73 Inspiring Quotes About Dogs

Are you a dog lover seeking a dose of inspiration and joy? Whether you’re a proud pet parent or simply someone who admires our four-legged friends from afar, these quotes about dogs are sure to warm your heart. Dogs, with their boundless energy, unwavering loyalty, and genuine love, have a unique ability to touch our lives in incredible ways. In this collection, we’ve gathered 73 of the most inspiring quotes about dogs, capturing the depth of emotion and wisdom they bring into our world. Get ready to smile, reflect, and perhaps gain a new perspective on the bond we share with these amazing companions.

1. “Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.” - Mark Twain

2. “Meow” means “woof” in cat.” - George Carlin

3. “The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs.” - Charles de Gaulle

4. “If you don't own a dog, at least one, there is not necessarily anything wrong with you, but there may be something wrong with your life.” - Roger Caras

5. “The dog has seldom been successful in pulling man up to its level of sagacity, but man has frequently dragged the dog down to his.” - James Thurber

6. “Dogs have given us their absolute all. We are the center of their universe. We are the focus of their love and faith and trust. They serve us in return for scraps. It is without a doubt the best deal man has ever made. ” - Roger Caras

7. “Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring--it was peace.” - Milan Kundera

8. “We who choose to surround ourselveswith lives even more temporary than ourown, live within a fragile circle;easily and often breached.Unable to accept its awful gaps,we would still live no other way.We cherish memory as the onlycertain immortality, never fullyunderstanding the necessary plan.” - Irving Townsend

9. “The universe contains any amount of horrible ways to be woken up, such as the noise of the mob breaking down the front door, the scream of fire engines, or the realization that today is the Monday which on Friday night was a comfortably long way off. A dog's wet nose is not strictly speaking the worst of the bunch, but it has its own peculiar dreadfulness which connoisseurs of the ghastly and dog owners everywhere have come to know and dread. It's like having a small piece of defrosting liver pressed lovingly against you.” - Terry Pratchett

10. “Then in a great crash they threw themselves to the floor, ears flopped down, the whites of their eyes showing, looking the way only a dog can look who is totally disappointed. Indeed, they were the very pictures of disappointment.” - Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson

11. “I do not concern myself with my inability to feel such comfort amidst humans (other than with very few friends and family), but, rather, am simply thankful that at least dogs exist, and I’m humbly aware of how much less a person I’d be – how less a human – if they did not exist. ” - Rick Bass

12. “There is no faith which has never yet been broken, except that of a truly faithful dog” - Konrad Lorenz

13. “To his dog, every man is Napoleon; hence the constant popularity of dogs.” - Aldous Huxley

14. “You can say any fool thing to a dog and the dog will just give you this look that says, 'My GOSH, you're RIGHT! I NEVER would've thought of that!” - Dave Barry

15. “A strongly accentuated zoophilism, such as an inordinate love of horses or dogs, throws the emotional nature out of balance; and those who are possessed by it are not likely to care very much for people.” - W.E. Woodward

16. “Owning a dog is slightly less expensive than being addicted to crack.” - Jen Lancaster

17. “I sometimes look into the face of my dog Stan and see a wistful sadness and existential angst, when all he is actually doing is slowly scanning the ceiling for flies.” - Merrill Markoe

18. “My father...was a man who understood all dogs thoroughly and treated them like human beings.” - Flann O'Brien

19. “. . . owning a dog always ended with this sadness because dogs just don't live as long as people do.” - John Grogan

20. “Such short little lives our pets have to spend with us, and they spend most of it waiting for us to come home each day. It is amazing how much love and laughter they bring into our lives and even how much closer we become with each other because of them.” - John Grogan

21. “To show too much joy in a place such as this would be unseemly but, as he padded toward her, his tail was extended in a manner which would make wagging possible should all go as expected.” - Eva Ibbotson

