The Ultimate Collection of Inspirational Animal Quotes to Warm Your Heart

"We’re not, after all, separate from the animal kingdom. We’re part of it."

- Jane Goodall

"The question is not, can they reason? Nor, can they talk? But, can they suffer?"

- Jeremy Bentham

"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

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

- James Cromwell

"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

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

- Anatole France

"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

"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

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

- Mahatma Gandhi

"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

"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

"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

"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.

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

- Jules Renard

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

- A.A. Milne

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

- Colette

"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

"Petting, scratching, and cuddling a dog could be as soothing to the mind and heart as deep meditation and almost as good for the soul as prayer."

- Dean Koontz

"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

"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

"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

"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

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

- Charles de Gaulle

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

- Josh Billings

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

- Milan Kundera

"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

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

- Pam Brown

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

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

- Fyodor Dostoevsky

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

- Rachael Ray

"Our pets are our family."

- Ana Monnar

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

- Cynthia Dobesh

"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

"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

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

- Michael Morpurgo

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

- Robert Brault

"Happiness is a warm puppy."

- Charles M. Schulz

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

- Gilda Radner

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

- Edward O. Wilson

"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

"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

"I think there is a connection between, and I can’t go further than this, the way we treat animals and the way we treat people who are at the bottom of the hierarchy. Look at the ways in which people who commit such violence on other human beings have often learned how to enjoy that by enacting violence on animals."

- Angela Davis

"We have to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves."

- Peter Singer

"I think that when we use love and compassion as our guiding principles, we can create, develop, and implement systems of change that are beneficial to all sentient beings and to the environment."

- Joaquin Phoenix

"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

"We are not different in any important way. We all have thoughts and feelings. We all feel love, and pain, and loneliness, and joy."

- RZA

"He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals."

- Immanuel Kant

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

- Alice Walker

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

- Mark Twain

"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

"The purity of a person's heart can be quickly measured by how they regard animals."

- Theophile Gautier

"It is unseemly of us, who often behave so unfeelingly toward other animals, to contend that only humans can suffer."

- Carl Sagan

"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

"The greatness of animals is that they are just themselves."

- Alice Walker

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

- Heather Wolf

"Never apologize for being over sensitive and emotional when defending the welfare of wildlife, let this be a sign that you have a big heart and aren't afraid to show your true feelings. These emotions give you the strength to fight for what is right and to be the voice of those who cannot be heard."

- Paul Oxton

"Animals help you feel deeper, they open your heart to its true potential. They heal you, and love you unconditionally."

- Angie karan

"All animals deserve the world, not just our cats and dogs. Even animals people like to eat. They all love and give affection. They all feel happiness and fear, and all have their own individual personalities. Lets celebrate all animals."

- Angie karan

"Animals don't need to speak they show us how we should be."

- Angie karan

"Witnessing the love and grieving we see from animals, proves to us that all animals feel and have an innate range of emotions that we must respect, protect and empathise with. We must PROTECT them at all costs."

- Angie karan

"For the dog, colour doesn't matter, reputation doesn't matter, wealth doesn't matter. Dogs see us all as equals. They live in the present and in a world of emotion. They know if you are true and trustworthy, and what they care about most if the love you have in your heart and the kindness you show them."

- Noel Fitzpatrick

"I don't believe in 'ownership' of a sentient life - I think we undertake volitional guardianship and that this bringing forth can be one of the most rewarding and reciprocally loving relationships that a human being can ever experience."

- Noel Fitzpatrick

"Research has shown that dogs and cats can feel happy or sad, excited or disappointed, depressed or elated, and that these feelings may be similar to ours, even if they cannot express them in the same way that we do."

- Noel Fitzpatrick

"The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man."

- Charles Darwin

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

- George Eliot

"For an animal person, an animal-less home is no home at all."

- Cleveland Amory

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

- Mahatma Gandhi

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

- Benjamin Hoff

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

- Jane Pauley

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

- Alyssa Milano

"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

"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

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

- Aldo Leopold

"Just watching my cats can make me happy."

- Paula Cole

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

- Robert Wagner

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

- Christopher Morley

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

- Ray Bradbury

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

- Betty White

"Cats are angels with fur."

- Sark

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

- George Bernard Shaw

"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

"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

"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

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

- John Muir

"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

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

- Hippolyte Taine

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

- Noel Fitzpatrick

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

- Bob Ross

"Kittens are lively as the days of spring. They make everybody happy."

- Bhuwan Thapaliya

"... There was a foolish and yet delicious sense of knowing himself as an animal come from the forest, drawn by the fire. He was a thing of brush and liquid eye, of fur and muzzle and hoof, he was a thing of horn and blood that would smell like autumn if you bled it out on the ground."

- Ray Bradbury

"Animals are simply magical creatures, and they can teach us more than we can teach them."

- Dark Night Beacon

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

- Anatole France

"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

"The lions are deadly when they are in silent mode."

- Bhuwan Thapaliya

"Human beings and snakes can both kill you, with one major difference: Human beings will then walk in your funeral, the snakes won't!"

- Mouloud Benzadi

"For humans behaving like animals there will be hunters."

- Tamerlan Kuzgov

"Slavery did not happen by force as most people thought. It started more on a mental level before physically chaining people like wild animals."

- Mwanandeke Kindembo

"For many, a tree is home."

- Laura Jaworski