learn so much from animals. They have this wonderful quality of being in the moment, and they help you spend time there."

- Emmylou Harris

"Perhaps the greatest gift an animal has to offer is a permanent reminder of who we really are."

- Nick Trout

"Before you get a dog, you can’t quite imagine what living with one might be like; afterward, you can’t imagine living any other way."

- Caroline Knapp

"I don’t understand people that don’t love animals. The more I spend time experiencing animals and nature, the more I contemplate human existence."

- Sarah Silverman

"Disinterested love for all living creatures, the most noble attribute of man."

- Charles Darwin

"There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of the birds, the ebb and flow of the tides, the folded bud ready for the spring. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature — the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter."

- Rachel Carson

"Pets are humanizing. They remind us we have an obligation and responsibility to preserve and nurture and care for all life."

- James Cromwell

"Your fervent wishes can only find fulfillment if you succeed in attaining love and understanding of men, and animals, and plants, and stars, so that every joy becomes your joy and every pain your pain."

- Albert Einstein

"Animals are reliable, many full of love, true in their affections, predictable in their actions, grateful and loyal. Difficult standards for people to live up to."

- Alfred A. Montapert

"The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant, ‘What good is it?’"

- Aldo Leopold

"Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things."

- Fyodor Dostoevsky

"Compassion for animals is intimately associated with goodness of character, and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man."

- Arthur Schopenhauer

"Our perfect companions never have fewer than four feet."

- Colette

"Happiness is a warm puppy."

- Charles M. Schulz

"Dogs never bite me. Just humans."

- Marilyn Monroe

"The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness."

- John Muir

"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and man."

- Mark Twain

"The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

- George Orwell

"Man is the cruelest animal."

- Friedrich Nietzsche

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

- Mahatma Gandhi

"People speak sometimes about the 'bestial' cruelty of man, but that is terribly unjust and offensive to beasts, no animal could ever be so cruel as a man, so artfully, so artistically cruel."

- Fyodor Dostoyevsky

"Meow means woof in cat."

- George Carlin

"Some people talk to animals. Not many listen though. That's the problem."

- A.A. Milne

"I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals."

- Winston S. Churchill

"If animals could speak, the dog would be a blundering outspoken fellow; but the cat would have the rare grace of never saying a word too much."

- Mark Twain

"A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself."

- Josh Billings

"I ask people why they have deer heads on their walls. They always say because it's such a beautiful animal. There you go. I think my mother is attractive, but I have photographs of her."

- Ellen DeGeneres

"The assumption that animals are without rights and the illusion that our treatment of them has no moral significance is a positively outrageous example of Western crudity and barbarity. Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality."

- Arthur Schopenhauer

"A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite. And to act so is immoral."

- Leo Tolstoy

"Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened."

- Anatole France

"You can judge a man's true character by the way he treats his fellow animals."

- Paul McCartney

"All his life he tried to be a good person. Many times, however, he failed. For after all, he was only human. He wasn't a dog."

- Charles M. Schulz

"The dog is a gentleman; I hope to go to his heaven not man's."

- Mark Twain

"The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men."

- Alice Walker

"Four legs good, two legs bad."

- George Orwell

"I have from an early age abjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men."

- Leonardo da Vinci