Inspirational Animal Quotes: A Heartwarming Collection to Uplift Your Spirit

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

- Mahatma Gandhi

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

- Anatole France

"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

"Animals are more than ever a test of our character, of mankind’s capacity for empathy and for decent, honorable conduct and faithful stewardship. We are called to treat them with kindness, not because they have rights or power or some claim to equality, but in a sense because they don’t; because they all stand unequal and powerless before us. Animals are so easily overlooked, their interests so easily brushed aside. Whenever we humans enter their world, from our farms to the local animal shelter to the African savanna, we enter as lords of the earth bearing strange powers of terror and mercy alike."

- Matthew Scully

"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

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

- Steve Irwin

"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

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

- Josh Billings

"A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than you love yourself."

- Josh Billings

"Animals are my friends…and I don’t eat my friends."

- George Bernard Shaw

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

- George Eliot

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

- Martin Buber

"Dogs are our link to paradise. They don’t know evil or jealousy or discontent."

- Milan Kundera

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

- Anatole France

"The ideal of calm exists in a sitting cat."

- Jules Renard

"The whole glorious history of animals with people is about joy and connection. It’s about loving this creature and letting this creature love you."

- Jon Katz

"You cannot share your life with a dog … or a cat, and not know perfectly well that animals have personalities and minds and feelings."

- Jane Goodall

"Animals keep you company when you’re really lonely. It helps because when you have a friend around who always likes you no matter what – it’s harder to feel bad or down."

- Aaron Carter

"Our task must be to free ourselves … by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty."

- Albert Einstein

"The animal world shows us the potential we can unfold. But to learn from them, we must first learn to speak with them."

- Ted Andrews

"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

"Never, never be afraid to do what’s right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake."

- Martin Luther King Jr.

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

- Charles Darwin

"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

"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

"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

"Animals are sentient, intelligent, perceptive, funny and entertaining. We owe them a duty of care as we do to children."

- Michael Morpurgo

"We need, in a special way, to work twice as hard to help people understand that the animals are fellow creatures, that we must protect them and love them as we love ourselves."

- Cesar Chavez

"We must remember that our actions towards animals reflect our humanity. It is our responsibility to be compassionate and kind."

- Velma Bronn Johnston

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

- John Muir

"True compassion is showing kindness towards animals, without expecting anything in return."

- Paul Oxton

"Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty."

- Albert Einstein

"If we’re going to have animals around, we all have to be concerned about them and take care of them."

- Bob Ross

"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

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

- A.A. Milne

"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 hope to make people realize how totally helpless animals are, how dependent on us, trusting as a child must that we will be kind and take care of their needs."

- James Herriot

"People who care about animals tend to care about people. They don’t care about animals to the exclusion of people. Caring is not a finite resource and, even more than that, it’s like a muscle: the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets."

- Jonathan Foer

"People don’t get the big picture—animals matter, people matter, and animals in the lives of people matter."

- Noel Fitzpatrick

"The difference between friends and pets is that friends we allow into our company, pets we allow into our solitude."

- Robert Brault

"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

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

- Paul McCartney

"Animals are not property or “things” but rather living organisms, subjects of a life, who are worthy of our compassion, respect, friendship, and support."

- Marc Bekoff

"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

"We have to speak up on behalf of those who cannot speak for themselves"

- Peter Singer

"Let us remember that animals are not mere resources for human consumption. They are splendid beings in their own right, who have evolved alongside us as co-inheritors of all the beauty and abundance of life on this planet"

- Marc Bekoff

"I think having an animal in your life makes you a better human."

- Rachael Ray

"Our pets are our family."

- Ana Monnar

"Animals are one of the most beautiful gifts we have."

- Alyssa Milano

"No one loves you as unconditionally as your beloved pet."

- Cynthia Dobesh

"The best friend a man can have is an animal—they are so agreeable, they don’t hate on you and they embrace you without passing any criticism."

- Shenita Etwaroo

"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

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

- George Bernard Shaw

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

- Christopher Morley

"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

"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

"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

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

- Winston S. Churchill

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

- Mark Twain

"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

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

- George Eliot

"Dogs are the most amazing creatures; they give unconditional love."