22. “I have been told by the third grade teacher that my daughter Poppet is reading at middle school level. Yet if I leave Poppet a note in block letters telling her to feed the dogs I will come home to find the dogs have been ... given a swim in the above-ground pool, dressed in tutus, provided with hair weaves. What I will not find is that the dogs have been fed. 'I thought you wanted me to free the dogs,' says Poppet whose school district is not spending quite what D.C.'s is, thanks to voter rejection of the last school bond referendum.” - P.J. O'Rourke

23. “(Suguri) You had an extra long walk, didn't you...? Let's go home...” - Yukiya Sakuragi

24. “Discipline isn't about showing a dog who's boss; it's about takingresponsibility for a living creature you have brought into your world.” - Cesar Millan

25. “I have done the journey between Tientsin and Peking so many times that I recognize even the stray dogs (known locally as wonks) that frequent the platforms in the hopes of picking up something thrown out from the carriage windows.” - Daniele Vare

26. “I also believe that man’s continued domestication (if you care to use that silly euphemism) of dogs is motivated by fear: fear that dogs, left to evolve on their own, would, in fact, develop thumbs and smaller tongues, and therefore would be superior to men, who are slow and cumbersome, standing erect as they do. This is why dogs must live under the constant supervision of people.... From what Denny has told me about the government and its inner workings, it is my belief that this despicable plan was hatched in a back room of none other than the White House, probably by an evil adviser to a president of questionable moral and intellectual fortitude, and probably with the correct assessment—unfortunately, made from a position of paranoia rather than of spiritual insight—that all dogs are progressively inclined regarding social issues.” - Garth Stein

27. “William groaned. It was Vimes. Worse, he was smiling, in a humourless predatory way."Ah, Mr de Worde," he said, stepping inside. "There are several thousand dogs stampeding through the city at the moment. This is an interesting fact, isn't it?"He leaned against the wall and produced a cigar. "Well, I say dogs," he said, striking a match on Goodmountain's helmet. "Mostly dogs, perhaps I should say. Some cats. More cats now, in fact, 'cos, hah, there's nothing like a, yes, a tidal wave of dogs, fighting and biting and howling, to sort of, how can I put it, give a city a certain . . . busyness. Especially underfoot,because - did I mention it? -they're very nervous dogs too. Oh, and did I mention cattle?" he went on, conversationally. "You know how it is, market day and so on, people are driving the cows and, my goodness, around the corner comes a wall of wailing dogs . . . Oh, and I forgot about the sheep. And the chickens, although I imagine there's not much left of the chickens now.” - Terry Pratchett

28. “We're going to investigate," Fireheart meowed. "We can't decide how to get rid of these dogs until we know exactly what we have to face. We're not going to attack them, not yet-have you got that, Cloudtail?"Cloudtail's blue eyes burned into his, and he did not reply."I won't take you, Cloudtail, unless you promise to do as you're told without question.""Oh, all right." The tip of Cloudtail's tail flicked irritably. "I want every last dog turned into crowfood, but I'll do it you're way, Fireheart.""Good." Fireheart's gaze swept over the rest of the patrol. "Any questions?""What if we come across Tigerstar?" asked Sandstorm."A cat from another Clan on our territory?" Fireheart bared his teeth. "Yes, you can attack him.Cloudtil let out a growl of satisfaction.” - Erin Hunter

29. “Fireheart tensed, waiting for whatever had hunted down these apprentices to emerge from the trees and attack, but nothing stirred. Feeling as if his legs hardly belonged to him, he sprang down and stumbled across to Swiftpaw.The apprentice lay on his side, his legs splayed out. His black-and-white fur was torn, and his body was covered with dreadful wounds, ripped by teeth far bigger than any cat's. His jaws still snarled and his eyes glared. He was dead, and Fireheart could see that he had died fighting.” - Erin Hunter

30. “Brightpaw's eye opened and she fixed a cloudy gaze on Fireheart."What happened?" he repeated. "What did this?"A thin wailing came from Brightpaw, which gradually formed into words. Fireheart stared at her in horror as he made out what she was trying to say."Pack, pack," she whispered. "Kill, kill.” - Erin Hunter

