Carl Van Vechten Quotations

An ordinary kitten will ask more questions than any five-year-old.

There is, indeed, no single quality of the cat that man could not emulate to his advantage.

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.

The cat, it is well to remember, remains the friend of man because it pleases him to do so and not because he must.

A cat is never vulgar.

One meets the cat in nearly all forms of art...curiously enough she is not a conspicuous figure in Roman or Greek art.

Catnip is vodka and whisky to most cats.

A thing of beauty is a boy forever.

Cats have gnosis to a degree that is granted to few bishops.

Cleanliness in the cat world is usually a virtue put above godliness.

Paris is not a city I should care to approach for the first time after I had passed forty.

I've photographed everybody from Matisse to Isamu Noguchi.

Cats seldom make mistakes, and they never make the same mistake twice.

The cat is the only animal without visible means of support who still manages to find a living in the city.

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.

...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.

The cat seldom interferes with other people's rights. His intelligence keeps him from doing many of the fool things that complicate life.

The lack of imagination or invention most people display in naming pussies is almost beyond credence.

Is a little experience too much to pay for learning to know oneself?

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.