Thoughts of Famous Cat Quotes in English with Images

Cat quotes in English beautifully encapsulate the essence of feline charm and the profound wisdom cats seem to embody. These expressions often shed light on the unique and intricate bond that exists between humans and their beloved pets. For instance, the phrase “Time spent with cats is never wasted” succinctly conveys the immense joy and companionship that cats provide, highlighting how moments shared with these creatures are filled with warmth and fulfillment. This sentiment resonates deeply with cat enthusiasts who understand that every minute spent in the presence of a cat is enriched with comfort and affection.

Cats have inspired many famous quotes over the years, often reflecting their unique personalities and the affection people have for them. Here’s a list of some well-known cat quotes, along with their meanings and examples.


1. "In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this." – Terry Pratchett

Meaning: Cats have an air of dignity and independence, which can make them seem regal, as if they believe themselves superior to humans.

Example: Many cat owners can relate to how their cats often act aloof or demand attention on their terms, reminding people of their once-divine status in Egyptian culture.


2. "Time spent with cats is never wasted." – Sigmund Freud

Meaning: Spending time with cats is valuable and can be emotionally fulfilling. Cats can bring a sense of calm and joy to a person’s life, making time spent with them meaningful.

Example: A person feeling stressed or lonely may find peace and comfort in simply petting or playing with a cat, showing how valuable this time can be for well-being.


3. "I have lived with several Zen masters – all of them cats." – Eckhart Tolle

Meaning: Cats naturally embody mindfulness and calmness, qualities that Tolle associates with Zen teachings. Cats live in the moment and seem unaffected by worries, offering lessons in peaceful presence.

Example: Watching a cat basking in the sun, calmly grooming itself, or simply observing its environment can remind people to enjoy the present moment without stress.


4. "A cat has absolute emotional honesty: human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not." – Ernest Hemingway

Meaning: Cats are straightforward with their emotions. They don’t pretend to like something or someone if they don’t; they simply walk away or ignore what doesn’t interest them.

Example: When a cat dislikes a certain type of food or gets upset when its routine is disrupted, it will immediately show its displeasure, whether by turning its back or walking away.


5. "Cats choose us; we don’t own them." – Kristin Cast

Meaning: Cats are independent creatures that come to humans on their own terms. They form bonds with people because they choose to, not because they are submissive.

Example: A cat might ignore new people in the house but then "choose" one person to sit beside or follow, showing affection selectively.


6. "The smallest feline is a masterpiece." – Leonardo da Vinci

Meaning: Cats possess a natural elegance and grace in both their appearance and movements, which many people find beautiful, like a work of art.

Example: Watching a cat move gracefully, even while stretching or leaping, highlights their unique beauty, as each movement seems refined and deliberate.


7. "Cats have it all – admiration, an endless sleep, and company only when they want it." – Rod McKuen

Meaning: Cats live seemingly ideal lives, able to sleep as much as they like, receive affection as they choose, and avoid obligations. They embody freedom and contentment.

Example: A cat lying on a cozy bed or sunlit spot without a care in the world exemplifies this easygoing, admirable lifestyle that many people might envy.


8. "One cat just leads to another." – Ernest Hemingway

Meaning: Cats have a way of captivating people, often leading them to adopt more. Their charm makes it hard for people to stop at just one cat.

Example: Many cat lovers start with one cat, but they quickly find themselves adopting more, creating a full "cat family" as they become enchanted by each unique personality.


9. "Dogs come when they're called; cats take a message and get back to you later." – Mary Bly

Meaning: Unlike dogs, who tend to be obedient and eager to please, cats are often more independent. They respond when they feel like it, not necessarily when they’re called.

Example: Calling a cat’s name might result in a slow glance or even complete disregard. Cats will come to you only if they’re in the mood, showing their selective nature.


10. "As every cat owner knows, nobody owns a cat." – Ellen Perry Berkeley

Meaning: Cats are independent animals that refuse to be "owned" in the traditional sense. They maintain their freedom, choosing when and how they interact with humans.

Example: Even if a cat is well-fed and cared for, it may still decide to wander outside or ignore its owner’s calls, illustrating how they aren’t "owned" in the way other pets might be.


These quotes capture different facets of the feline personality—independence, grace, aloofness, and affection. Each quote reminds us of why cats have fascinated humans for centuries, offering both companionship and lessons in freedom and mindfulness.

