Forty Quotes by Carl Van Vechten

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

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

— Carl Van Vechten

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

— Carl Van Vechten

I've photographed everybody from Matisse to Isamu Noguchi.

— Carl Van Vechten

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

— Carl Van Vechten

A cat is never vulgar.

— Carl Van Vechten

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

— Carl Van Vechten

Catnip is vodka and whisky to most cats.

— Carl Van Vechten

There are ... two kinds of people in this world, those who long to be understood and those who long to be misunderstood. It…

— Carl Van Vechten

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

— Carl Van Vechten

Note 4. For these and other reasons the cat is also very hard to photograph. The best photographs are instantaneous, as the mere breathing…

— Carl Van Vechten

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.…

— Carl Van Vechten