Welcome to PAWS FOR THOUGHT – a place where you can stop off at any time of the day to rest a while; put your feet up; have a drink and relax – perhaps with your favourite feline on your lap or nearby.

PAWS FOR THOUGHT is a collection of quotations written by people from all walks of life on their passion for cats. I do hope you’ll enjoy them enough that you’ll want to come by often to just sit and find peace with your feline companion while you read

One of my favourite quotations is by Leonardo da Vinci who said:

‘The smallest feline is a masterpiece’ How true this is!

'A cat's eyes are windows enabling us to see into another world.' - Irish legend

'A cat is a demure animal; it will not come into the living room wagging its tail and knocking over lamps and tables.' H. Monger Burdock, American Writer

'A cat is there when you call her - if she doesn't have something better to do.' - Bill Adler

'A cat's got her own opinion of human beings. She don't say much, but you can tell enough to make you anxious not to hear the whole of it.' - Jerome K Jerome

'A cat sleeps fat, yet walks thin.’ - Fred Schwab

‘Again I must remind you that
A Dog’s a Dog – A Cat’s a Cat.’ – T. S. Eliot

'A friend who truly knows you is always with you.' - Chinese proverb

'A great talker uses few words.' - Mencius

'A house without either a dog or a cat is the house of a scoundrel.' - Portuguese Proverb

‘A kitten is chiefly remarkable for rushing about like mad at nothing whatsoever, and generally stopping before it gets there.’  - Agnes Repplier

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

'A kitten is so flexible that she is almost double; the hind parts are equivalent to another kitten with which the forepart plays. She does not discover that her tail belongs to her until you tread on it.' - Henry David Thoreau

'A kitten is the delight of a household.' - Jules Feury-Husson Champfleury (1821-1889) French writer

'A kitten learns from its mother the great secret that cats rule the world.' - Pam Brown, poet

'A little drowsing cat is an image of perfect beatitude.' - Jules Feury-Husson Champfleury (1821-1889) French writer

'All cats like being the centre of attention.' - Peter Gray

‘”All right,” said the (Cheshire) Cat; and this time it vanished quite slowly, beginning with the end of the tail, and ending with the grin, which remained some time after the rest of it had gone.’  - Lewis Carroll

‘All your wondrous wealth of hair,
Dark and fair,
Silken-shaggy, soft and bright
As the clouds and beams of night,
Pays my reverent hand’s caress
Back with friendlier gentleness.’  -Algernon Swinburne

'A man possessed a cat on which he doted.  So fine she was, so soft, so silky-coated.' - Jean de la Fontaine, French Poet

'A man waits on a cat hand and foot for weeks, humouring its lightest whim, and it goes and leaves him flat because it has found a place down the road where fish is more frequent.' - P G Wodehouse

'A New Year's resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other.' - Author unknown

'Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.' - George Eliot, English novelist

'An ordinary kitten will ask more questions than any five-year-old.' Carl Van Vechten, writer and photographer

Any cat who misses a mouse pretends it was aiming for the dead leaf. - Charlotte Grey, author

'Are cats lazy? Well, more power to them if they are. Which one of us has not entertained the dream of doing just as he likes, when and how he likes, and as much as he likes?' - Fernand Mery (1897 - 1984) French writer

‘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

'As we make our resolutions for the year ahead, let us go forward with great hope that all things can be possible.' - Anonymous, from 'To Start a New Year' 

‘Before a Cat will condescend
To treat you as a trusted friend,
Some little token of esteem
Is needed, like a dish of cream.’ – T.S. Eliot

'Beware of people who dislike cats.' - Irish Proverb

'But to see her was to love but her and lover forever.' - Robert Burns 

'C was a lovely pussy cat
Its eyes were large and pale;
And on its back it had some stripes
And several on its tail.' - Edward Lear

'Cats always know whether people like or dislike them. They do not always care enough to do anything about it.' -  Winifred Carriere

'Cats always seem so very wise, when staring with their half-closed eyes. Can they be thinking, 'I'll be nice, and maybe she will feed me twice'?'- Bette Midler, American singer, actress and comediennne

'Cats are a mysterious kind of folk. There is more passing their minds than we are aware.' - Mark Twain.

'Cats are glorious creatures who must on no account be underestimated ... Their eyes are fathomless depths of cat mysteries.' - Lesley Anne Ivory

'Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a function.' - Garrison Keillor, American writer and broadcaster

'Cats are smarter than dogs. You can not get eight cats to pull a sled in the snow.' - Jeff Valdez, American writer

'Cats are the ultimate narcissists.  You can tell this because of the time they spend on personal  grooming. Dogs aren't like this. A dog's idea of personal grooming is to roll in dead fish.'  - James Gorman, American writer

'Cats, as a class, have never completely got over the snootiness caused by the fact that in Ancient Egypt they were worshipped as gods.  This makes them prone to set themselves up as critics and censors of the frail and erring human beings  whose lot they share.' - P. G. Wodehouse (1881 - 1975) British-born American writer.

