"A man is not a good man to me because he will feed me if I should be starving, or warm me if I should be freezing, or pull me out of a ditch if I should ever fall into one. I can find you a Newfoundland dog that will do as much."

Henry David Thoreau (from "Economy" in Walden)

"Mrs. Darling loved to have everything just so, and Mr. Darling had a passion for being exactly like his neighbours; so, of course, they had a nurse. As they were poor, owing to the amount of milk the children drank, this nurse was a prim Newfoundland dog, called Nana, who had belonged to no one in particular until the Darlings engaged her."

from Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

"Here, Gentlemen, a dog teaches us a lesson in humanity."

Napoleon Bonaparte, upon being saved by a Newfoundland after slipping on his ship and falling overboard. He did not know how to swim, and was kept above water by the dog until he could be rescued.

"Newfoundland dogs are good to save children from drowning, but you must have a pond of water handy and a child, or else there will be no profit in boarding a Newfoundland."
- Josh Billings

"You ask of my companions. Hills, sir, and the sundown, and a dog as large as myself that my father bought me. They are better than human beings, because they know but do not tell."
Emily Dickinson, responding to an acquaintance's question in a letter: "Who are your companions?" She became a recluse when only 32, preferring her Newfoundland's company to that of humans.