Conversely, quotes like “Cats choose us; we don't own them” underscore the inherently independent nature of these animals. This perspective reflects a deeper understanding of feline behavior and their distinct personalities, reminding us that our relationship with cats is not one of ownership but rather of mutual recognition and respect. The autonomy that cats exhibit is part of their charm, as they navigate their world with a blend of grace and intrigue, often captivating their human counterparts with their mysterious ways.

These quotes resonate powerfully with cat lovers, encapsulating the humor, enigma, and unconditional affection that define the experience of sharing life with a cat. Whether humorous quips that elicit laughter or profound observations that inspire reflection, these sayings serve as poignant reminders of the delightful quirks and behaviors that make cats such endearing companions. From their playful antics to their serene moments of contemplation, cats continuously enrich our lives in ways that are often indescribable, and these quotes encapsulate the essence of that experience, celebrating the unique and sometimes whimsical nature of our feline friends.

Thought of the day Cat

The trouble with sharing one’s bed with cats is that they’d rather sleep on you than beside you.

Pam Brown Thoughts

Of all God’s creatures, there is only one that cannot be made slave of the leash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve the man, but it would deteriorate the cat.”

Mark Twain

You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat.

- Albert Einstein

Perhaps one reason we are fascinated by cats is because such a small animal can contain so much independence, dignity, and freedom of spirit. Unlike the dog, the cat’s personality is never bet on a human’s. He demands acceptance on his own terms.”

Lloyd Alexander

It is impossible for a lover of cats to banish these alert, gentle, and discriminating friends, who give us just enough of their regard and complaisance to make us hunger for more.

- Agnes Repplier

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 humankind.

- Cleveland Amory

I’m not sure why I like cats so much. I mean, they’re really cute obviously. They are both wild and domestic at the same time.

- Michael Showalter

It is impossible for a lover of cats to banish these alert, gentle, and discriminating friends, who give us just enough of their regard and complaisance to make us hunger for more.

Agnes Repplier

Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are God. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are God.

Christopher Hitchens

Perhaps one reason we are fascinated by cats is because such a small animal can contain so much independence, dignity, and freedom of spirit. Unlike the dog, the cat’s personality is never bet on a human’s. He demands acceptance on his own terms.

- Lloyd Alexander

Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are God. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are God.

- Christopher Hitchens

Cat Quotes List and Sayings in English

Cats are connoisseurs of comfort.

- James Herriot

Cats are connoisseurs of comfort.

- Cat Quotes by James Herriot

I used to love dogs until I discovered cats.

- Nafisa Joseph

I used to love dogs until I discovered cats.

- Nafisa Joseph Quotation

Cats rule the world.

- Jim Davis

Cats rule the world.

- A Quotation From Jim Davis

One cat just leads to another.

Ernest Hemingway

One cat just leads to another.

Ernest Hemingway

Curiosity killed the cat.

- Ben Johnson

Curiosity killed the cat.

- Ben Johnson

Time spent with cats is never wasted.

- Sigmund Freud

Time spent with cats is never wasted.

- Sigmund Freud

Like all pure creatures, cats are practical.

- William S. Burroughs

You can not look at a sleeping cat and feel tense.

- Jane Pauley

Making movies is like herding cats.

- Eric Fellner

Just watching my cats can make me happy.

- Paula Cole

Cats will outsmart dogs every time.

John Grogan

All you need is love and a cat.

- Unknown

Kittens are angels with whiskers.

- Alexis Flora Hope

Cats choose us; we don’t own them.

- Cat Saying by Kristin Cast

Cats will outsmart dogs every time.

- John Grogan

Meow’ means ‘woof’ in cat.

George Carlin

You can not look at a sleeping cat and feel tense.

Jane Pauley

A cat will be your friend, but never your slave.

Theophile Gautier

If cats could talk, they wouldn’t.

Nan Porter

Cats are inquisitive, but hate to admit it.

- Mason Cooley

Kittens are angels with whiskers.

Alexis Flora Hope

Cats choose us; we don’t own them.

- Kristin Cast

Artists like cats; soldiers like dogs.

- Desmond Morris

As every cat owner knows, nobody owns a cat.

Ellen Perry Berkeley

Like all pure creatures, cats are practical.

William S. Burroughs

Cats leave paw prints in your heart, forever and always.

- Unknown

What greater gift than the love of a cat?

- Charles Dickens

Cats, like men, are flatterers.

- Walter Savage Landor

Cats are inquisitive, but hate to admit it.

Mason Cooley

The ideal of calm exists in a sitting cat.

