Being a dog owner often means so much more than just being responsible for a pet. Dogs are our best friends and our guides. For so many of us, they’re our first children or the only ones we’ll ever have. They spend so much time studying our habits and loving us unconditionally that they pick up on our cues and instinctively know where we’re going, what we’re doing or how we’re feeling.
Whether you’re a pet owner, pet sitter, dog walker or veterinarian, if you’ve ever known the love of a dog, you know how deep that love can go and the benefits of having them around. Take some time today to return that unconditional love, and then get inspired by these funny, powerful or just plain great dog quotes.
Our top 11 dog quotes
- “A dog is the only thing on Earth that loves you more than he loves himself.” – Josh Billings (humorist)
- “Dogs do speak, but only to those who know how to listen.” – Orhan Pamuk (author, “My Name Is Red”)
- “When an 85-pound mammal licks your tears away, then tries to sit on your lap, it’s hard to feel sad.” – Kristan Higgins (author, “In Your Dreams”)
- “Because of the dog’s joyfulness, our own is increased. It is no small gift.” ― Mary Oliver (poet, “Dog Songs”)
- “My little dog — a heartbeat at my feet.” – Edith Wharton (novelist)
- “I’m suspicious of people who don’t like dogs, but I trust a dog when it doesn’t like a person.”― Bill Murray (actor)
- “My idea of absolute happiness is to be in bed on a rainy day with my blankie, my cat, and my dog.” – Anne Lamott (novelist)
- “Dogs are better than human beings because they know but do not tell.” – Emily Dickinson (poet)
- “The world would be a nicer place if everyone had the ability to love as unconditionally as a dog.” – M.K. Clinton (author, “The Returns”)
- “The bond with a true dog is as lasting as the ties of this earth will ever be.” – Konrad Lorenz (zoologist)
- “Dogs are the most amazing creatures; they give unconditional love. For me, they are the role model for being alive.” – Gilda Radner (comedian)
Plus, 90 more dog quotes to enjoy!
- “Dogs’ lives are too short. Their only fault, really.” – Agnes Sligh Turnbull (author, “The Wedding Bargain”)
- “Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.” – Roger Caras (photographer/writer)
- “Some of my best leading men have been dogs and horses.” – Elizabeth Taylor (actress)
- “The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs.” – Charles De Gaulle (French general/statesman)
- “Dogs never bite me. Just humans.” – Marilyn Monroe (actress)
- “Everything I know I learned from dogs.” – Nora Roberts (author, “The Search”)
- “The gift which I am sending you is called a dog, and is in fact the most precious and valuable possession of mankind.” – Theodorus Gaza (Greek humanist/translator of Aristotle)
- “I’ve been accused in different dating situations of loving my dog more than I love the person I’m with.” – Carrie Underwood (singer)
- “Scratch a dog and you’ll find a permanent job.” – Franklin P. Jones (humorist)
- “The great thing about being with, having a dog, is it kind of forces you to be in the present because that’s definitely where they’re spending their time.” – Jennifer Aniston (actor)
- “To his dog, every man is Napoleon; hence the constant popularity of dogs.” – Aldous Huxley (author, “Brave New World”)
- “Anybody who doesn’t know what soap tastes like never washed a dog.” – Franklin P. Jones (humorist)
- “Happiness is a warm puppy.” – Charles Schulz (cartoonist, Peanuts)
- “Every dog must have his day.” – Jonathan Swift (author, “Gulliver’s Travels”)
- “Every dog has his day, unless he loses his tail, then he has a weak-end.” – June Carter Cash (singer/songwriter)
- “My dog is half pit bull, half poodle. Not much of a watchdog, but a vicious gossip.” – Craig Shoemaker (comedian)
- “A lot of shelter dogs are mutts like me.” – Barack Obama (former U.S. president)
- “No animal I know of can consistently be more of a friend and companion than a dog.” – Stanley Leinwoll (author, “The Book of Pets”)
- “Ever consider what our dogs must think of us? I mean, here we come back from a grocery store with the most amazing haul, chicken, pork, half a cow. They must think we’re the greatest hunters on Earth!” – Anne Tyler (novelist/literary critic)
- “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.” – John Grogan (author, “Marley & Me”)
- “Did you know that there are over 300 words for ‘love’ in canine?” – Gabrielle Zevin (author, “Margarettown”)
- “If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die, I want to go where they went.” – Will Rogers (humorist)
- “There is no faith which has never yet been broken, except that of a truly faithful dog.” – Konrad Lorenz (zoologist)
- “You can usually tell that a man is good if he has a dog who loves him.” – W. Bruce Cameron (author, “A Dog’s Journey”)
- “I don’t understand people who don’t touch their pets. Their cat or dog is called a pet for a reason.” – Jarod Kintz (author, “This Book is Not FOR SALE”)
- “If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.” – Harry Truman (former U.S. president)
- “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 A. Caras (author, “A Dog Is Listening: The Way Some of Our Closest Friends View Us”)
- “If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and man.” – Mark Twain (author, “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”)
- “Owners of dogs will have noticed that if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are God. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are gods.” – Christopher Hitchens (author, “The Portable Atheist”)
- “If a dog will not come to you after having looked you in the face, you should go home and examine your conscience.” – Woodrow Wilson (former U.S. president)
- “A dog will make eye contact. A cat will, too, but a cat’s eyes don’t even look entirely warm-blooded to me, whereas a dog’s eyes look human except less guarded. A dog will look at you as if to say, ‘What do you want me to do for you? I’ll do anything for you.’ Whether a dog can in fact, do anything for you if you don’t have sheep [I never have] is another matter. The dog is willing.” – Roy Blount Jr. (author, “Now, Where Were We?”)
