"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 & Me: Love and Life 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 Illustrated Edition: 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 has no use for fancy cars or big homes or designer clothes. Status symbols mean nothing to him. A water-logged 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. "
— John Grogan (Marley & Me: Love and Life 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 & Me: Love and Life 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 & Me: Love and Life 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 & Me: Love and Life with the World's Worst Dog)

"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 & Me: Love and Life 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: And Other Tails of Animals, Life and Family)

"A dog has no use for fancy cars or big homes or designer clothes. Satus symbols mean 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. "
— John Grogan (Marley & Me: Love and Life 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 Illustrated Edition: 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 Illustrated Edition: 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 & Me: Love and Life with the World's Worst Dog)

"I read "Marley & Me" while I was on vacation last week. I could have written that book. My lab was just like that Marley. Especially the chapter about obdience training school. Hilarious!!"
— John Grogan

"Just so you know Labrodor retrivers do not howl.Begals Howl.Wolves howl. Labs do not howl, at lestnot well. Marley attempted twice to howl, both times in answer to a passing police siren, tossing back his head, forming his mouth into an O shape, and letting loose the most pathetic sound Ihave ever heard, more like gargling than answering the call of the wild. Butnow,no question about it he was howling."
— John Grogan (Marley: A Dog Like No Other)

" Marley!!!"
— John Grogan (Marley & Me: Love and Life with the World's Worst Dog)

"(referring to their hens/chickens)
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 & Me: Love and Life with the World's Worst Dog)