“Man is not a rational animal; he is a rationalizing animal.”
Robert A. Heinlein book Tunnel in the Sky
Source: Tunnel in the Sky (1955), Chapter 2, “The Fifth Way” (p. 42)
" Diddling: Considered As One Of The Exact Sciences http://www.classicreader.com/read.php/sid.6/bookid.1390/"; first published as "Raising the Wind" in Saturday Courier (1843-10-14).
“Man is not a rational animal; he is a rationalizing animal.”
Robert A. Heinlein book Tunnel in the Sky
Source: Tunnel in the Sky (1955), Chapter 2, “The Fifth Way” (p. 42)
Randall Jarrell (1914–1965) poet, critic, novelist, essayist
He is certainly a brother to wolves, and to pandas too, but he is father to dragons, not brother: they, like many gods and devils, are inventions of his.
“On the Underside of the Stone”, p. 177
Kipling, Auden & Co: Essays and Reviews 1935-1964 (1980)
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
“Man is a reasoning animal.”
Rationale enim animal est homo.
Seneca the Younger (-4–65 BC) Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist
Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter XLI: On the god within us
“As long as man eats animals how can cruelty to animals be removed.”
Morarji Desai (1896–1995) Former Indian Finance Minister, Freedom Fighters, Former prime minister
19th World Vegetarian Congress 1967
“Man [is a] tool-making animal.”
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, …
Quoted by James Boswell in The Life of Samuel Johnson, April 7, 1778 https://books.google.de/books?id=nuINAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA199&dq=tool-making (1791). <br class="br">Decade unclear
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799) German scientist, satirist
F 49
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook F (1776-1779)
“Man is the Only Animal that Blushes. Or needs to.”
Mark Twain book Following the Equator
Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar, Ch. XXVII
Following the Equator (1897)
“.. the most dangerous animal in a zoo is Man.”
Yann Martel book Life of Pi
Variant: We commonly say in the trade that the most dangerous animal in a zoo is Man.
Source: Life of Pi