74 Funny & Inspirational Cat Quotes: Purrfect Words for Every Occasion

There is no shortage of amazing cat quotes out there. Some are inspiring, others are sure to make you smile, while a few will make you shed tears. These 74 little pearls of wit and wisdom will undoubtedly brighten your day and make you want to cuddle your beloved kitty!

Inspirational Cat Quotes

How are our feline friends so inspiring? Is it their habit of sleeping more than 16 hours a day that encourages us to seize the moment? Maybe the soft purrs of pleasure that our kitties express when in our presence awaken our hearts and inspire us to be better humans. Either way, many of these quotes about cats will undoubtedly make you ponder the wisdom that lies behind the mischievous eyes of all cats.

• “What greater gift than the love of a cat.” Charles Dickens - Novelist
• “One of the ways in which cats show happiness is by sleeping.” Cleveland Amory - Author
• “A cat will be your friend, but never your slave.” Theophile Gautier – Poet & Novelist
• “No home is complete without the pitter-patter of kitty feet.” - Unknown
• “As every cat owner knows, nobody owns a cat.” Ellen Perry Berkeley - Author
• “If cats could talk, they wouldn’t.” Nan Porter - Writer
• “If cats could write history, their history would be mostly about cats.” Eugen Weber - Historian
• “Like all pure creatures, cats are practical.” William S. Burroughs – Writer & Artist
• “There are few things in life more heartwarming than to be welcomed by a cat.” Tay Hohoff - Author
• “All you need is love and a cat.” - Unknown
• “A kitten is, in the animal world, what a rosebud is in the garden.” Robert Sowthey - Poet
• “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 - Essayist
• “A cat has beauty without vanity, strength without insolence, courage without ferocity, all the virtues of man without his vices.” Lord Byron - Poet
• “I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul.” Jean Cocteau – Writer & Filmmaker
• “You can’t ever be a cat owner; in the best of cases, it allows you to be their companion.” Harry Swanson - Writer
• “When I feel bad, I just look at my cats and my courage returns.” Charles Bukowski – Poet & Novelist
• “Cats are mysterious; they have more on their mind than we could never imagine.” Walter Scott – Historical Novelist & Poet
• “Happiness is … a lot of things, really a lot. But undoubtedly—and cats.” Marta Ketro – Writer & Commentator
• “My relationships with my cats have saved me from a deadly, pervasive ignorance.” William S. Burroughs – Writer & Artist
• “Respecting a cat is the beginning of the aesthetic sense.” Erasmus Darwin – Physician & Poet
• “Cats do not have to be shown how to have a good time, for they are unfailing ingenious in that respect.” James Mason - Actor
• “Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a purpose.” Garrison Keillor – Author & Humorist
• “Cats have an absolute emotional honesty; humans, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but the cat does not.” Ernest Hemingway – Novelist & Writer
• “Time spent with cats is never wasted.” Sigmund Freud - Neurologist
• “It is a very difficult task to earn a cat’s affection; they will be your friend if you feel that you are worthy of their friendship, but not your slave.” Théophile Gautier – Poet & Novelist
• “The ideal of calm exists in a sitting cat.” Jules Renard - Author
• “There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.” Albert Schweitzer – Theologian & Organist
• “Cats choose us; we don’t own them.” Kristin Cast - Author
• “I love all animals. I just happen to prefer cats. They’re really chill, and they’re loving yet not loving. I relate to them, in a way.” Camren Bicondova – Actress & Dancer
• “I believe cats to be spirits come to earth. A cat, I am sure, could walk on a cloud without coming through.” Jules Verne - Author
• “I realized that cats make a perfect audience; they don’t laugh at you, they never contradict you, there’s no need to impress them, and they won’t divulge your secrets.” Elle Newmark - Novelist
• “A kitten is the delight of a household. All day long, a comedy is played out by an incomparable actor.” Champfleury (Jules Husson) – Art Critic & Novelist
• “How we behave toward cats here below determines our status in heaven.” Robert A. Heinlein - Writer
• “Kittens are angels with whiskers.” Alexis Flora Hope - Writer
• “There are few things in life more heartwarming than to be welcomed by a cat.” Tay Hohoff - Author
• “It is good to have a lot of cats around. If you feel bad, you look at the cats, and you feel better because they know that things are as they are.” Charles Bukowski – Poet & Novelist
• “Like all pure creatures, cats are practical.” William S. Burroughs – Writer & Artist
• “There is truly not a single quality of the cat that man should not seek to emulate to improve.” Carl van Vechten – Writer & Photographer
• “Cats are endless opportunities for revelation.” Leslie Kapp - Author
• “Perhaps it is because cats do not live by human patterns, do not fit themselves into prescribed behavior, that they are so united to creative people.” Andre Norton - Author
• “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 – Veterinary Surgeon & Author
• “The cat lives alone. He has no need of society. He obeys only when he wishes, he pretends to sleep the better to see, and