31. “I say, thirteen is too many dogs for good mental health. Five is pretty much the limit. More than five dogs and you forfeit your right to call yourself entirely sane.Even if the dogs are small.” - E. Lockhart

32. “No matter how close we are to another person, few human relationships are as free from strife, disagreement, and frustration as is the relationship you have with a good dog. Few human beings give of themselves to another as a dog gives of itself. I also suspect that we cherish dogs because their unblemished souls make us wish - consciously or unconsciously - that we were as innocent as they are, and make us yearn for a place where innocence is universal and where the meanness, the betrayals, and the cruelties of this world are unknown.” - Dean Koontz

33. “When you have dogs, you witness their uncomplaining acceptance of suffering, their bright desire to make the most of life in spite of the limitations of age and disease, their calm awareness of the approaching end when their final hours come. They accept death with a grace that I hope I will one day be brave enough to muster.” - Dean Koontz

34. “However, for all his affection and loyalty towards the animal, the dog would soon be leaving him - they would both be present at a celebratory dinner when they reached the roof, he reflected with a touch of gallows-humour, but the poodle would be in the pot.” - J.G. Ballard

35. “There also wasn't one single bit of grass or dirt outside the airport. Even the median strip was a concrete sidewalk. Where did Atlanta's pet travelers pee? Maybe city dogs just learned to use the sidewalk. We kept walking. It looked like if we crossed the road that all the cars used to get onto the highway, we might come to a planted-up area, but we also might get killed. Finally, I just lifted Cannoli up and plopped her down on a great big ashtray built into the top of the trash barrel. "Good thing you're not a German shepherd," I said.” - Claire Cook

36. “I pulled my suitcase out of the backseat of my bug, along with Cannoli's new travel case, a spiffy animal print pet backpack on wheels. When I first saw it, I thought maybe the dog was supposed to wear the backpack, but it turned out the person wore the backpack with the dog in it.” - Claire Cook

37. “No one can give anyone else the gift of the idyll; only an animal can do so, because only animals were not expelled from Paradise. The love between dog and man is idyllic. It knows no conflicts, no hair-raising scenes; it knows no development.” - Milan Kundera

38. “I don't appreciate people who celebrate their dog's birthdays with "dog parties," and then invite their friends who don't even have dogs. I understand why people like dogs, and I think they definitely bring more to the table than cats or those godforsaken ferrets, but I don't think it's healthy for people to treat their dogs like they are real people.” - Chelsea Handler

39. “I love them, they are so nice and selfish. Dogs are TOO good and unselfish. They make me feel uncomfortable. But cats are gloriously human.” - L.M. Montgomery

40. “Bọn cún chúng tôi căn bản là thân thiện với loài người. Loài người yêu thương chúng tôi và chúng tôi đáp lại bằng một tình cảm còn sâu sắc hơn. Tình cảm đó không cần phải học. Nó như một thứ bản năng có sẵn trong máu. Thậm chí, tình yêu và lòng tin vô điều kiện đó có thể được coi như một phẩm giá.Nhưng không phải những gì thuộc về loài người đều tốt. Lão Hiếng thuộc về loài người. Nhưng lão không tốt.Vì thế chúng tôi phải trả giá cho sự tin cậy của mình. Khi bạn quá tin cậy hoặc sùng bái một ai, chắc chắn bạn không bao giờ đề phòng, thậm chí nghi ngờ. Và đôi khi bạn chết vì niềm tin ngây thơ của mình.” - Nguyễn Nhật Ánh

41. “Percy wakes me (fourteen)Percy wakes me and I am not ready.He has slept all night under the covers.Now he’s eager for action: a walk, then breakfast.So I hasten up. He is sitting on the kitchen counter Where he is not supposed to be. How wonderful you are, I say. How clever, if you Needed me, To wake me. He thought he would a lecture and deeply His eyes begin to shine.He tumbles onto the couch for more compliments.He squirms and squeals: he has done something That he needed And now he hears that it is okay. I scratch his ears. I turn him over And touch him everywhere. He isWild with the okayness of it. Then we walk, then He has breakfast, and he is happy.This is a poem about Percy.This is a poem about more than Percy.Think about it.” - Mary Oliver

