If dogs are man’s best friend, then cats are man’s super cool friend. We all know the one — the kind of friend who’s fiercely independent, always ahead of the curve, and somehow still a great pal despite their undeniably aloof behavior and propensity to disappear for weeks on end. They might not always shift their attention our way, but when they do, it’s immensely gratifying. After all, why else would we go through the trouble of domesticating a seemingly undomesticable animal for millennia?
As anyone who’s lived with a cat can attest, it’s because these creatures — despite what their disdainful reputations might suggest — are eccentric, goofy, smart, and purr-fectly adorable companions who offer endless entertainment with a healthy dose of (probably well-deserved) attitude. In some cultures, like ancient Egypt, felines were considered earthly conduits for heavenly deities.
Indeed, cats have always been extraordinary, and we’ve always known it. To celebrate those fuzzy-tailed enigmas, we’ve gathered some paw-sitively su-purr-ior quotes that are just, well, the cat’s pajamas.
The way to get on with a cat is to treat it as an equal — or even better, as the superior it knows itself to be.Elizabeth Peters
A home without a cat — and a well-fed, well-petted and properly revered cat — may be a perfect home, perhaps, but how can it prove title?Mark Twain
Cats never listen. They’re dependable that way; when Rome burned, the emperor’s cats still expected to be fed on time.Seanan McGuire
Every dog has his day. A cat has 365.Lilian Jackson Braun
A house isn’t a home without the ineffable contentment of a cat with its tail folded about its feet. A cat gives mystery, charm, suggestion.Lucy Maud Montgomery
If a fish is the movement of water embodied, given shape, then cat is a diagram and pattern of subtle air.Doris Lessing
Cats are people, and the sooner the world accepts that fact, the better off the world will be.H. Allen Smith
No animal has more liberty than the cat, but it buries the mess it makes. The cat is the best anarchist.Ernest Hemingway
A cat can make you feel well rested when you’re tired or turn a rage into a calm just by sitting on your lap. His very nearness is a healing song.Shannon Hale
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
I have lived with several Zen masters — all of them cats.Eckhart Tolle
When I am feeling / low / all I have to do is / watch my cats / and my / courage / returns.Charles Bukowski
The cat does not offer services. The cat offers itself. Of course he wants care and shelter. You don’t buy love for nothing. Like all pure creatures, cats are practical.William S. Burroughs
To gain the friendship of a cat is not an easy thing. It is a philosophic, well-regulated, tranquil animal, a creature of habit and a lover of order and cleanliness … It will not do anything for you which it considers unreasonable; but once it has given its love, what absolute confidence, what fidelity of affection!Théophile Gautier
Featured image credit: GlobalP/ iStock
