Quotes about animals

„Staff and effigy of the animal
which by shedding its skin
is a sign of renewal —
the symbol of medicine.“

—  Marianne Moore American poet and writer 1887 - 1972

"The Staff of Aesculapius"

„GG Allin: I might go and kick somebody in the head, I might grab a girl and force her to perform oral sex with me. I've had sex on stage with men, women and animals and everything in between.“

—  GG Allin American singer-songwriter 1956 - 1993

GG Allin on The Jerry Springer Show, May 5. 1993.
On The Jerry Springer Show

„Accustom yourself to look first to the dreadful consequences of failure; then fix your eye on the glorious prize which is before you; and when your strength begins to fail, and your spirits are well nigh exhausted, let the animating view rekindle your resolution, and call forth in renewed vigour the fainting energies of your soul.“

—  William Wilberforce English politician 1759 - 1833

„Oh! Women can never forgive me. They hate me, they can feel that I ‘m disarming them. I show them without their coquetry, in the states of animals cleaning themselves… …I'm sure of it; they see me as the enemy. Fortunately, since if they did like me, that would be the end of me.“

—  Edgar Degas French artist 1834 - 1917

In Degas by Himself, Drawings, Paintings, Writings, ed. Richard Kendall 2000, p. 299
quotes, undated

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

—  Theodor W. Adorno German sociologist, philosopher and musicologist known for his critical theory of society 1903 - 1969

„If a black cat crosses your path, it signifies that the animal is going somewhere.“

—  Groucho Marx American comedian 1890 - 1977

„Dying more like animals than human beings.“

—  Giovanni Boccaccio, book The Decameron

Non come uomini, ma quasi come bestie, morieno.
First Day, Introduction
The Decameron (c. 1350)

„I think using animals for food is an ethical thing to do, but we've got to do it right. We've got to give those animals a decent life and we've got to give them a painless death. We owe the animal respect.“

—  Temple Grandin USA-american doctor of animal science, author, and autism activist 1947

„Books have the same enemies as people: fire, humidity, animals, weather, and their own content.“

—  Paul Valéry French poet, essayist, and philosopher 1871 - 1945

„We need, in a special way, to work twice as hard to make all people understand that animals are fellow creatures, that we must protect them and love them as we love ourselves… The basis for peace is respecting all creatures… That's the basis, the beginning for peace. …We know we cannot defend or be kind to animals until we stop exploiting them - exploiting them in the name of science, exploiting animals in the name of sport, exploiting animals in the name of fashion, and yes, exploiting animals in the name of food.“

—  Cesar Chavez American farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activist 1927 - 1993

Accepting a Lifetime Achievement Award from In Defense of Animals in 1992.

„Instinct reveals itself as self-concentrating, self-edifying it is limitation. Intuition produces self-denial, self-destruction； it is expansion. Culture can develop both. If it develops instinct, animal nature appears. Then culture destroys the intuitive capacity which men have even found in a primitive state.“

—  Piet Mondrian Peintre Néerlandais 1872 - 1944

Source: 1940's, A New Realism', 1943-1945, p. 17

„The only animal from which humans have nothing to learn, in fact, is the sheep. Humans have already learned everything the sheep's got to teach.“

—  Glen Duncan, book I, Lucifer

Source: I, Lucifer

„From my reading of Gandhi I had learned how some people in India regard eating cow as unspeakably repulsive. I realized I felt the same way about cats and dogs: I could never eat them. Were cows so different from cats and dogs that there were two moral standards, one that applies to cows, another that applies to cats and dogs? Were pigs so different? Were any of the animals I ate so different?“

—  Tom Regan, book Empty Cages

Source: Empty Cages (2004), Ch. 2

„If exposure of body is modernism, then animals are more modern than humans.“

—  Zakir Naik Islamic televangelist 1965

Zakir Naik https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/7133146.Zakir_Naik

„I gave my beauty and my youth to men. I am going to give my wisdom and experience to animals.“

—  Brigitte Bardot French model, actor, singer and animal rights activist 1934

„Dogs do not have many advantages over people, but one of them is extremely important: euthanasia is not forbidden by law in their case; animals have the right to a merciful death.“

—  Milan Kundera, book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

„I'm very proud [to be part Italian] … Although I don't eat a lot of Italian things, because I'm vegan. … I love animals more than I love most people, not kidding. But I am a firm believer in eating a full plant-based, whole food diet that can expand your life length and make you an all-round happier person. It is tricky dining out, but I just stick to what I know – veggies, fruit and salad – then when I get home I'll have something else.“

—  Ariana Grande American singer-songwriter 1993

"Ariana Grande: "I love animals more than I love most people, not kidding"" https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/ariana-grande-i-love-animals-4754625, interview with the Mirror (5 December 2014)

„Researchers find it very necessary to keep blinkers on. They don't want to admit that the animals they are working with have feelings.“

—  Jane Goodall British primatologist, ethologist, and anthropologist 1934

" An Interview with Jane Goodall https://web.archive.org/web/20100920074838/http://www.idausa.org:80/essays/goodallinterview.html", In Defense of Animals (date unknown)
Context: Researchers find it very necessary to keep blinkers on. They don't want to admit that the animals they are working with have feelings. They don't want to admit that they might have minds and personalities because that would make it quite difficult for them to do what they do; so we find that within the lab communities there is a very strong resistance among the researchers to admitting that animals have minds, personalities and feelings.

„Thousands of people who say they "love" animals sit down once or twice a day to enjoy the flesh of creatures who have been utterly deprived of everything that could make their lives worth living and who endured the awful suffering and the terror of the abattoirs— and the journey to get there— before finally leaving their miserable world, only too often after a painful death.“

—  Jane Goodall British primatologist, ethologist, and anthropologist 1934

The Ten Trusts (2003), p. xv