- Cat Saying by Jules Renard

If you want to write, keep cats.

- Aldous Huxley

I used to love dogs until I discovered cats.

Nafisa Joseph

A kitten is in the animal world what a rosebud is in the garden.

- Robert Southey

Cats are a mysterious kind of folk.

Sir Walter Scott

The phrase ‘domestic cat’ is an oxymoron.

George Will

Just watching my cats can make me happy.

Paula Cole

A cat can purr its way out of anything.

Donna McCrohan

Time spent with cats is never wasted.

Sigmund Freud

Every cat is my best friend.

- Unknown

There are few things in life more heartwarming than to be welcomed by a cat.

Tay Hohoff

Time spent with a cat is never wasted.

- Colette

It is impossible to keep a straight face in the presence of one or more kittens.

Cynthia E. Varnado

There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.

Albert Schweitzer

The only thing a cat worries about is what’s happening right now.

Lloyd Alexander

If cats could write history, their history would be mostly about cats.

- Cat Saying by Eugen Weber

I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat.

- Edgar Allan Poe

I have lived with several Zen Masters - all of them cats.

Eckhart Tolle

A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats.

- Benjamin Franklin

The phrase ‘domestic cat’ is an oxymoron.

- Cat Saying by George Will

Cat Quotes List

A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.

Mark Twain

How we behave toward cats here below determines our status in heaven.

- Robert A. Heinlein

A dog will flatter you but you have to flatter the cat.

- George Mikes

If your cat falls out of a tree, go indoors to laugh.

- Patricia Hitchcock

A kitten is, in the animal world, what a rosebud is in the garden.

Robert Sowthey

She clawed her way into my heart and wouldn’t let go.

Missy Altijd

How we behave toward cats here below determines our status in heaven.

Robert A. Heinlein

When Rome burned, the emperor’s cats still expected to be fed on time.

Seanan McGuire

Dogs come when they’re called; cats take a message and get back to you later.

Mary Bly

No matter how much cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens.

- Abraham Lincoln

When the cat you love becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure.

– Unknown

I love my cats more than I love most people. Probably more than is healthy.

- Amy Lee

Those who’ll play with cats must expect to be scratched.

- Miguel de Cervantes

There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.

- Albert Schweitzer

Cats are smarter than dogs. You can’t get eight cats to pull a sled through snow.

- Jeff Valdez

I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul.

- Cat Saying by Jean Cocteau

I take care of my flowers and my cats. And enjoy food. And that’s living.

- Ursula Andress

People with insufficient personalities are fond of cats. These people adore being ignored.

- Sir Henry Morgan

Cats seem to go on the principle that it never does any harm to ask for what you want.

- Cat Quotation by Joseph Wood Krutch

I regard cats as one of the great joys in the world. I see them as a gift of highest order.

- Trisha McCagh

Way down deep, we’re all motivated by the same urges. Cats have the courage to live by them.

Jim Davis

The problem with cats is that they get the same exact look whether they see a moth or an ax-murderer.

- Paula Poundstone

Cats do not have to be shown how to have a good time, for they are unfailing ingenious in that respect.

- James Mason

Are cats strange animals or do they so resemble us that we find them curious as we do monkeys?

- Cat Quotation by John Steinbeck

That’s the great secret of creativity. You treat ideas like cats: you make them follow you.

- Ray Bradbury

I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul.

- Jean Cocteau

Heaven will never be Paradise unless my cats are there waiting for me.

- Unknown

Cats seem to go on the principle that it never does any harm to ask for what you want.

– Joseph Wood Krutch

Cat Quotation in English

Way down deep, we’re all motivated by the same urges. Cats have the courage to live by them.

- Jim Davis

Cats can work out mathematically the exact place to sit that will cause most inconvenience.

Pam Brown

A lie is like a cat: you need to stop it before it gets out the door or it’s really hard to catch.

- Cat Quotation by Charles M. Blow

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

- Hippolyte Taine

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

Cats and dogs believe politicians are like cemetery caregivers - they are on top of everyone, but nobody listens.

- Rita Mae Brown

I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul.

Jean Cocteau

Cats possess so many of the same qualities as some people that it is often hard to tell the people and the cats apart.

- P.J. O’Rourke

Cats have it all – admiration, an endless sleep, and company only when they want it.

- Rod McKuen

Cats have it all: admiration, an endless sleep, and company only when they want it.