- “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 (author, “Marley & Me”)
- “All his life he tried to be a good person. Many times, however, he failed. For after all, he was only human. He wasn’t a dog.” – Charles M Schulz (cartoonist, Peanuts)
- “Petting, scratching, and cuddling a dog could be as soothing to the mind and heart as deep meditation and almost as good for the soul as prayer.” – Dean Koontz (author, “False Memory”)
- “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 A. Caras (author, “A Dog Is Listening: The Way Some of Our Closest Friends View Us”)
- “I like dogs. You always know what a dog is thinking. It has four moods: happy, sad, cross and concentrating. Also, dogs are faithful and they do not tell lies because they cannot talk.” – Mark Haddon (author, “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time”)
- “Dogs are wise. They crawl away into a quiet corner and lick their wounds and do not rejoin the world until they are whole once more.” – Agatha Christie (author)
- “I’ve seen a look in dogs’ eyes, a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt, and I am convinced that basically dogs think humans are nuts.” – John Steinbeck (author, “The Grapes of Wrath”)
- “If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons.” – James Thurber (author, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”)
- “They [dogs] never talk about themselves but listen to you while you talk about yourself, and keep up an appearance of being interested in the conversation.” – Jerome K. Jerome (humorist)
- “We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment to animals.” – Immanuel Kant (philosopher)
- “The greatest fear dogs know is the fear that you will not come back when you go out the door without them.” – Stanley Coren (psychologist/author, “The Intelligence of Dogs”)
- “Fall in love with a dog, and in many ways you enter a new orbit, a universe that features not just new colors but new rituals, new rules, a new way of experiencing attachment.” – Caroline Knapp (writer/columnist)
- “Love — that which biologists, nervous about being misunderstood, call ‘attachment’ — fuels the bond between dog and master or mistress.” – John Bradshaw (author, “Dog Sense”)
- “I have found that when you are deeply troubled, there are things you get from the silent devoted companionship of a dog that you can get from no other source.” – Doris Day (actress)
- “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 (author, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”)
- “Don’t accept your dog’s admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful.” – Ann Landers (advice columnist, Chicago Sun-Times)
- “We are alone, absolutely alone on this chance planet; and amid all the forms of life that surround us, not one, excepting the dog, has made an alliance with us.” – Maurice Maeterlinck (author, “Our Friend, the Dog”)
- “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 (author, “Nose Down, Eyes Up”)
- “The capacity for love that makes dogs such rewarding companions has a flip-side: They find it difficult to cope without us. Since we humans programmed this vulnerability, it’s our responsibility to ensure that our dogs do not suffer as a result.” – John Bradshaw (author, “Dog Sense”)
- “I asked this heroic pet lover how it felt to have died for a Schnauzer named Teddy. Salvatore Biagini was philosophical. He said it sure beat dying for absolutely nothing in the Vietnam War.” – Kurt Vonnegut (author, “God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian”)
- “A dog teaches a boy fidelity, perseverance and to turn around three times before lying down.” – Robert Benchley (humorist/actor)
- “My father… was a man who understood all dogs thoroughly and treated them like human beings.” – Flann O’Brien (author, “The Third Policeman”)
- “What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight; it’s the size of the fight in the dog.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower (former U.S. president)
- “Reason No. 106 why dogs are smarter than humans: Once you leave the litter, you sever contact with your mothers.” – Jodi Picoult (author, “My Sister’s Keeper”)
- “The greatest pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself, too.” – Samuel Butler (author/iconoclast)
- “Life is a series of dogs.” – George Carlin (comedian)
- “If dogs could talk, perhaps we would find it as hard to get along with them as we do with people.” – Karel Capek (Czech writer)
