“Artists like cats; soldiers like dogs.”

— Desmond Morris

Desmond Morris (2009), Catwatching. p. 2

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Artists like cats; soldiers like dogs." by Desmond Morris?

Desmond Morris14

English zoologist, ethologist and surrealist painter 1928

Related quotes

“Dogs like everyone. Cats choose who to like.”

Lauren Myracle book Shine

Source: Shine

“Oh, but I like my geese. Like cats, they can't be told what to do, and like dogs, they're loyal, and like people, they talk every chance they get.”

Shannon Hale The Goose Girl

Source: The Goose Girl

“.. for the dead fish was striped like a cat and the sky was striped like the fish and the conch was whorled like an ear and the beach was ribbed like a dog's mouth and the movables in the surf splintered and crashed like the walls of Jericho.”

John Cheever book The Wapshot Chronicle

The Wapshot Chronicle (1957)

“Dog hates mouse and worships "cat", mouse despises "cat" and hates dog, "cat" hates no one and loves mouse.”

E.E. Cummings (1894–1962) American poet

A Foreword to Krazy (1946)
Context: A humbly poetic, gently clownlike, supremely innocent, and illimitably affectionate creature (slightly resembling a child's drawing of a cat, but gifted with the secret grace and obvious clumsiness of a penguin on terra firma) who is never so happy as when egoist-mouse, thwarting altruist-dog, hits her in the head with a brick. Dog hates mouse and worships "cat", mouse despises "cat" and hates dog, "cat" hates no one and loves mouse.

“If you take two words like 'tame' and 'domesticated', you're forced to think of the divergence in meaning, not the similarity. You say to yourself, in getting it clear, "A dog is a tame wolf, a cat is a domesticated tiger." A cat never really tames, while tameness is the essence of a dog's soul. You tame the wolf into a dog, but the tiger domesticates itself into a cat. In this way there's more real oppositeness between things that are like than between things that are different. The kind of oppositeness, I mean, that there is between words when you discard one in favour of another.”

Laura Riding Jackson (1901–1991) poet, critic, novelist, essayist and short story writer

Description of Life (Targ Editions, 1980)

“I like dogs
Big dogs
Little dogs
Fat dogs
Doggy dogs
Old dogs
Puppy dogs
I like dogs
A dog that is barking over the hill
A dog that is dreaming very still
A dog that is running wherever he will
I like dogs.”

Margaret Wise Brown (1910–1952) American children's writer and editor

Source: The Friendly Book

“He is like a cat. And all cats are thieves.”

Agatha Christie (1890–1976) English mystery and detective writer

Murder for Christmas (1939, Holiday for Murder, Hercule Poirot’s Christmas)

“Logician: A cat has four paws.
Old Gentleman: My dog had four paws.
Logician: Then it's a cat.
Old Gentleman: So my dog is a cat?
Logician: And the contrary is also true.”

Eugéne Ionesco Rhinoceros

Rhinoceros (1959)

“Authors like cats because they are such quiet, lovable, wise creatures, and cats like authors for the same reasons.”

Robertson Davies (1913–1995) Canadian journalist, playwright, professor, critic, and novelist

“Rats!
They fought the dogs and killed the cats”

Robert Browning The Pied Piper of Hamelin

The Pied Piper of Hamelin, line 10 (1842).
Context: Rats!
They fought the dogs and killed the cats,
And bit the babies in the cradles,
And ate the cheeses out of the vats,
And licked the soup from the cooks' own ladles,
Split open the kegs of salted sprats,
Made nests inside men's Sunday hats,
And even spoiled the women's chats
By drowning their speaking
With shrieking and squeaking
In fifty different sharps and flats.

“Artists like cats; soldiers like dogs.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Desmond Morris14

Related quotes

Related topics