QuoteProject
Dogs come into our lives to teach us about love and loyalty. They depart to teach us about loss. A new dog never replaces an old dog; it merely expands the heart. If you have loved many dogs, your heart is very big.
Erica Jong
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote reflects on the deep emotional impact that dogs have on our lives, teaching us about love, loyalty, and the pain of loss.

Erica Jong's quote highlights the profound relationship humans have with dogs, illustrating how these animals not only bring joy and companionship but also serve as teachers of vital life lessons such as love and loyalty. The departure of a beloved dog teaches us about loss, yet the arrival of a new dog signifies the expansion of our capacity to love; thus, those who have experienced love for multiple dogs possess a heart that is capable of immense love and resilience.

Themes

DogsLoveLoyaltyLossHeartCompanionship

In practice

Example use cases

During a pet adoption event, I shared this quote to convey the deep bond people form with their dogs.

More from Erica Jong

My reaction to porno films is as follows: After the first ten minutes, I want to go home and screw. After the first twenty minutes, I never want to screw again as long as I live.
Erica JongRead
I have accepted fear as a part of life - specifically the fear of change... I have gone ahead despite the pounding in the heart that says: turn back.
Erica JongRead
No one ever found wisdom without also being a fool. Writers, alas, have to be fools in public, while the rest of the human race can cover its tracks.
Erica JongRead
My generation was not only maligned in book reviews and attacked in graduate school but we lived to see our adored and adorable daughters wonder why feminism had become a dirty word.
Erica JongRead
Do you want me to tell you something really subversive? Love is everything it's cracked up to be. That's why people are so cynical about it. It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more.
Erica JongRead
I believe that women should live for love, for motherhood and for intellect, and I believe we shouldn't have to choose. And I believe that's always been difficult for women, to express themselves intellectually, maternally, and passionately.
Erica JongRead

Similar quotes

I am your lover, come to my side, I will open the gate to your love. Come settle with me, let us be neighbors to the stars. You have been hiding so long, endlessly drifting in the sea of my love. Even so, you have always been connected to me. Concealed, revealed, in the unknown, in the un-manifest. I am life itself. You have been a prisoner of a little pond, I am the ocean and its turbulent flood. Come merge with me, leave this world of ignorance. Be with me, I will open the gate to your love.
RumiRead
Perfect behavior is born of complete indifference. Perhaps this is why we always love madly someone who treats us with indifference.
Cesare PaveseRead
I loved you so much once. I did. More than anything in the whole wide world. Imagine that. What a laugh that is now. Can you believe it? We were so intimate once upon a time I can't believe it now. The memory of being that intimate with somebody. We were so intimate I could puke. I can't imagine ever being that intimate with somebody else. I haven't been.
Raymond CarverRead
Power at its best is love implementing the demand of justice.
Martin Luther King, Jr.Read
And when you smile, the whole world stops and stares for a while
Bruno MarsRead
No young lady can be justified in falling in love before the gentleman's love is declared, it must be very improper that a young lady should dream of a gentleman before the gentleman is first known to have dreamt of her.
Jane AustenRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.