- “You know, a dog can snap you out of any kind of bad mood that you’re in faster than you can think of.” – Jill Abramson (author/journalist)
- “Before you get a dog, you can’t quite imagine what living with one might be like; afterward, you can’t imagine living any other way.” – Caroline Knapp (writer/columnist)
- “Not Carnegie, Vanderbilt, and Astor together could have raised money enough to buy a quarter share in my little dog.” – Ernest Thompson Seton (author/wildlife artist)
- “Dogs are great. Bad dogs, if you can really call them that, are perhaps the greatest of them all.” – John Grogan (author, “Marley & Me”)
- “No one appreciates the very special genius of your conversation as much as the dog does.” – Christopher Morley (journalist/novelist)
- “No matter how little money and how few possessions you own, having a dog makes you feel rich.” – Louis Sabin (author, “All About Dogs as Pets”)
- “Old dogs, like old shoes, are comfortable. They might be a bit out of shape and a little worn around the edges, but they fit well.” – Bonnie Wilcox (author)
- “In order to really enjoy a dog, one doesn’t merely try to train him to be semi human. The point of it is to open oneself to the possibility of becoming partly a dog.” – Edward Hoagland (author)
- “Histories are more full of examples of the fidelity of dogs than of friends.” – Alexander Pope (poet)
- “Dogs have a way of finding the people who need them, and filling an emptiness we didn’t ever know we had.” – Thom Jones (writer)
- “As wonderful as dogs can be, they are famous for missing the point.” – Jean Ferris (author, “Once Upon a Marigold”)
- “A dog desires affection more than its dinner. Well — almost.” – Charlotte Gray (author, “The Massey Murder”)
- “A well-trained dog will make no attempt to share your lunch. He will just make you feel so guilty that you cannot enjoy it.” – Helen Thomson (author)
- “Some of our greatest historical and artistic treasures we place with curators in museums; others we take for walks.” – Roger A. Caras (wildlife photographer/writer)
- “Nobody can fully understand the meaning of love unless he’s owned a dog. A dog can show you more honest affection with a flick of his tail than a man can gather through a lifetime of handshakes.” – Gene Hill (columnist)
- “I care not for a man’s religion whose dog and cat are not better for it.” – Abraham Lincoln (former U.S. president)
- “The average dog is a nicer person than the average person.” – Andy Rooney (radio/television writer)
- “If you are a dog and your owner suggests that you wear a sweater suggest that he wear a tail.” – Fran Lebowitz (author/speaker)
- “I’m a lot less cranky when it’s just me and my dog.” – Bob Peterson (artist)
- “Even the tiniest poodle or Chihuahua is still a wolf at heart.” – Dorothy Hinshaw Patent (teacher/children’s book author)
- “Did you ever walk into a room and forget why you walked in? I think that is how dogs spend their lives.” – Sue Murphy (comedian)
- “The poor dog, in life the firmest friend. The first to welcome, foremost to defend.” – Lord Byron (English nobleman/poet)
- “I have caught more ills from people sneezing over me and giving me virus infections than from kissing dogs.” – Barbara Woodhouse (dog trainer/author, “No Bad Dogs: The Woodhouse Way”)
- “It’s tough to stay married. My wife kisses the dog on the lips, yet she won’t drink from my glass.” – Rodney Dangerfield (comedian/actor)
- “Intelligent dogs rarely want to please people whom they do not respect.” – W.R. Koehler (author, “The Koehler Method of Dog Training”)
- “You think dogs will not be in heaven? I tell you, they will be there long before any of us.” – Robert Louis Stevenson (novelist/poet)
- “I once decided not to date a guy because he wasn’t excited to meet my dog. I mean, this was like not wanting to meet my mother.” – Bonnie Schachter (writer)
- “The dog was created specially for children. He is the God of frolic.” – Henry Ward (author, “The Most Famous Man in America”)
- “My tragedy is that all I want is a dog, and yet I have been cursed with cats all my life.” – Michael Sheen (actor)
- “The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog.” – George Graham Vest (author)
- “The dog has got more fun out of man than man has got out of the dog, for man is the more laughable of the two animals.” – James Thurber (cartoonist/humorist)
- “You can say any foolish thing to a dog, and the dog will give you a look that says, ‘Wow, you’re right! I never would’ve thought of that!’” – Dave Barry (author)
