51 Dog Quotes For Inspiration

If you're a dog lover, you know just how incredible these furry companions can be. They're not just pets; they're trusted friends, loyal guardians, and often a source of profound inspiration. In this post, we've gathered a curated collection of the top 51 dog quotes to uplift and inspire you. Each quote captures the essence of what makes dogs so special, reminding us of the unwavering love and joy they bring into our lives. Whether you're looking for a heartwarming sentiment to share or a nugget of wisdom to brighten your day, these quotes are sure to resonate with every dog enthusiast.

1. “It is not the size of the dog in the fight that counts, but the fight in the dog that wins.” - Arthur G. Lewis

2. “If it be the chief point of friendship to comply with a friend's notions and inclinations he possesses this is an eminent degree; he lies down when I sit, and walks when I walk, which is more that many good friends can pretend to do.” - Alexander Pope

3. “the poor dog, in life the firmest friend, the first to welcome, the foremost to defend.” - George Gordon Byron

4. “I am a believer in free will. If my dog chooses to hate the whole human race except myself, it must be free to do so.” - Diana Wynne Jones

5. “There is sorrow enough in the natural wayFrom men and woman to fill our day;But when we are certain of sorrow in store,Why do we always arrange for more?Brothers & Sisters, I bid you bewareOf giving your heart to a dog to tear.” - Rudyard Kipling

6. “Romance is everything to turn it into a cause for given is priceless” - Maxine Wilson-Perry

7. “You don't just choose a name at random. A name is a name. A major responsibility.” - Silvana de Mari

8. “I can't even trust my own imaginary dog. How much lower can a person get?” - Meg Rosoff

9. “We now had three girls and one testosterone-pumped guy bird that spent every walking minute doing of of three things: pursuing sex, having sex or crowing boastfully about the sex he had just scored. Jenny observed that roosters are what men would be if left to their own devices, with no social conventions to rein in their baser instincts, and I couldn't disagree. I had to admit, I kind of admired the lucky bastard.” - John Grogan

10. “Something else changed when querinalo changed. Our immortality began to become—it is difficult to explain. None of us began to age, nor did we lose our vitality. Rather it was as if what was resilient within us began to stiffen. Traits of character became not merely habits, but defining elements. I suppose for me that it was fortunate — or unfortunate, given my current situation as your prisoner — that one of my defining traits has always been curiosity. Curiosity is one of the seeds of creativity, so that remained to me as well, but many of my associates were less fortunate."Remember that Virim recruited us all because we shared a certain idealism. However, I fear that not much time needs to pass for idealism to become dogmatism. This was the case for many of my associates. They became dogmatic, but not regarding the same things."Firekeeper wondered what dogs had to do with ideas, but thought she understood. Dogs, like wolves, were pack animals, but unlike wolves, dogs retained a juvenile desire to follow. So these spellcasters had been Virim's dogs, and when this stiffening happened, they had become even more doglike. It made sense in a way.” - Jane Lindskold

11. “Everything I know, I learned from dogs.” - Nora Roberts

12. “You jumped like a frog.You touched like a dog.You kissed like a bird.” - Santosh Kalwar

13. “Mrs. Darling loved to have everything just so, and Mr. Darling had a passion for being exactly like his neighbours; so, of course, they had a nurse. As they were poor, owing to the amount of milk the children drank, this nurse was a prim Newfoundland dog, called Nana, who had belonged to no one in particular until the Darlings engaged her. She had always thought children important, however, and the Darlings had become acquainted with her in Kensington Gardens, where she spent most of her spare time peeping into perambulators, and was much hated by careless nursemaids, whom she followed to their homes and complained of to their mistresses. She proved to be quite a treasure of a nurse.” - J.M. Barrie

14. “I heard the man and woman cry a warning as I frantically racked my brain for some sort of throat-repairing spell, which I was clearly about to need. Of course the only words that I actually managed to yell at the werewolf as he ran at me were, 'BAD DOG!'Then, out of the corner of my eye, I caught a flash of blue light on my left. Suddenly, the werewolf seemed to smack into an invisible wall just inches in front of me...."You know," someone said off to my left, "I usually find a blocking spell to be a lot more effective than yelling 'Bad dog,' but maybe that's just me.” - Rachel Hawkins

