Inspirational quotes on pet love and loss
Domesticated animals have lived alongside people for thousands of years. Evidence suggests that the ancestors of today’s dogs were first domesticated between roughly 8,500 and 15,000 years ago. Soon after, dogs became common companions in human communities and eventually spread across the globe. Early signs of cat domestication have also been discovered—one of the oldest examples comes from the island of Cyprus, where cats were introduced around 7500 BC.
With such a long shared history, it’s no surprise that the bond between humans and their pets is deep and enduring. Families today welcome far more than just dogs and cats—birds, rabbits, rodents, fish, reptiles, and many other animals become cherished members of the household. Regardless of the species, we grow attached, we care for them, and we feel genuine heartache when they die.
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
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 people, it’s comforting to remember that others—both today and throughout history—have also mourned someone they loved. Grief can be a difficult and lengthy experience, but it often leads to emotional strength and helps us remain open to future connections with both people and animals.
If you’d like to share a meaningful quote with others who visit our website, you’re welcome to email it to us. Please include the full quotation, the name of the speaker, and the original source so we can display it accurately.