‘Cats can be very funny, and have the oddest ways of showing they’re glad to see you. Rudimace always peed in our shoes.’ - W.H. Auden

'Cats do not have to be shown how to have a good time, for they are unfailingly ingenious in that respect.' - James Mason

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

'Cats hate a closed door, you know, regardless of which side they're on. If they're out, they want to get in, and if they're in, they want to get out.' -  Lilian Jackson Braun (1916 - ) American writer 

'... cats invented self-esteem; there is not an insecure bone in their body.' - Erma Brombeck (1927 - 1996) American writer and humourist

'Cats make one of the most satisfying sounds in the world: they purr ... A purring cat is a form of high praise, like a gold star on a test paper. It is reinforcement of something we would all like to believe about ourselves - that we are nice.' - Roger A Caras (1928 - ) American writer

‘Cats must have three names – an everyday name, such as Peter; a more particular, dignified name, such as Quaxo, Bombalurina, or Jellylorum; and thirdly, the name the cat thinks up for himself, his deep and inscrutable singular Name.’ – T.S. Eliot  

'Cats never feel threatened. They are genetically incapable of accepting that anyone could possibly dislike anything as perfect as a cat.'  - Kathy Young

'Cats never strike a pose that isn't photogenic.' - Lilian Jackson Braun, American writer

'Cat said: "I am not a friend and I am not a servant. I am the cat who walks by himself and I wish to come into your cave."' - Rudyard Kipling

'Cat, you are a strange creature.' - Amy Lowell

'Dogs believe they are human. Cats believe they are God.' - origin unknown

‘Dogs comes when called. A cat takes a message and gets back to you.’ -  Warren Eckstein, American cat expert

'Enough to make a cat laugh.' - anon

'Even overweight cats instinctively know the cardinal rule: when fat, arrange yourself in slim poses.' - John Weitz, (1923 - ) American writer

'From ghoulies to ghosties and leg-legged beasties And thing that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us!' - Scottish saying

'Gather kittens while you may,
Time brings only sorrow:
And the kittens of today
Will be old cats tomorrow.' - Oliver Herford 

'God created the cat so that man may know the pleasure of caressing the tiger.' - Fernand Mery (1897 - 1984) French writer

'Graceful movements touched with pride, a calming presence by our side.
A friendship that takes time to grow, small wonder why we love them so.' - Author unknown

‘He walked by himself, and all places were alike to him.’ - Rudyard Kipling

'How we behave toward cats here below determines our status in heaven.' - Robert A. Heinlein, American author

'I am Cat,
I am honourable,
I have pride,
I have dignity,
For I am older than you.' - Paul Gallico

'I am enough of a cat lover to be suspicious of a household that doesn't have a cat.' - Kingsley Amis

‘I am the cat of cats, I am
The everlasting cat!                                                                   
Cunning, and old, and sleek as jam,
The everlasting cat.
Cunning, and old, and sleek as jam,
The everlasting cat!I hunt the vermin in the night -
The everlasting cat!
For I see best without the light –
The everlasting cat!’ - Anonymous

'I believe cats to be spirits come to earth. A cat, I am sure, could walk on a cloud without coming through.' - Jules Verne, French author

'Idling has always been my strong point. I take no credit to myself - it is a gift.' - Jerome K Jerome

‘If man could be crossed with the cat, it would improve man, but deteriorate the cat.’ -Mark Twain

'If man has no tea in him, he is incapable of understanding truth and beauty.' - Japanese proverb

'If you want to write, keep cats.' - Aldous Huxley

'I learned a vital lesson of life from a little kitten of mine. When approached aggressively but my biggest cat the kitten stood her ground. When the old enemy came near enough she kissed his nose and made peace. That is the lesson of life; to kiss one's enemy's nose, always standing one's ground.' - Florence Nightingale

'I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little they become its visible soul.' - Jean Cocteau, French poet, novelist and artist

'In a cat's eyes, all things belong to cats.' - English Proverb

'In the beginning, God created man, but seeing him so feeble, He gave him the cat.' - Warren Eckstein, American cat expert

'In the middle of a world that has always been a bit mad, the cat walks with confidence.'  - Roseanne Anderson

'It is impossible to keep a straight face in the presence of one or more kittens.' - Cynthia E. Varnado

'It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.' - Henry David Thoreau, Author and philosopher (1817 - 1862)

'It was difficult to be vexed by a creature that burst into a chorus of purring as soon as I spoke to him.'  - Philip Brown - English writer

If you would like to see a book on Cat Quotations click here.