Quotes from A Dog's Purpose

W. Bruce Cameron ·  319 pages

Rating: (86.6K votes)


“Because failure isn't an option if success is just a matter of more effort.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, quote from A Dog's Purpose


“Dogs have important jobs, like barking when the doorbell rings, but cats have no function in a house whatsoever.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, quote from A Dog's Purpose


“My purpose, my whole life, had been to love him and be with him, to make him happy. I didn’t want to cause any unhappiness now—in that way, I decided it was probably better than he wasn’t here to see this, though I missed him so much at that moment the ache of it was as bad as the strange pains in my belly.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, quote from A Dog's Purpose


“The job of a good dog was ultimately to be with them, remaining by their sides no matter what course their lives might take. All I could do now was offer him comfort, the assurance that as he left this life he was not alone but rather was tended by the dog who loved him more than anything in the whole world.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, quote from A Dog's Purpose


“I guess I had never bothered to consider that there might such a thing as a boy, but now that I had found one, I thought it was just about the most wonderful concept in the world. He smelled of mud and sugar and an animal I'd never scented before, and a faint meaty odor clung to his fingers, so I licked them.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, quote from A Dog's Purpose



“I remembered the boy crying the day they buried Smokey in the yard, and I hoped he wouldn’t cry over my death. My purpose, my whole life, had been to love him and be with him, to make him happy.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, quote from A Dog's Purpose


“Humans were capable of so many amazing things, but too often they just sat making words, not doing anything.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, quote from A Dog's Purpose


“I realized that today I truly understood my purpose as Ellie: not just to Find people but to save them.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, quote from A Dog's Purpose


“All I could do now was offer him comfort, the assurance that as he left this life he was not alone but rather was tended by the dog who loved him more than anything in the whole world.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, quote from A Dog's Purpose


“As I sat in the sun on the wooden dock that jutted out into the pond, I knew this to be true: my name was Buddy, and I was a good dog.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, quote from A Dog's Purpose



“Human motivation is unfathomable to dogs, so I wasn’t sure why the two of us were separated, but I knew that when the time came, Ethan would Find me.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, quote from A Dog's Purpose


“I was a good dog. I had fulfilled my purpose. Lessons I had learned from being feral had taught me how to escape and how to hide from people when it was necessary, scavenging for food from trash containers. Being with Ethan had taught me love and had taught me my most important purpose, which was taking care of my boy. Jakob and Maya had taught me Find, Show, and, most important of all, how to save people, and it was all of these things, everything I had learned as a dog, that had led me to find Ethan and Hannah and to bring them both together.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, quote from A Dog's Purpose


“For the next several minutes nothing much happened, biscuit wise.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, quote from A Dog's Purpose


“This was, I decided, my purpose as a dog, to comfort the boy whenever he needed me. Sometimes”
― W. Bruce Cameron, quote from A Dog's Purpose


“Humans are so much more complex than dogs, with such a broad range of feelings—though there were many times I missed the Yard, for the most part I was now living a far richer life, even though I often didn’t know what was going on.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, quote from A Dog's Purpose



“turned away. It looked as though I lived in a family of dimwits. I”
― W. Bruce Cameron, quote from A Dog's Purpose


“I will miss you, doodle dog," Ethan said to me.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, quote from A Dog's Purpose


“I wondered briefly if cats also came back after death, then dismissed the thought because as far as I had ever been able to tell, cats do not have a purpose.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, quote from A Dog's Purpose


“Sí. Este perro será el problema,” Bobby replied. Senora”
― W. Bruce Cameron, quote from A Dog's Purpose


“Because failure isn’t an option if success is just a matter of more effort.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, quote from A Dog's Purpose



“life was far more complicated than it had appeared to be in the Yard and that it was people who were in charge of it, not dogs.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, quote from A Dog's Purpose


“Dogs are not allowed to choose where they live; my fate would be decided by people.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, quote from A Dog's Purpose


“struggled to get down to play with this new friend, but Ethan held me tight.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, quote from A Dog's Purpose


“I was a good dog. I had fulfilled my purpose. Lessons I had learned from being feral had taught me how to escape and how to hide from people when it was necessary, scavenging for food from trash containers. Being with Ethan had taught me love and had taught me my most important purpose, which was taking care of my boy. Jakob and Maya had taught me Find, Show, and, most important of all, how to save people, and it was all of these things, everything I had learned as a dog, that had led me to find Ethan and Hannah and to bring them both together. I understood it now, why I had lived so many times. I had to learn a lot of important skills and lessons, so that when the time came I could rescue Ethan, not from the pond but from the sinking despair of his own life. The”
― W. Bruce Cameron, quote from A Dog's Purpose


“Lennon said that life’s what happens when you’re making other plans.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, quote from A Dog's Purpose



“Maya was wearing a big fluffy outfit, so I knew we weren’t going to the park to play afterward, but that was okay because everyone seemed so glad at how well I’d done the trick. Mama even cried, she was so happy.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, quote from A Dog's Purpose


“a dog’s job was to do what people wanted.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, quote from A Dog's Purpose


About the author

W. Bruce Cameron
Born place: The United States
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“Work in me more profound and abiding repentance;
Give me the fullness of godly grief, that trembles and fears, yet ever trust and loves, which is ever powerful, and ever confident;
Grant through the tears of repentance I may see more clearly the brightness and glories of the saving cross.”
― quote from The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions


“Wow. Why don’t you start with authority? Authority of what?’’ ‘‘Magic.’’ ‘‘Really. Magic experts? Are there magic lectures? Magic bake sales? Magic bingo night?”
― Devon Monk, quote from Magic to the Bone


“Below us the country looked like a black lake. Nowhere was there a glimmer of light. Nowhere, so far as the eye could range, was there a living creature except here in this group of holy buildings. With the going down of the sun, the night wind rose and set about the business of the gods, the dusting of the corners of Earth. As it swept along the valley below, it was trapped by the mountainside and was channeled up through faults in the rock, to emerge into our upper air with a dull moaning boom, like a giant conch calling one to service. Around us there was the creaking and crackling of rocks moving and contracting now that the greater heat of the day had gone. Above us the stars were vivid in the dark night sky. The Old People used to say that Kesar’s Legions had dropped their spears on the Floor of Heaven at the call of Buddha, and the stars were but the reflections of the lights of the Heavenly Room shining through the holes.”
― quote from The Third Eye


“Sex is . . . well, it’s so rude, isn’t it? You wouldn’t think girls would like sex. You’d think it’s too rude for them. Doing sex with a girl, it’s a bit like putting a frog down their backs or scaring them with dead mice or throwing worms at them. They’re such sensible, grown-up sorts of people. And yet apparently even the nice ones like you sticking the rudest thing you have on your whole body up the exact, rudest part of their body that they have. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me!”
― Melvin Burgess, quote from Doing It


“More often than not bad luck meant bad plans.”
― Joe Abercrombie, quote from The First Law Trilogy


Interesting books

All My Puny Sorrows
(15K)
All My Puny Sorrows
by Miriam Toews
Aflame
(17.1K)
Aflame
by Penelope Douglas
Antichrista
(4.7K)
Antichrista
by Amélie Nothomb
How to Be a Pirate
(10.6K)
How to Be a Pirate
by Cressida Cowell
The Devil Tree
(829)
The Devil Tree
by Jerzy Kosiński
Sleep Tight
(19.7K)
Sleep Tight
by Rachel Abbott

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.