“Life is one damned kitten after another." Mehitabel the Alley Cat”

“i look back on my lifeand it seems to me to bejust one damned kittenafter another”

“The wand waved; the Adam's Apple leapt, and they were off. What followed cannot be indicated typographically. But if a cat were a sawmill, and a dog were a gigantic cart full of tin cans bouncing through a stone paved street, and that dog and that cat hated each other and were telling each other so, it would sound much like it.”

“it is better to be a part of beautyfor one instant and then cease toexist than to exist foreverand never be a part of beauty”

“i have beenused something fierce in my time buti am no bum sport archyi am a free spirit archy ilook on myself as beingquite a romantic character oh thequeens i have been and the swell feeds i have atea cockroach which you areand a poet which you used to bearchy couldn t understandmy feelings at having comedown to this i havehad bids to elegant feeds where poetsand cockroaches wouldneither one be mentioned without alaugh archy i have hadadventures but ihave never been an adventuress”

“a spider and a flyi heard a spiderand a fly arguingwait said the flydo not eat mei serve a great purposein the worldyou will have toshow me said the spideri scurry aroundgutters and sewersand garbage canssaid the fly and gatherup the germs oftyphoid influenzaand pneumonia on my feetand wingsthen i carry these germsinto households of menand give them diseasesall the people whohave lived the rightsort of life recoverfrom the diseasesand the old soaks whohave weakened their systemswith liquor and iniquitysuccumb it is my missionto help rid the worldof these wicked personsi am a vessel of righteousnessscattering seeds of justiceand serving the noblest usesit is true said the spiderthat you are moreuseful in a ploddingmaterial sort of waythan i am but i do notserve the utilitarian deitiesi serve the gods of beautylook at the gossamer websi weave they float in the sunlike filaments of songif you get what i meani do not work at anythingi play all the timei am busy with the stuffof enchantment and the materialsof fairyland my workstranscend utilityi am the artista creator and demi godit is ridiculous to supposethat i should be deniedthe food i need in orderto continue to createbeauty i tell youplainly mister fly it is alldamned nonsense for that foodto rear up on its hind legsand say it should not be eatenyou have convinced mesaid the fly say no moreand shutting all his eyeshe prepared himself for dinnerand yet he said i couldhave made out a casefor myself too if i hadhad a better line of talkof course you could said the spiderclutching a sirloin from himbut the end would have beenjust the same if neither ofus had spoken at allboss i am afraid that whatthe spider said is trueand it gives me to thinkfuriously upon the futilityof literaturearchy”

“How often when they find a sage As sweet as Socrates or PlatoThey hand him hemlock for his wageOr bake him like a sweet potato!-Taking the Longer View”