42. “Did you know that there are over three hundred words for love in canine?” - Gabrielle Zevin

43. “Playing the game means treating your dogs like gentlemen, and your gentlemen like dogs.” - Ted Tally

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

45. “Science has so far been unable to tell us how self-aware dogs are, much less whether they have anything like our conscious thoughts. This is not surprising, since neither scientists nor philosophers can agree about what the consciousness of humans consists of, let alone that of animals.” - John Bradshaw

46. “You know what I should do?" Hoshino asked excited. "Of course," the cat said. "What'd I tell you? Cats know everything. Not like dogs.” - Haruki Murakami

47. “Why, that dog is practically a Phi Beta Kappa. She can sit up and beg, and she can give her paw -- I don't say she will but she can.” - Dorothy Parker

48. “When an eighty-five pound mammal licks your tears away, then tries to sit on your lap, it's hard to feel sad.” - Kristan Higgins

49. “I say every dog looks like no otherbut that isn't true. Not entirely.Difference is slippery.” - Mary Jo Bang

50. “Pride is all very well, but a sausage is a sausage.” - Terry Pratchett

51. “Dogs are gonna take over the world. It's a known fact for those who believe it, kinda like the Bible.” - Mike Dirnt

52. “I will keep no further journal of that same hesternal torch‐light ; and, to prevent me from returning, like a dog, to the vomit of memory, I tear out the remaining leaves of this volume...” - Lord Byron

53. “I always splash on the cologne before a blind date because dogs can smell fear” - Josh Stern

54. “I had to stop him from arresting an old lady who let her dog urinate against the fire hydrant that was in front of Burgerville headquarters."You'll blow our cover.""But what if there is a fire?""The fire department will come and put it out," I said."With what?""Water," I said."Not from that hydrant," Monk said. "It's inoperable.""No, it's not," I said. "It can still be used.""There is urine all over it," Monk said. "no fireman would dare touch it, nor would any other human being.""Firefighters run into burning buildings," I said."They aren't going to care about some dog pee on a fire hydrant.""They would if they knew," Monk said. "We should call and warn them. Call Joe right now. He can get the word out faster than we can.""Every fire hydrant in the city has dog pee on it, Mr. Monk. It's how dogs mark their territory. I can guarantee you that every male dog that has passed that hydrant has pissed on it."He looked at me, wide eyed, "No.""It's what dogs do," I said. "The firefighters knows this."Monk swallowed hard. "And they still use the hydrants?""Of course they do.""They are the bravest men on earth," Monk said solemnly.” - Lee Goldberg

55. “It's like coming home," said Webster and he wasn't talking to the dog. "It's like you've been away for a long, long time and then you come home again. And it's so long you don't recognize the place. Don't know the furniture, don't recognize the floor plan. But you know by the feel of it that it's an old familiar place and you are glad you came.""I like it here," said. Ebenezer and he meant Webster's lap, but the man misunderstood."Of course, you do," he said. "It's your home as well as mine. More your home, in fact, for you stayed here and took care of it while I forgot about it.” - Clifford D. Simak

56. “You can usually tell that a man is good if he has a dog who loves him.” - W. Bruce Cameron

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

58. “Mothers were much too sharp. They were like dogs. Buster always sensed when anything was out of the ordinary, and so did mothers. Mothers and dogs both had a kind of second sight that made them see into people's minds and know when anything unusual was going on.” - Enid Blyton

59. “Daisy didn't just change our lives, she changed our destiny.” - Maryam Faresh

60. “The Duchess looked at Chloe with a look that said, You had the chance to tell him, but you chose to carry on the lie.How do I know that the Duchess's look said this? Because there is an excellent book in my local library entitled One Thousand Doggy Expressions Explained by Professor L. Stone.I digress.” - David Walliams

