On Canine Wisdom ...

[morningstar]

"Everyone needs a spiritual guide: a minister, rabbi, counselor, wise friend, or therapist. My own wise friend is my dog. He has deep knowledge to impart. He makes friends easily and doesn't hold a grudge. He enjoys simple pleasures and takes each day as it comes. Like a true Zen master he eats when he is hungry and sleeps when he is tired. He's not hung up about sex. Best of all, he befriends me with an unconditional love that human beings would do well to imitate."
- From the Souls of Animals by Gary Kowalski -

"If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around."
- Cowboy Wisdom -

"We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals."
- Immanuel Kant -

"You think dogs will not be in heaven? I tell you, they will be there long before any of us."
-Robert Louis Stevenson -

[glow=red,2,300]"Blessed is the person who has earned the love of an old dog."[/glow]

"A dog is the only thing on this earth that loves you more than he loves himself."
-Josh Billings-

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

"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 -

"A dog has the soul of a philosopher."
- Plato -

"A dog can express more with his tail in minutes than his owner can express with his tongue in hours."
- Anonymous -

"Near this spot are deposited the remains of one who possessed Beauty without Vanity, Strength without Insolence, Courage without Ferocity, and all the Virtues of Man without his Vices. This praise, which would be unmeaning Flattery, if inscribed over human ashes, is but a just Tribute to the Memory of BOATSWAIN, a Dog."
-Inscription on the monument raised for Lord Byron's dog, Boatswain. -

"I miss the wagging little tail;
I miss the plaintive, pleading wail;
I miss the wistful, loving glance;
I miss the circling welcome-dance."
- Henry Willett, "In Memoriam" -

"To call him a dog hardly seems to do him justice, though inasmuch as he had four legs, a tail, and barked, I admit he was, to all outward appearances. But to those of us who knew him well, he was a perfect gentleman."
- J Kelly, Complete Collection of Scottish proverbs, 1732 -

"Brothers and Sisters, I bid you beware. Of giving your heart to a dog to tear."
- Rudyard Kipling -

"Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea." ;D
- Robert A. Heinlein -

"Ever consider what they 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 -

"Dogs feel very strongly that they should always go with you in the car, in case the need should arise for them to bark violently at nothing right in your ear."
- Dave Barry -

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

"It's funny how dogs and cats know the inside of folks better than other folks do, isn't it?"
- Eleanor H. Porter, "Pollyanna" 1912 -

"In order to really enjoy a dog, one doesn't merely try to train him to be semihuman. The point of it is to open oneself to the possibility of becoming partly a dog."
- Edward Hoagland -

"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 a man."
- Mark Twain -

"I've seen a look in dogs' eyes, a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt, and I am convinced that dogs think humans are nuts."
- John Steinbeck -

"The small percentage of dogs that bite people is monumental proof that the dog is the most benign, forgiving creature on earth."
- W. R. Koehler -