Inspirational Quotations on Pet Love and Loss

Domesticated animals have been a part of the lives of human beings for thousands of years. In fact, it is thought domestication of our current lineage of dog occurred sometime between 15,000 and 8,500 years ago. Shortly after the latest domestication, dogs became ubiquitous in human populations, and spread throughout the world. And the oldest archeological evidence for domesticated cats was found on the Greek island of Cyprus, where several animal species including cats were introduced by 7500 BC.

That means we’ve had a whole lot of time to cultivate strong bonds to both domesticated species–and families today have the opportunity to add more than a mere dog or cat to their homes. But, no matter whether dog, cat, bird, mouse, fish; potbellied pig, llama, snake or guinea pig–we love our pets. And we hurt when they leave of us.

Our growing collection of inspirational quotations is divided into two categories. We invite you to browse both. And if there’s a quotation you love which is not listed, we also invite you to share it with us via email. Once the source is verified, it will be added to the specific collection, to help others in their pet loss journey.
  • Words in Praise of Our Pets

    A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than you love yourself. ~Josh Billings


    Until one has loved an animal a part of one's soul remains unawakened. ~Anatole France


    There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats. ~Albert Schweitzer


    I wonder if other dogs think poodles are members of a weird religious cult. ~Rita Rudner


    The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs. ~Charles de Gaulle


    No matter how much cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens. ~Abraham Lincoln


    Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions; they pass no criticisms. ~George Eliot


    Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. ~Milan Kundera


    As anyone who has ever been around a cat for any length of time well knows, cats have enormous patience with the limitations of the human kind. ~Cleveland Amory


    It is impossible for a lover of cats to banish these alert, gentle, and discriminating friends, who give us just enough of their regard and complaisance to make us hunger for more. ~Agnes Repplier


    No one can feel as helpless as the owner of a sick goldfish. ~Kin Hubbard


    I was a dog in a past life. Really. I'll be walking down the street and dogs will do a sort of double take. Like, Hey, I know him. ~William H. Macy


    I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals. ~Sir Winston Churchill


    Cats regard people as warm-blooded furniture. ~Jacquelyn Mitchard


    Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole." ~Roger Caras


    It's funny how dogs and cats know the inside of folks better than other folks do, isn't it? ~Eleanor H. Porter


    Animals are reliable; many full of love, true in their affections, predictable in their actions, grateful, and loyal. Difficult standards for people to live up to. ~Alfred A. Montapert


    The difference between friends and pets is that friends we allow into our company, pets we allow into our solitude. ~Robert Brault


    All of the animals except for man know that the principle business of life is to enjoy it. ~Samuel Butler


    Do you have a favorite quotation to share about what pets bring to our lives? The humor, the joy; the playfulness; how they remind us that life–every moment– is meant to be enjoyed? Then send it to us by email. We’d love to add it to our growing collection.

  • On Grieving Pet Loss

    When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight. ~Khalil Gibran


    Perhaps they are not the stars, but rather openings in Heaven where the love of our lost ones pours through and shines down upon us to let us know they are happy. ~Author Unknown


    Separation


    Your absence has gone through me

    Like thread through a needle.

    Everything I do is stitched with its color.”

    ~W.S. Merwin


    Every one of us is losing something precious to us. Lost opportunities, lost possibilities, feelings we can never get back again. That’s part of what it means to be alive. ~Haruki Murakami


    Every morning, I wake up and forget just for a second that it happened. But once my eyes open, it buries me like a landslide of sharp, sad rocks. Once my eyes open, I'm heavy, like there's too much gravity on my heart. ~Sarah Ockler


    You will lose someone you can’t live without, and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn’t seal back up. And you come through. It’s like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly—that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp.

    ~Anne Lamott


    Every evening I turn my worries over to God. He's going to be up all night anyway. ~Mary C. Crowley


    She was no longer wrestling with the grief, but could sit down with it as a lasting companion and make it a sharer in her thoughts. ~George Eliot


    We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey. ~Kenji Miyazawa


    Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose. ~From the television show, The Wonder Years


    If you're going through hell, keep going. ~Winston Churchill


    We acquire the strength we have overcome. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson


    Time is a physician that heals every grief. ~Diphilus


    No one ever really dies as long as they took the time to leave us with fond memories. ~Chris Sorensen


    The deep pain that is felt at the death of every friendly soul arises from the feeling that there is in every individual something which is inexpressible, peculiar to him alone, and is, therefore, absolutely and irretrievably lost. ~Arthur Schopenhauer


    There's a bit of magic in everything, and some loss to even things out. ~Lou Reed

For many, there is comfort in knowing that others–now, and throughout human history–have grieved the loss of someone dear to them. While grieving can be a hard and long journey, it brings greater emotional resiliency, and helps us learn to open our hearts again to new loving relationships with both people, and animals.

If you’d like to share an especially meaningful quotation with others visiting our website, click here to send it to us by email. Be sure to include the full quotation and the name of the speaker. Don’t forget to cite the source of the quotation.