61. “I think she cared more for that bloody dog than for me, for us. And maybe that's not so stupid, looking back... maybe it is easier living on your own looking after some stupid mutt than sharing your life with other actual human beings.” - Mark Haddon

62. “In the nineteenth century, The Romantics viewed Nature as benign, a glowing reflection of God's grace. Now we know better. Nature is brutal and, if it is feminine, she's not the kind of woman you can trust. Human beings may be her finest achievement yet, but when you get right down to brass tacks, we're meat. AIDS and organisms like streptococcus don't give a crap that we subdued the earth or produced a Shakespeare...” - Richard Yancey

63. “Dogs are actually very smart, it's just that they're rather clumsy, but it's this trait that makes humans attracted to them and why I love dogs so much.” - Hiromu Arakawa

64. “Pearl was hurring around my apartment, sniffing everything, including Rich Beaumont and Patty Giacomin, which neither of them like much."Can you get Pearl to settle down?" Paul asked."I could speak to her, but she'd continue to do what she wants, and I'd look ineffectual. My approach is to endorse everything she does."Susan said, "Come here, Pearl." And Pearl went over to her, and Susan gave her a kiss on the mouth, and Pearl wagged her tail; and lapped Susan's face, and turned and went back and sniffed at Patty.” - Robert B. Parker

65. “Humans are aware of very little, it seems to me, the artificial brainy side of life, the worries and bills and the mechanisms of jobs, the doltish psychologies we've placed over our lives like a stencil. A dog keeps his life simple and unadorned.” - Brad Watson

66. “If you make a fool of yourself in front of a cat, he will sneer at you, if you are sober; he will leave the room if you are drunk. If you make a fool of yourself in front a dog, he will make a fool of himself, too.” - Chuck Jones

67. “There is always hope for man or dog in life if only they be cute” - Chris Pariseau

68. “Scott walked away and did not look back. They knew Maggie would try to follow him, and she did. In her world, they were a pack, and the pack stayed together.Maggie whined and barked, and he heard her claws scrape the tarmac like files. Budress had cautioned him not to look back or wave bye-bye or any of the silly things people did. Dogs weren't people. Eye contact would make her struggle harder to reach him. A dog could see your heart in your eyes, Budress told him, and dogs were drawn to our hearts.” - Robert Crais

69. “We are meaning-seeking creatures. Dogs, as far as we know, do not agonise about the canine condition, worry about the plight of dogs in other parts of the world, or try to see their lives from a different perspective. But human beings fall easily into despair, and from the very beginning we invented stories that enabled us to place our lives in a larger setting, that revealed an underlying pattern, and gave us a sense that, against all the depressing and chaotic evidence to the contrary, life had meaning and value” - Karen Armstrong

70. “Nimrod began to understand that what he was experiencing was, in spite of its appearance of novelty, something which had existed before–many times before. His body began to recognize situations, impressions, and objects. In reality, none of there astonished him very much. Faced with new circumstances, he would dip into the fount of his memory, the deep-seated memory of the body, would search blindky and feverishly, and often find ready made within himself a suitable reaction: the wisdom of generations, deposited in his plasma, in his nerves. He found actions and decisions of which he had not been aware but which had been lying in wait, ready to emerge.” - Bruno Schulz

71. “I always say, the time you spend with your dog makes the difference in a great dog or a crate dog.” - M.K. Clinton

72. “Lebedev: France has a clear and defined policy... The French know what they want. They just want to wipe out the Krauts, finish, but Germany, my friend, is playing a very different tune. Germany has many more birds in her sights than just France...Shabelsky: Nonsense! ...In my view the German are cowards and the French are cowards... They're just thumbing their noses at each other. Believe me, things will stop there. They won't fight.Borkin: And as I see it, why fight? What's the point of these armaments, congresses, expenditures? You know what I'd do? I'd gather together dogs from all over the country, give them a good dose of rabies and let them loose in enemy country. In a month all my enemies would be running rabid.” - Anton Chekhov

73. “They say that a few minutes each day of petting your dog can raise your serotonin levels.” - Neil Plakcy