Animal Relationships Quotes

Closeness to animals creates the desire to understand them, and not just a little piece of them, but the whole animal. It makes us wonder what goes on in their heads even though we fully realize that the answer can only be approximated.

You don't know whether chimps are going to kill you or kiss you. They're very open on some levels and much more evil in a certain way.

When we have relationships with animals, we often make up who they are.

The relationships we have with dogs seem simple enough and often are taken for granted. But these relationships can be deep and mysterious, and not at all simple.

I miss the early days; I do. I was so lucky. I basically had it to myself, learning about these chimpanzees. Nobody knew anything about them. Discovering their different personalities, different life histories. I was lucky.

I feel more comfortable with gorillas than people. I can anticipate what a gorilla's going to do, and they're purely motivated.

Once people spend time with farm animals in a loving way ... a pig or cow or a little chicken or a turkey, they might find they relate with them the same way they relate with dogs and cats. People don't really think of them that way because they're on the plate. Why should they be food when other animals are pets? I would never eat my doggies.

Sometimes I read about someone saying with great authority that animals have no intentions and no feelings, and I wonder, 'Doesn't this guy have a dog?'

No animal admires another animal.

Embryology furnishes, also, the best measure of true affinities existing between animals.

Shirley and Griffey get along like a rattler and a parrot.

Mandarin ducks mate for life and will die of loneliness if separated from their chosen mate.

If I'm right, the only reason our species is still around is because of our friendship with the canines.

I thought," Shad said slowly, "that she was offended if you referred to Blind Seer or Elation as her pets.""True," Derian assured him. "Absolutely the correct etiquette-to her face. However, well... When I first met Firekeeper, less than a year ago, her relationships with animals fell into pretty much two categories: those you ate and those you befriended. I remember that she thought we were pretty clever for bringing horses along so we wouldn't need to hunt our meat. It took me a while to show her they had other uses.

Penguins mate for life. Which doesn't really surprise me, because they all look exactly alike. It's not like they're gonna meet a better-looking penguin someday.

The horse loves the hound, and I loves both.

In 'We Were the Mulvaneys,' animals are almost as important as people. I wanted to show the tenderness in our relationships with cats, dogs, and horses. Especially cats.

Probably we never fully credit the interdependence of wild creatures, and their cognizance of the affairs of their own kind.

We split from our common ancestor with the octopus half a billion years ago. And yet, you can make friends with an octopus.

Cicala to cicala is dear, and ant to ant, and hawks to hawks, but to me the muse and song.

Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.

I never thought of myself as explaining cats in general. I simply viewed the cats I have known as characters in my life, often as quirky and complex as the humans with whom I have spent time.