Cats are like donkeys and camels, they won't ever quite give in to human tyranny, they won't try to imitate the human soul.

Male or female, a cat will show you how it feels about you. People hide their feelings for various reasons, but cats never do.

Cats don't care if you're gay or straight, what your religion is, or whether you're conservative or liberal. They don't care if you're a few pounds overweight. Cats aren't threatened if you earn more than they do. Cat's don't have problems expressing affection in public, and if you piss 'em off, they walk away.

Dogs and horses are our slaves; cats never. This does not prove them without affection, as some people seem to think; on the contrary, it proves their peculiar and characteristic dignity and self respect. Women, poets, and especially artists like cats; delicate natures only can realize their sensitive nervous systems.

A cat ... plays for her own enjoyment, in a self-contained way, with no desire to share. Shut her up alone, and a ball, a fringe, or a looped piece of string is enough to make her give herself up to silent and graceful sport. While she is playing she does not say, "Man, I'm so awfully glad I've got you here!" She will play beside the bed of a corpse.

Cats are like lesbians. They are creatures of narrow habit about which men can only glimpse the silken machinery of their minds.

Tens of millions of people have lived side by side with tens of millions of cats for a very long time--4,000 years is the generally accepted length of time that we can trace our relationship with them. However, cats never became as fully domesticated as dogs, nor did we ever develop a hierarchical relationship where we became the "masters" of cats.... Cats have lived as solitary hunters for most of their ancestry. Early cats in the wild didn't depend on any other creature for their comfort and survival--not their own kind, not humankind. So what we may interpret as "aloofness" or "indifference" is really just self-sufficiency--a self reliance that has been in their genes and stood them in good stead for centuries. Cats are programmed to rely on their own skills and judgment, never depending on a leader or a group to help them make decisions. Cats do not look to us for supervision or permission, they don't turn to us for affirmation, nor do they accept training, by and large.

Cats are like shoes--you need them in a lot of colors.

Mystery has always shrouded the feline. The cat is a powerful, agile hunter moving silently through the night, stalking its prey; or a calculating thinker that has incredible patience when setting its trap, yet is impatient with unwanted acts of affection from humans. The cat is a creature of great beauty, defying gravity with athletic feats and supreme acts of grace. From the ancient Egyptians to the Shakespearian era and into modern times legends of the cat have grown into extraordinary myths.

Cats are like supermodels; they want you to please them.

You know what cats are like--fast on their feet and not very grateful.

Cats are like that, as we all know, full of little nooks and crannies where secrets may hide.

Cats specialize in sneaky. Unpleasant creatures who think they own the world.

Cats accept the improvements that we make in their lives but they do not accept that we should have any control over them. People can give safety, sustenance, and comfort to a cat, but both sides know she could walk out tomorrow and find her own way if it came to that. The underlying independence that keeps a balance of power between people and their cats is the source of our fascination with our feline family members. But it's really helpful to keep in mind that you need to accept your cat as she is--and for who she is.

Cats are like the French: meals are very important to them, and they want to savor the experience without interruptions.

Cats are ... an oxymoron. Soft, but have claws.

Cats ... have a natural affinity for people who don't like them--very perverse creatures.

All nations seem to have appreciated the mysterious and almost human qualities of cat nature; the profound cunning, the impertinent indifference, the intense selfishness, yet capable of the most hypocritical flatteries when some point has to be gained. Their traits are not merely the product of brute instinct with unvarying action and results, but the manifestation of a calculating intellect, akin to the human. Then their grace and flexile beauty make them very attractive; while the motherly virtues of the matron cat are singularly interesting as a study of order, education, and training for the wilful little kitten, quite on the human lines of salutary discipline.... For cats are thoroughly well-bred, born aristocrats; never abrupt, fussy, or obtrusive like the dog, but gentle, grave, and dignified in manner. Cats never run, they glide softly, and always with perfect and beautiful curves of motion; and they express their affection, not violently, like the dog, but with the most graceful, caressing movements of the head.

Cats are like gods--they accept our blandishments, but don't reciprocate.

Cats are like statesmen--they prefer places to persons.