Rod McKuen

A cat can be trusted to purr when she is pleased, which is more than can be said for human beings.

- Cat Quotation by William Ralph Inge

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

Hippolyte Taine

The trouble with sharing one’s bed with cats is that they’d rather sleep on you than beside you.

Pam Brown *

My relationships with my cats has saved me from a deadly, pervasive ignorance.

- William S. Burroughs

There is, incidentally, no way of talking about cats that enables one to come off as a sane person.

Dan Greenberg

The problem with cats is that they get the same exact look whether they see a moth or an axe-murderer.

Paula Poundstone

A happy arrangement: many people prefer cats to other people, and many cats prefer people to other cats.

- Mason Cooley

I believe cats to be spirits come to earth. A cat, I am sure, could walk on a cloud without coming through.

- Jules Verne

A kitten is the delight of a household. All day long a comedy is played out by an incomparable actor.

-Champfleury

Cats know how to obtain food without labor, shelter without confinement, and love without penalties.

W.L. George

Cats regard people as warm-blooded furniture.

- Cat Quotes by Jacquelyn Mitchard

Cats regard people as warm-blooded furniture.

Jacquelyn Mitchard Download or Share

A shy cat makes a proud mouse.

Cat Quotes

A shy cat makes a proud mouse.

Download or Share

The smallest feline is a masterpiece.

- Cat Saying by Leonardo da Vinci

The smallest feline is a masterpiece.

- Cat Saying by Leonardo da Vinci Download or Share

Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a function.

- Unknown

One cat just leads to another.

- Ernest Hemingway

If a dog jumps in your lap, it is because he is fond of you; but if a cat does the same thing, it is because you lap is warmer.

- Cat Quotes by Alfred North Whitehead

If a dog jumps in your lap, it is because he is fond of you; but if a cat does the same thing, it is because you lap is warmer.

- Alfred North Whitehead Download or Share

It's funny how dogs and cats know the inside of folks better than other folks do isn't it?

- Eleanor H. Porter Download or Share

Cats are smarter than dogs.  You can't get eight cats to pull a sled through snow.

- Jeff Valdez Quotes Download or Share

I like pigs.  Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us.  Pigs treat us as equals.

- Sir Winston Churchill Quotes Download or Share

Cats and monkeys; monkeys and cats; and cats; all human life is there.

- by Henry James Download or Share

In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this.

- Terry Pratchett Download or Share

A cat has absolute emotional honesty: human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not.

Ernest Hemingway

Sometimes losing a pet is more painful than losing a human because in the case of the pet, you were not pretending to love it.

- Cat Quotes by Amy Sedaris

I had been told that the training procedure with cats was difficult. It’s not. Mine had me trained in two days.

- Bill Dana

I’m not sure why I like cats so much. I mean, they’re really cute obviously. They are both wild and domestic at the same time.

Michael Showalter

No amount of time can erase the memory of a good cat, and no amount of masking tape can ever totally remove his fur from your couch.

Leo Dworken

If a dog jumps into your lap it is because he is fond of you; but if a cat does the same thing it is because your lap is warmer.

- A.N. Whitehead

I have felt cats rubbing their faces against mine and touching my cheek with claws carefully sheathed. These things, to me, are expressions of love.

James Herriot

Cats do care. For example they know instinctively what time we have to be at work in the morning and they wake us up twenty minutes before the alarm goes off.

Michael Nelson

"I meant," Said Ipslore bitterly, " what is there in this world that truly makes living worthwhile?" Death thought about it.  "Cats," he said eventually.  "Cats are nice."

- Terry Pratchett

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

Everything I know I learned from my cat: When you’re hungry, eat. When you’re tired, nap in a sunbeam. When you go to the vet’s, pee on your owner.

Gary Smith

I gave my cats a bath the other day … they love it. He sat there, he enjoyed it, it was fun for me. The fur would stick to my tongue, but other than that…

Steve Martin

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 humankind.

- Cleveland Amory

I have felt cats rubbing their faces against mine and touching my cheek with claws carefully sheathed. These things, to me, are expressions of love.

- James Herriot

When my cats aren’t happy, I’m not happy. Not because I care about their mood but because I know they’re just sitting there thinking up ways to get even.”

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Of all God’s creatures, there is only one that cannot be made slave of the lash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve the man, but it would deteriorate the cat.

- Mark Twain

If there is a heaven, it’s certain our animals are to be there. Their lives become so interwoven with our own, it would take more than an archangel to detangle them.

Pam Brown