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Humans are great lovers of consistency, and it annoys us that cats have different rules. Even if a cat is willing to give up her life for you, that does not mean that she is willing to change her mind at your request.

— Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson The Nine Emotional Lives of Cats (2002)

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More quotes by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson

Unlike a human smile, purring cannot be, as far as anyone knows, faked.

The Nine Emotional Lives of Cats (2002)

The idea, to a cat, that somebody else owns him is ludicrous.

The Nine Emotional Lives of Cats (2002)

"Every day I get many calls, from all over the world about how awful you are. How awful this article is. How bad it all is for psychoanalysis."

Almost all analysts in America are physicians and psychiatrists, and the medical profession is layered into a strict hierarchy. Every psychiatrist in a hospital is chief of some service, or head of some department.

The cat does not merely experience contentment, he exudes it. You cannot be in the presence of a contented cat and not have some of that contentment rub off on you. Which surely is a good part of the reason we love cats so.

The Nine Emotional Lives of Cats (2002)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.