210 Animals Quotes

The ethic of Reverence for Life prompts us to keep each other alert to what troubles us and to speak and act dauntlessly together in discharging the responsibility that we feel. It keeps us watching together for opportunities to bring some sort of help to animals in recompense for the great misery that men inflict upon them, and thus for a moment we escape from the incomprehensible horror of existence.

I used to suffer particularly because the poor animals must endure so much pain and want. The sight of an old, limping horse being dragged along by one man while another man struck him with a stick he was being driven to the Colmar slaughterhouse - haunted me for weeks.

Animals, they are one of the most beautiful gifts we have and, you know, if there are people that have compassion, there are very few people that put their money into animal rescue organizations. And if there is someone that has that passion, animals need all the help they can get.

Concerning the generation of animals akin to them, as hornets and wasps, the facts in all cases are similar to a certain extent, but are devoid of the extraordinary features which characterize bees; this we should expect, for they have nothing divine about them as the bees have.

Terms like that, 'Humane Society,' are devised with people like me in mind, who don't care to dwell on what happens to the innocent.

Physiological experiment on animals is justifiable for real investigation, but not for mere damnable and detestable curiosity.

If a fish is the movement of water embodied, given shape, then cat is a diagram and pattern of subtle air.

There is something in the unselfish and self-sacrificing love of a brute, which goes directly to the heart of him who has had frequent occasion to test the paltry friendship and gossamer fidelity of mere Man.

My friends call me 'Dolittle One' [a reference to her physical stature and affinity for animals].

People often say that humans have always eaten animals, as if this is a justification for continuing the practice. According to this logic, we should not try to prevent people from murdering other people, since this has also been done since the earliest of times.

It goes without saying that the desire to accomplish the task with more confidence, to avoid wasting time and labour, and to spare our experimental animals as much as possible, made us strictly observe all the precautions taken by surgeons in respect to their patients.

Our success was mainly due to the fact that we stimulated the nerves of animals that easily stood on their own feet and were not subjected to any painful stimulus either during or immediately before stimulation of their nerves.

Thanks to our present surgical methods in physiology we can demonstrate at any time almost all phenomena of digestion without the loss of even a single drop of blood, without a single scream from the animal undergoing the experiment.

Mankind is like dogs, not gods - as long as you don't get mad they'll bite you - but stay mad and you'll never be bitten. Dogs don't respect humility and sorrow.

It's bad to wake up and see a large cat in mid-leap from the rough vicinity of the ceiling.

One memory I have is there were a lot of dogs at this one place and my brother got in a horrific fight with a dog and the dog bit his toe off. They became fast friends after that. He lost a toe and gained a friend.

Cats are smarter than dogs. You can't get eight cats to pull a sled through snow.

In their sympathies, children feel nearer animals than adults. They frolic with animals, caress them, share with them feelings neither has words for. Have they ever stroked any adult with the love they bestow on a cat? Hugged any grownup with the ecstasy they feel when clasping a puppy?

Myrmecophaga jubata: The anteater. The existence of this predator demonstrates that thinking 71 percent of the time, as ants do, won't prevent you from being eaten. Thinking less than that, as humans do, will almost guarantee it.

To be sure, the dog is loyal. But why, on that account, should we take him as an example? He is loyal to man, not to other dogs.

Life is no way to treat an animal.

An animal's eyes have the power to speak a great language.

We don't eat anything that has to be killed for us. We've been through a lot and we've reached a stage where we really value life.

Animal lovers often tend to be misanthropes or loners, and so they transfer their affection to the creature in their control.

When my cats aren't happy, I'm not happy. Not because I care about their mood but because I know they're just sitting there thinking up ways to get even.

We need an extreme movement because what is happening to animals is so extreme. Some misinformed people claim that animal rights activists are terrorists, but these people are simply ignorant of who the real terrorists are - the companies and industries that torture literally billions of animals each year.

Animals are not our playthings. We are on this earth to protect them. It's our duty.

I am glad that the life of pandas is so dull by human standards, for our efforts at conservation have little moral value if we preserve creatures only as human ornaments; I shall be impressed when we show solicitude for warty toads and slithering worms.

I put contact lenses in my dog's eyes. They had little pictures of cats on them. Then I took one out and he ran around in circles.

Cows are amongst the gentlest of breathing creatures; none show more passionate tenderness to their young when deprived of them; and, in short, I am not ashamed to profess a deep love for these quiet creatures.

Sharks are the criminals of the sea. Dolphins are the outlaws.

I have a great love of animals and laughter.

'Auschwitz begins wherever someone looks at a slaughterhouse and thinks: they're only animals.'

I must interpret the life about me as I interpret the life that is my own. My life is full of meaning to me. The life around me must be full of significance to itself. If I am to expect others to respect my life, then I must respect the other life I see, however strange it may be to mine. And not only other human life, but all kinds of life: life above mine, if there be such life; life below mine, as I know it to exist. Ethics in our Western world has hitherto been largely limited to the relations of man to man. But that is a limited ethics. We need a boundless ethics which will include the animals also.