- Gilda Radner

"Animals have a much better attitude to life and death than we do. They know when their time has come. We are the ones that suffer when they pass, but it’s a healing kind of grief that enables us to deal with other griefs that are not so easy to grab hold of."

- Emmylou Harris

"The animals are right here, right in front of us. And how we treat these companions is a test."

- Linda Blair

"I call my horses ‘divine mirrors’—they reflect back the emotions you put in. If you put in love and respect and kindness and curiosity, the horse will return that."

- Allan Hamilton

"If we can teach people about wildlife, they will be touched. Share my wildlife with me. Because humans want to save things that they love."

- Steve Irwin

"There is no fundamental difference between man and the higher animals in their mental faculties. The lower animals, like man, manifestly feel pleasure and pain, happiness and misery."

- Charles Darwin

"Love of animals is a universal impulse, a common ground on which all of us may meet. By loving and understanding animals, perhaps we humans shall come to understand each other."

- Louis J. Camuti

"Brutality to an animal is cruelty to mankind – it is only the difference in the victim."

- Alphonse de Lamartine

"Animals are a gift from above for they truly define the words unconditional love."

- Heather Wolf

"One small cat changes coming home to an empty house to coming home."

- Pam Brown

"The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs."

- Charles de Gaulle

"Cats are angels with fur."

- Sark

"Dogs never bite me. Just humans."

- Marilyn Monroe

"Of all the special things we choose to do for our planet, let one of them to be of service to animals."

- Paul Oxton

"Each species is a masterpiece, a creation assembled with extreme care and genius."

- Edward O. Wilson

"If we’re going to have animals around we all have to be concerned about them and take care of them."

- Bob Ross

"We can stop the cycle of animal homelessness and save lives by opening our hearts and homes to a loving cat or dog from an animal shelter."

- Amy Jackson

"Pets have more love and compassion in them than most humans."

- Robert Wagner

"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

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

- Hippolyte Taine

"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

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read."

- Groucho Marx

"There is no doubt that plants and animals have minds, emotions, feelings, and survival instincts. This means that we must also consider a new heaven for these creatures."

- Mwanandeke Kindembo

"Shame on such a morality that fails to recognize the eternal essence that exists in every living thing and shines forth with inscrutable significance from all eyes that see the sun."

- Arthur Schopenhauer

"All animals are distrustful of man, and with reason, but when once assured he does not mean to injure them, their confidence becomes so great that he must be worse than a barbarian who abuses it."

- Jean Jacques Rousseau

"Happiness is a warm puppy."

- Charles M. Schulz

"Animals will attack if provoked, to protect their family or just to put food on the table, yet man still hasn’t learned these simple basics of life. Somehow I don’t think we are the intelligent species after all."

- Anthony T. Hincks

"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

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

- A.A. Milne

"If you want to test cosmetics, why do it on some poor animal who hasn't done anything? They should use prisoners who have been convicted of murder or rape instead. So, rather than seeing if perfume irritates a bunny rabbit's eyes, they should throw it in Charles Manson's eyes and ask him if it hurts."

- Ellen DeGeneres

"Animals are like people because people are animals."

- Barbara T. Gates

"Human beings are distinguished from animals by their spirit and their moral values; but when they become immoral, they are wildest even more than animals."

- Bruce Mbanzabugabo

"I don’t need that much to live – we don’t need that much to have a wonderful life. I learned that from animals."

- Carrie Ann Inaba

"Time spent with cats is never wasted."

- Sigmund Freud

"You cannot look at a sleeping cat and feel tense."

- Jane Pauley

"Animals share with us the privilege of having a soul."

- Pitagora

"Just watching my cats can make me happy."

- Paula Cole

"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."

- Fëdor Dostoevskij

"Only animals were not expelled from Paradise."

- Milan Kundera

"Meow means woof in cat."

- George Carlin

"Ever wonder where you’d end up if you took your dog for a walk and never once pulled back on the leash?"

- Robert Brault

"Man is the cruelest animal."

- Friedrich Nietzsche

"Four legs good, two legs bad."

- George Orwell

"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