15. “A dog creates, transcribes, a new landscape for you. A dog like Colter sharpens your joy of all the seasons, and for a while, sometimes a long while, such a dog seems capable, by himself alone, of holding time in place--of pinning it, and holding it taught. And then when he is gone, it is as if the world is taken away.Dogs like that are young for what seems like a very long time....One you have lost a dog--especially the first you trained from a pup, the one you first set sail into the world with--you can never fully give of yourself to another dog. You can never again look at a dog you love without hedging a tiny bit, if only subconsciously, against the day when that dog, too, must leave. You can never again hunt or enter the future so recklessly, so joyously, with that weight of forethought....As I sleep restlessly, night after night, or more often, as I lie there awake, I can see him running and I feel guilty that I am not there to honor the birds he is finding... One way or the other, he is still out there running. He will never rest.... I will always want him to know a moment's rest, and peace, and he will always know in his hot heart that the only peace to be gotten is by never resting, by always pushing on. He is my Colter.... I am still his, and he is still mine.” - Rick Bass

16. “He methodically basted the dark skin of the Alsatian, which he had stuffed with garlic and herbs."One rule in life", he murmured to himself. "If you can smell garlic, everything is all right".” - J.G. Ballard

17. “Never mind, said Hachiko each day. Here I wait, for my friend who’s late. I will stay, just to walk beside you for one more day.” - Jess C. Scott

18. “A dog has one aim in life... to bestow his heart.” - J. R. Ackerley

19. “If you live with dogs, you'll never run out of things to write about.” - Sharon Delarose

20. “Love-that which biologists, nervous about being misunderstood call "attachment"-fuels the bond between dog and master or mistress.” - John Bradshaw

21. “If you have a dog, you will most likely outlive it; to get a dog is to open yourself to profound joy and, prospectively, to equally profound sadness.” - Marjorie Garber

22. “I feel about my dogs now, and all the dogs I had prior to this, the way I feel about children—they are that important to me. When I have lost a dog I have gone into a mourning period that lasted for months.” - Mary Tyler Moore

23. “I have sometimes thought of the final cause of dogs having such short lives and I am quite satisfied it is in compassion to the human race; for if we suffer so much in losing a dog after an acquaintance of ten or twelve years, what would it be if they were to live double that time?” - Walter Scott

24. “Soon or late, every dog's master's memory becomes a graveyard; peopled by wistful little furry ghosts that creep back unbidden, at times, to a semblance of their olden lives.” - Albert Payson Terhune

25. “For me a house or an apartment becomes a home when you add one set of four legs, a happy tail, and that indescribable measure of love that we call a dog.” - Roger Caras

26. “While he has not, in my hearing, spoken the English language, he makes it perfectly plain that he understands it. And he uses his ears, tail, eyebrows, various rumbles and grunts, the slant of his great cold nose or a succession of heartrending sighs to get his meaning across.” - Jean Little

27. “Understanding your dog and knowing how to control him, develop his potentials, and resolve behavior problems, emotional conflicts and frustrations are no less essential than love and respect.” - Michael W. Fox

28. “To lose the approbation of my dog is a thing too horrible to contemplate.” - Barbara Dana

29. “More often than not, what animals require our protection from is not hurricanes or fires, but abuse at the hands of other people".” - Julie Klam

30. “Especially with four insanely angry, sword-carrying pirates bearing down on you, followed closely by an alien with a genetic malfunction that posed like Elvis Presley and looked slightly like a cross between a koala and a cuddly dog.” - Ridley Pearson

31. “Good dog! Nice fetch!""He wasn't fetching.""Bring her here, boy. Good job!"The dog looked from Zack to me."I've been training him," Zack said. "Up till now he's brought home only dead rabbits, but I guess he's finally getting the hang of it.” - Elizabeth Chandler

32. “You ever hear a dog cry, Steve? You know, howling so loud it's almost unbearable?' He nodded. 'I reckon they howl like that because they're so hungry it hurts, and that's what I feel in me every day of my life. I'm so hungry to be somethin' - to be somebody. You hear me?' He did. 'I'm not lyin' down ever. Not for you. Not for anyone.' I ended it. 'I'm hungry, Steve.'Sometimes I think they're the best words I've ever said.'I'm hungry.” - Markus Zusak

33. “We expressed love for this dog by ... knowing without showing that we cared for him.” - Markus Zusak

34. “You will respect my authori-tah!' Oberon said, in a passable imitation of Eric Cartman. I reminded him that I needed to concentrate. Sometimes dogs forget; they just get too excited.” - Kevin Hearne

35. “Dogs are here to remind us life really is a simple thing. You eat, sleep, take walks, and pee when you must. That's about all there is. They are quick to forgive trespasses and assume strangers will be kind.” - Jonathan Carroll