Cruelty to animals is one of the most significant vices of a low and ignoble people. Wherever one notices them, they constitute a sure sign of ignorance and brutality which cannot be painted over even by all the evidence of wealth and luxury. Cruelty to animals cannot exist together with true education and true learning.

Once upon a time there were four little Rabbits, and their names were - Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail, and Peter.

No animal should ever jump up on the dining room furniture unless absolutely certain that he can hold his own in the conversation.

I totally animal-oriented. I've got nine dogs, eight birds, turtles, fish -- and I had wallabies at one point.

It is inexcuseable for scientists to torture animals; let them make their experiments on journalists and politicians.

How can we speak of right and justice if we take an innocent creature and shed its blood? How can we pray to God for mercy if we ourselves have no mercy?

It was bad enough to have toppled from the Olympic heights to make my living competing with animals. But the competition wasn't even fair. No man could beat a race horse, not even for 100 yards. ... The secret is, first, get a thoroughbred horse because they are the most nervous animals on earth. Then get the biggest gun you can find and make sure the starter fires that big gun right by the nervous thoroughbred's ear.

But keep the wolf far thence, that's foe to men, For with his nails he'll dig them up again.

My apartment is infested with koala bears. Its the cutest infestation ever. Much better than cockroaches.

I am willing to believe that my unobtainable sixty seconds within a sponge or a flatworm might not reveal any mental acuity that I would care to call consciousness. But I am also confident [:] that vultures and sloths, as close evolutionary relatives with the same basic set of organs, lie on our side of any meaningful (and necessarily fuzzy) border-and that we are therefore not mistaken when we look them in the eye and see a glimmer of emotional and conceptual affinity.

As far as I can recall, the initial shiver of inspiration was somehow prompted by a newspaper story about an ape in the Jardin des Plantes who, after months of coaxing by a scientist, produced the first drawing ever charcoaled by an animal: this sketch showed the bars of the poor creature's cage.

Why is there such a gap between nonspeaking animals and speaking man, when there is no other such gap in nature? Is it possible that a theory of man is nothing more nor less than a theory of the speaking creatures? [citation needed]

He who shall hurt the little wren Shall never bebeloved by men.

Minnaloushe creeps through the grass Alone, important and wise, And lifts to the changing moon His changing eyes.

There is no fundamental difference between man and the higher animals in their mental faculties.

'I love things made out of animals,' Sedaris says, holding a knife with a hoof for a handle. 'It's just so funny to think of someone saying, 'I need a letter opener. I guess I'll have to kill a deer.''

Feather-footed through the plashy fen passes the questing vole.

The lower animals, like man, manifestly feel pleasure and pain, happiness, and misery. Happiness is never better exhibited than by young animals, such as puppies, kittens, lambs, etc., when playing together, like our own children. ... The fact that the lower animals are excited by the same emotions as ourselves is so well established, that it will not be necessary to weary the reader by many details. Terror acts in the same manner on them as on us, causing the muscles to tremble, the heart to palpitate, the sphincters to be relaxed, and the hair to stand on end. Suspicion, the offspring of fear, is eminently characteristic of most wild animals. Courage and timidity are extremely variable qualities in the individuals of the same species, as is plainly seen in our dogs. Some dogs and horses are ill-tempered, and easily turn sulky ; others are good- tempered; and these qualities are certainly inherited.

Cows are my passion.

I love little pussy, her coat is so warm; And if I don't hurt her she'll do me no harm.

I was such an ugly kid- when I played in the sandbox, the cat kept covering me up.

'I love your duck with all its ducky goodness.' [In a Q&A when Jenny told him that, her duck loves him and asked if he loved it back.]

Is a hippopotamus really a hippopotomus or just a really cool opotamus?

I got an ant farm...them fellas didn't grow shit.

This is the room of the wolfmother wallpaper, the room where the black virgin fell down the chimney and burned a hole in the linoleum. Countless are the antelope hooves that have pounded this floor. No wonder the lineleum is worn.

Isn't it funny How a bear likes honey? Buzz! Buzz! Buzz! I wonder why he does?

Let no one regard as light the burden of his responsibility. While so much ill-treatment of animals goes on, while the moans of thirsty animals in railway trucks sound unheard, while so much brutality prevails in our slaughterhouses... we all bear guilt. Everything that lives has value as a living thing, as one of the manifestations of the mystery that is life.

Believe it or not, one polar bear liver can kill you quicker than a blowfish fillet.

We were in Brooklyn and we stopped by a neighbor's house ... there were these dogs there and I guess they had puppies, she was going to keep one but said she may have to put the rest to sleep if she couldn't find homes for them, so if we knew anyone that wanted puppies to let her know. I asked what she meant by 'putting them to sleep', so I asked and my mom being as subtle as possible said it means they are going to kill them. So we took home one named Pluto.

I love little pussy, her coat is so warm; And if I don't hurt her she'll do me no harm.

This is a Tale about a tail - a tail that belonged to a little red squirrel, and his name was Nutkin.

