1.
As an inspiration to the author, I do not think the cat can be over-estimated. He suggests so much grace, power, beauty, motion, mysticism. I do not wonder that many writers love cats; I am only surprised that all do not.
Carl Van Vechten
2.
There are ... two kinds of people in this world, those who long to be understood and those who long to be misunderstood. It is the irony of life that neither is gratified.
Carl Van Vechten
3.
The cat, it is well to remember, remains the friend of man because it pleases him to do so and not because he must.
Carl Van Vechten
4.
...with a cat you stand on much the same footing that you stand with a fine and dignified friend; if you forfeit his respect and confidence the relationship suffers. The cat, it is well to remember, remains the friend of man because it pleases him to do so and not because he must.
Carl Van Vechten
5.
The lack of imagination or invention most people display in naming pussies is almost beyond credence.
Carl Van Vechten
6.
Is a little experience too much to pay for learning to know oneself?
Carl Van Vechten
7.
One meets the cat in nearly all forms of art...curiously enough she is not a conspicuous figure in Roman or Greek art.
Carl Van Vechten
8.
The cat is the only animal without visible means of support who still manages to find a living in the city.
Carl Van Vechten
9.
The cat seldom interferes with other people's rights. His intelligence keeps him from doing many of the fool things that complicate life.
Carl Van Vechten
10.
Cats have gnosis to a degree that is granted to few bishops.
Carl Van Vechten
11.
A cat is never vulgar.
Carl Van Vechten
12.
Cats seldom make mistakes, and they never make the same mistake twice.
Carl Van Vechten
13.
Note 4. For these and other reasons the cat is also very hard to photograph. The best photographs are instantaneous, as the mere breathing of a cat will blur the fur in a time exposure.
Carl Van Vechten
14.
A thing of beauty is a boy forever.
Carl Van Vechten
15.
I've photographed everybody from Matisse to Isamu Noguchi.
Carl Van Vechten
16.
Paris is not a city I should care to approach for the first time after I had passed forty.
Carl Van Vechten
17.
Cleanliness in the cat world is usually a virtue put above godliness.
Carl Van Vechten
18.
Catnip is vodka and whisky to most cats.
Carl Van Vechten