關於這句俚語的來源，似乎至今還沒有一個確定的出處，倒是有好幾種不同的說法。其實，最初人們的確用過to rain pitchforks, to rain shovels, darning needles, chicken coops和hammer handles來描述“持續的大雨”。 “To rain cats and dogs”最早應該是出現在理查德-布羅姆1652年創作的劇本《The City Wit, or the Woman Wears the Breeches》中：“It shall rain dogs and polecats.” Polecats 是一種類似於雪貂的貓，但是這個詞后來在喬納森-斯威夫特的筆下變成了Cats。1738年，斯威夫特在《A Complete Collection of Polite and Ingenious Conversation》一書中所使用的短語就是如今我們所熟悉的這種形式：“I know Sir John will go, though he was sure it would cats and dogs.”
"People who hate cats were rats in another incarnation." - Proverb
"No matter how much cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens." - Abraham Lincoln
"There are people who reshape the world by force or argument, but the cat just lies there, dozing; and the world quietly reshapes itself to suit his comfort and convenience." - Allen & Ivy Dodd
"Beware of people who dislike cats." - Irish proverb
"One of the most striking differences between a cat and a lie is that a cat has only nine lives." - Mark Twain
"Alexander the Great, Napoleon, and Hitler...were apparently terrified of small felines....If you want to conquer the world you had better not share even a moment with an animal that refuses to be conquered at any price, by anyone." - Desmond Morris
"A dog is prose, a cat is a poem." - Jean Burden
"Cats are smarter than dogs. You can't get eight cats to pull a sled through snow." - Jeff Valdez
"A man has to work so hard so that something of his personality stays alive. A tomcat has t so easy, he has only to spray and his presence is there for years on rainy days." - Albert Einstein
"Some men there are love not a gaping pig; Some, that are mad if they behold a cat." - Shakespeare
'But thousands die without this or that, / Die, and endow a college, or a cat.' - Alexander Pope
'It's a cat eat dog world' - Norman Lowery
'By what right has the dog come to be regarded as a "noble" animal? The more brutal and cruel and unjust you are to him the more your fawning and adoring slave he becomes; whereas, if you shamefully misuse a cat once she will always maintain a dignified reserve toward you afterward - you will never get her full confidence again.' - Mark Twain
'Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back' -- Proverb
通常大家都只聽過"好奇殺死一隻貓", 不過還有下一句:"但是滿足又將之帶回"
'Pluto -this was the cat's name - was my favorite pet and playmate. I alone fed him, and he attended me wherever I went about the house. It was with difficulty that I could prevent him from following me through the streets.' --Edgar Allen Poe