36. “Qu'est-ce qu'un chien, sinon une machine à aimer ? On lui présente un être humain, en lui donnant pour mission de l'aimer - et aussi disgracieux, pervers, déformé ou stupide soit-il, le chien l'aime. Cette caractéristique était si surprenante, si frappante pour les humains de l'ancienne race que la plupart - tous les témoignages concordent - en venaient à aimer leur chien en retour. le chien était donc une machine à aimer à effet d'entraînement - dont l'efficacité, cependant, restait limitée aux chiens, et ne s'étendait jamais aux autres hommes. (La possibilité d'une île, Danie l25,2)” - MICHEL HOUELLEBECK

37. “A dog can express more with his tail in minutes than an owner can express with his tongue in hours.” - Karen Davison

38. “Everybody in!" I said.Which was when we discovered the final problem.Little Echos aren't designed to hold six, count them six, larger-than-average-sized children.And their wings.And a dog."This is like a clown car," Total grumbled front my lap in the front seat."Why does the dog get to sit in your lap?'' Gazzy asked plaintively, as we rattled and banged down the dark streets. "How about a kid?""Oh. 'The dog.' Very nice," said Total."Because you're not allowed to have people on your lap in the front seats," I explained. "It's not safe. If a cop saw us, we'd be stopped for sure. You want Total back there?"Everyone in the back screamed no at the same time.” - James Patterson

39. “Would you kick her ass already?" Dick said, shoving me back toward Missy. "Come on, Stretch, man up. You do better than this! Get mad."I nodded, rolling a dislocated shoulder back into place with a grunt and staggering back toward my opponent. Behind me, Zeb yelled, "She tried to hurt Fitz!" He turned to Gabriel and Dick. "That'll get her mad."Gabriel rolled his eyes. "She's been framed for murder twice over, shot in the back, her arms were set on fire, and her parents are being held hostage. You think tampered dog water is what's going to make her angry?" "You tried to hurt my dog!" I wheezed as I lurched toward a grinning Missy.” - Molly Harper

40. “This is absurd. It's just a dog. Just a dog? *Just*? [to Porthos] J.M. Barrie: Porthos, don't listen! [to Peter] J.M. Barrie: Porthos dreams of being a bear, and you want to shatter those dreams by saying he's *just* a dog? What a horrible candle-snuffing word. That's like saying, "He can't climb that mountain, he's just a man", or "That's not a diamond, it's just a rock." Just.” - J.M. Barrie

41. “Better a live dog than a dead lion.” - Paul Hoffman

42. “You always fed strays and bent down to talk to the dogs you met on the street, looking straight into their eyes as if they were old friends. (Maybe they are, you said. From another life.) You liked to go to the pound and look at them. You tried to send them messages of comfort. I couldn’t go because I started crying the one time I tried. All those eyes and the barks like sobs.” - Francesca Lia Block

43. “...some people won't even own a dog for fear it will die - you can't bubble-wrap your heart...” - John Geddes

44. “Dog becomes a good friend with man whether the man himself is good or not!” - Mehmet Murat ildan

45. “I’ll give you a theory: Man’s closest relative is not the chimpanzee, as the TV people believe, but is, in fact, the dog.” - Garth Stein

46. “Ears back, tail up! I got to show off the white tip on the end of my tail. It's the flag that all Shelties are proud of.” - Sheron Long

47. “I shall have to go. But-" and here Frodo looked hard at Sam- "if you really care about me, you will have to keep that DEAD secret. See? If you don't, if you even breathe a word of what you've heard here, then I hope Gandalf will turn you into a spotted toad and fill the garden full of grass snakes." Sam fell on his knees, trembling. "Get up, Sam!" Said Gandalf. "I have thought of something better than that. Something to keep you quiet, and punish you properly for listening. You shall go away with Mr. Frodo!" "Me, sir!" cried Sam, springing up like a dog invited for a walk. "Me go and see Elves and all! Hooray!" he shouted, and then burst into tears.” - J.R.R. Tolkien

48. “I'm a dog lover and sex addict. Those two things are unrelated.
” - Dark Jar Tin Zoo

49. “Heaven is by favor; if it were by merit your dog would go in and you would stay out. Of all the creatures ever made (man) is the most detestable. Of the entire brood, he is the only one... that possesses malice. He is the only creature that inflicts pain for sport, knowing it to be pain.” - Mark Twain

50. “I wondered if having conversations with your dog was less crazy than babbling to yourself when no one else was around. I guess it depended on whether or not the dog answered.” - Deb Baker

51. “You can tell a lot about a man by the way he treats his dog....” - Peary Perry