Funny Cat Quotes

With their mischievous charm and knack for putting themselves in odd situations, cats never fail to brighten our days with their extravagant behavior. This collection of funny cat quotes will give you a brief insight into the most hilarious—yet endearing—sides of cats.

• “Cats have a sense of humor, as is shown in their extreme love of play. A middle-aged cat will often play as unreservedly as a kitten, though he knows perfectly well it is only a game.” William Lyon Phelps – Author & Professor
• “To err is human, to purr is feline.” Robert Byrne - Author
• “People who don’t like cats were probably mice in an earlier life.” - Unknown
• “In a cat’s eye, all things belong to cats.” - Unknown
• “It is impossible to keep a straight face in the presence of one or more kittens.” Cynthia E. Varnado - Unknown
• “If a cat spoke, it would say things like, ‘Hey, I don’t see the problem here.’” Roy Blount Jr. – Humorist & Writer
• “The only thing a cat worries about is what’s happening right now.” Lloyd Alexander - Author
• “Dogs come when they’re called; cats take a message and get back to you later.” Mary Bly – Author & Academic
• “That’s the great secret of creativity. You treat ideas like cats: You make them follow you.” Ray Bradbury - Author
• “Cats have it all: admiration, an endless sleep, and company only when they want it.” Rod McKuen – Poet & Songwriter
• “Dogs look at us as their gods, horses as their peers, but the cats look to us as their subjects.” Winston Churchill – Former Prime Minister
• “Cats are inquisitive but hate to admit it.” Mason Cooley – Aphorist & Professor
• “The cat is the only animal that has managed to tame man.” Marcel Mauss - Sociologist & Anthropologist
• “My cat never laughs or complains, he is always reasoning.” Miguel de Unamuno – Essayist & Poet
• “One cat just leads to another.” Ernest Hemingway – Novelist & Writer
• “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 – Satirist & Journalist
• “Cats randomly refuse to follow orders to prove they can.” Ilona Andrews - Writer
• “The problem with cats is that they get the same exact look whether they see a moth or an axe-murderer.” Paula Poundstone – Comedian & Author
• “Cats, like men, are flatterers.” Walter Savage Landor – Poet & Writer
• “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 – Comedian & Writer
• “In ancient times, cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this.” Terry Pratchett - Author
• “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 – Humorist & Novelist
• “A happy arrangement: Many people prefer cats to other people, and many cats prefer people to other cats.” Mason Cooley – Aphorist & Professor
• “Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.” Robert A. Heinlein - Writer
• “Cats are connoisseurs of comfort.” James Herriot - Veterinary Surgeon & Author
• “I had been told that the training procedure with cats was difficult. It’s not. Mine had me trained in 2 days.” Bill Dana – Comedian & Screenwriter
• “Cats never strike a pose that isn’t photogenic.” Lilian Jackson Braun - Author
• “Women and cats in the house, men and dogs in the street.” Catalonia - Autonomous community
• “Cats know how to obtain food without labor, shelter without confinement, and love without penalties.” W. L. George – Writer & Journalist
• “God made the cat to offer men the pleasure of stroking a tiger.” Francois Joseph Mery – Writer & Dramatist
• “Cats never listen. They’re dependable that way; when Rome burned, the emperor’s cats still expected to be fed on time.” Seanan McGuire - Author
• “As we all know, cats now rule the world.” John R.F. Breen – Writer & Humorist

Conclusion

These inspirational and funny cat quotes barely scratch the surface of the extraordinary wisdom and wit of our beloved feline companions. We hope that these will inspire you to share your own thoughts about these enigmatic creatures!

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Feature Image Credit: Natali Winter, Shutterstock