John Grogan > Quotes

“A person can learn a lot from a dog, even a loopy one like ours. Marley taught me about living each day with unbridled exuberance and joy, about seizing the moment and following your heart. He taught me to appreciate the simple things-a walk in the woods, a fresh snowfall, a nap in a shaft of winter sunlight. And as he grew old and achy, he taught me about optimism in the face of adversity. Mostly, he taught me about friendship and selflessness and, above all else, unwavering loyalty.”
― John Grogan, Marley and Me: Life and Love With the World’s Worst Dog

“Such short little lives our pets have to spend with us, and they spend most of it waiting for us to come home each day.
It is amazing how much love and laughter they bring into our lives and even how much closer we become with each other because of them.”
― John grogan, Marley and Me: Life and Love With the World’s Worst Dog

“Animal lovers are a special breed of humans, generous of spirit, full of empathy, perhaps a little prone to sentimentality, and with hearts as big as a cloudless sky”
― John Grogan, Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog

“It's just the most amazing thing to love a dog, isn't it? It makes our relationships with people seem as boring as a bowl of oatmeal.”
― John Grogan, Marley and Me: Life and Love With the World’s Worst Dog

“. . . owning a dog always ended with this sadness because dogs just don't live as long as people do.”
― John Grogan, Marley and Me: Life and Love With the World’s Worst Dog

“A dog has no use for fancy cars or big homes or designer clothes. Status symbol means nothing to him. A waterlogged stick will do just fine. A dog judges others not by their color or creed or class but by who they are inside. A dog doesn't care if you are rich or poor, educated or illiterate, clever or dull. Give him your heart and he will give you his. It was really quite simple, and yet we humans, so much wiser and more sophisticated, have always had trouble figuring out what really counts and what does not. As I wrote that farewell column to Marley, I realized it was all right there in front of us, if only we opened our eyes. Sometimes it took a dog with bad breath, worse manners, and pure intentions to help us see.”
― John Grogan

“A dog doesn't care if you're rich or poor, educated or illiterate, clever or dull. Give him your heart and he will give you his.”
― John Grogan, Marley and Me: Life and Love With the World’s Worst Dog

“Dogs are great. Bad dogs, if you can really call them that, are perhaps the greatest of them all.”
― John Grogan, Marley and Me: Life and Love With the World’s Worst Dog

“A dog has no use for fancy cars, big homes, or designer clothes. A water logged stick will do just fine. A dog doesn't care if you're rich or poor, clever or dull, smart or dumb. Give him your heart and he'll give you his. How many people can you say that about? How many people can make you feel rare and pure and special? How many people can make you feel extraordinary?”
― John Grogan, Marley & Me

“Then I dropped my forehead against his and sat there for a long time, as if I could telegraph a message through our two skulls, from my brain to his. I wanted to make him understand some things.

You know all that stuff we’ve always said about you?” I whispered. “What a total pain you are? Don’t believe it. Don’t believe it for a minute, Marley.” He needed to know that, and something more, too. There was something I had never told him, that no one ever had. I wanted him to hear it before he went.

Marley,” I said. “You are a great dog.”
― John Grogan, Marley and Me: Life and Love With the World’s Worst Dog

“There's no such thing as a bad dog, just a bad owner.”
― John Grogan, Marley and Me: Life and Love With the World’s Worst Dog

“In a dog's life, some plaster would fall, some cushions would open, some rugs would shred. Like any relationship, this one had its costs. They were costs we came to accept and balance against the joy and amusement and protection and companionship he gave us.”
― John Grogan, Marley and Me: Life and Love With the World’s Worst Dog

“He taught us the art of unqualified love. How to give it, how to accept it. Where there is that, most other pieces fall into place.”
― John Grogan, Marley and Me: Life and Love With the World’s Worst Dog

“In the English language, it all comes down to this: Twenty-six letters, when combined correctly, can create magic. Twenty -six letters form the foundation of a free, informed society.”
― John Grogan, Bad Dogs Have More Fun: Selected Writings on Family, Animals, and Life from The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Such short little lives our pets have to spend with us, and they spend most of it waiting for us to come home each day.”
― John Grogan, Marley and Me: Life and Love With the World’s Worst Dog

“I had never thought of Marley as any kind of model, but sitting there sipping my beer, I was aware that maybe he held the secret for a good life. Never slow down, never look back, live each day w/ adolescent verve and spunk and curiosity and playfulness.”
― John Grogan, Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog

“If you still think you're a young pup then you are, no matter what the calendar says”
― John Grogan, Marley and Me: Life and Love With the World’s Worst Dog

“In a world of bosses, you are your own master”
― John Grogan, Marley & Me

“Marley!!!”
― John Grogan, Marley and Me: Life and Love With the World’s Worst Dog

“Never slow down, never look back, live each day with adolescent verve and spunk and curiosity and playfulness. If you think you’re still a young pup, then maybe you are, no matter what the calendar says.”
― John Grogan, Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog

“Only then did I see. Something was amiss with Patrick's snap-on one piece, or "onesie" as we manly dads like to call it. His chubby thighs, I now realized, were squeezed into the armholes, which were so tight they must have been cutting off his circulation. The collared neck hung between his legs like an udder. Up top, Patrick's head stuck out through the unsnapped crotch, and his arms were lost somewhere in the billowing pant legs. It was quite a look.”
― John Grogan, Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog

“We now had three girls and one testosterone-pumped guy bird that spent every walking minute doing of of three things: pursuing sex, having sex or crowing boastfully about the sex he had just scored. Jenny observed that roosters are what men would be if left to their own devices, with no social conventions to rein in their baser instincts, and I couldn't disagree. I had to admit, I kind of admired the lucky bastard.”
― John Grogan, Marley and Me: Life and Love With the World’s Worst Dog

“A dog judges others not by their color or creed or class but by who they are inside. A dog doesn't care if you are rich or poor, educated or illiterate, clever or dull. Give him your heart and he will give you his.”
― John Grogan, Marley and Me

“A dog doesn't care if you are rich or poor, educated of illiterate, clever or dull. Give him your heart and he will give you his. It was really quite simple, and yet we humans, so much wiser and more sophisticated, have always had trouble figuring out what really counts and what does not.”
― John Grogan, Marley and Me: Life and Love With the World’s Worst Dog

“It’s just the most amazing thing to love a dog, isn’t it? It makes our relationships with people seem as boring as a bowl of oatmeal!”
― John Grogan

“It’s just the most amazing thing to love a dog, isn’t it? It makes our relationships with people seem as boring as a bowl of oatmeal.”
― John Grogan, Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog

“Life and love with the worlds worst dog”
― John Grogan

“The rhythm of solitude, once so intimidating, began to feel comfortable. Aloneness, I was learning, does not have to equal loneliness.”
― John Grogan, Bad Dogs Have More Fun: Selected Writings on Family, Animals, and Life from The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Whatever false sense of security the contraption had once offered us was gone. Each time we left, even for a half hour, we wondered whether this would be the time that our manic inmate would bust out and go on another couch-shredding, wall-gouging, door-eating rampage. So much for peace of mind.”
― John Grogan, Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog

“Non avevo mai considerato Marley come un modello da seguire, ma seduto lì a bere la mia birra, pensavo che forse custodiva il segreto di una buona vita. Mai rallentare, mai guardare indietro, vivere ogni giorno con brio giovanile, coraggio, curiosità e giocosità. Se pensi di essere ancora giovane, magari lo sei, indipendentemente da quel che dice il calendario. Non una cattiva filosofia di vita, anche se preferisco sorvolare sulla parte che implicava devastazione di divani e lavanderie.”
― John Grogan, Io & Marley