'My position is neutral with respect to sheep' (2004)

The town was abuzz with talk of the King's animals. We were fed regularly, and the King and Queen quite often enjoyed feeling my abdomen to see if I weren't pregnant; they were extraordinarily eager to have a whole family of little animals like us.

Rabbits. You know bunnies. If you don't look out for them, the little bastards sneak up on you and bite you and shit.

When I was real younger I had a hermit crab. I remember when I was real young I wanted a tarantula but my mom wouldn't let me have a tarantula. Cats. Most of my life I had cats. I had a venus fly trap once.

This is Stupid Pet Tricks... and remember this is an exhibition not a competition so please, no wagering.

Therefore to this dog will I, Tenderly not scornfully, Render praise and favor: With my hand upon his head, Is my benediction said Therefore and for ever.

The gingham dog went 'Bow-wow-wow!' And the calico cat replied 'Mee-ow!' The air was littered, an hour or so, With bits of gingham and calico.

The sheer blue milken dreaminess spurting and shuddering from the fourteen teats into the fourteen mouths sucking and blowing beneath them: the long, perfect loveliness of sow.

I'm so excited to see the kangaroos.

The purpose of keeping any collection of wild animals in confinement should be threefold; first, to conduct as complete as possible a biological study of every species, especially those aspects which are too difficult or too costly to study in the wild and which may help in the preservation of that species in its natural habitat; second, to aid severely endangered species by setting up, under ideal conditions, protected breeding groups and, eventually, a reintroduction programme, so helping to ensure their future survival; thirdly, by the display and explanation of this work to the public, to persuade people of the vital necessity and urgency for the overall conservation of nature.

To say that Gannet City was busy would be an understatement. New York in the rush-hour would appear immobile in comparison. There were gannets incubating, feeding chicks, flirting, mating, preening and launching themselves into the air in effortless flight on their six-foot wings. With their creamy- white bodies, wing-tips black as jet and their orange-coloured nape and head they were impressive and immensely handsome.

Presently, however, we came to a small clearing and there, squatting at the mouth of its burrow was the musician responsible for the ringing, flute-like cry - a fat ground squirrel, wearing a tasteful suit of rust-red and grey fur. He sat as upright as a guardsman at the entrance to his home and his ribcage pumped in and out as he gave his musical warning cry. His big, liquid eyes stared at us with that intense, slightly inane expression that most squirrels wear, and his little paws trembled with his vocal efforts.

George Wyndham once told me that he had seen one of the first aeroplanes rise for the first time and it was very wonderful but not so wonderful as a horse allowing a man to ride on him. Somebody else has said that a fine man on a fine horse is the noblest bodily object in the world. Now, so long as people feel this in the right way, all is well. The first and best way of appreciating it is to come of people with a tradition of treating animals properly; of men in the right relation to horses.

I saved her {pet bulldog Noelle's) life -- and she changed mine. [Noelle is the title character of The Magically Mysterious Adventures of Noelle the Bulldog -- Estefan's first children's book.]

A prostitute was forgiven by Allah, because, passing by a panting dog near a well and seeing that the dog was about to die of thirst, she took off her shoe, and tying it with her head-cover she drew out some water for it. So, Allah forgave her because of that.

Five kinds of animals are mischief-doers and can be killed even in the Sanctuary: They are the rat, the scorpion, the kite, the crow and the rabid dog.

While a man was walking along a road, he became very thirsty and found a well. He lowered himself into the well, drank, and came out. Then [he saw] a dog protruding its tongue out with thirst. The man said: 'This dog has become exhausted from thirst in the same way as I.' He lowered himself into the well again and filled his shoe with water. He gave the dog some water to drink. He thanked God, and [his sins were] forgiven. The Prophet was then asked: 'Is there a reward for us in our animals?' He said: 'There is a reward in every living thing.'

After remaking the animal's organism in accordance with our design, which naturally caused more or less damage to the experimental animal, we had to find a modus vivendi for it that would ensure an absolutely normal and long life.

In this way we often had to perform very minute operations, sometimes several of them on one and the same animal.

First you are swathed head to foot in the intestines of fresh killed owls.

'Yes, I'm a vegetarian, but not because I love animals. I'm a vegetarian because I hate plants.'

'I'd like to ride around in a kangaroo pouch but I hear they're filled with mucus.'

On thy fair bosom, silver lake, The wild swan spreads his snowy sail, And round his breast the ripples break As down he bears before the gale.

I saw them go: one horse was blind, The tails of both hung down behind, Their shoes were on their feet.

Um... I have a wolf. And his name is none of your business. He doesn't like the press.

I have known many dogs, and many a story I could tell of their wisdom and devotion; but to none do I owe so much as to Stickeen. At first the least promising and least known of my dog-friends, he suddenly became the best known of them all. Our storm-battle for life brought him to light, and through him as through a window I have ever since been looking with deeper sympathy into all my fellow mortals.

I think I became an animal rights activist for two reasons. One is that my best friend, the one that has lived with me and loved me the longest... is my dog Al Finney. Someone told me once that animals don't have hearts and souls...Well ,if that is true, then I have loved and been madly loved, and comforted by a stuffed animal for the last 15 years.