Quotes about animals
page 13

Wilbur Wright photo
Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery photo

“… that new spirit which is passing from municipal into Imperial politics, which aims more at the improvement of the lot of the worker and the toiler than at those great constitutional effects in which past Parliaments have taken as their pride… It is all very well to make great speeches and to win great divisions. It is well to speak with authority in the councils of the world and to see your navies riding on every sea, and to see your flag on every shore. That is well, but it is not all. I am certain that there is a party in this country not named as yet that is disconnected with any existing political organization, a party which is inclined to say, "A plague on both your Houses, a plague on all your parties, a plague on all your politics, a plague on your ending discussions which yield so little fruit." (Cheers.) "Have done with this unending talk and come down and do something for the people." It is this spirit which animates, as I believe, the great masses of our artisans, the great masses of our working clergy, the great masses of those who work for and with the poor, and who for the want of a better word I am compelled to call by the bastard term of philanthropists.”

Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery (1847–1929) British politician

Speech to a meeting at St James's Hall on behalf of the Progressive majority in the London County Council (21 March 1894), reported in The Times (22 March 1894), p. 7.

Richard Pryor photo

“Make sure the check you write to a charity doesn't pay for cruel experiments on animals. Your donation should help end suffering — not cause it.”

Richard Pryor (1940–2005) American stand-up comedian, actor, social critic, writer, and MC

Criticizing charities like the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (Pryor suffered from multiple sclerosis) for their animal studies; as quoted in "Pryor Fought Animal Abuse" by Lisa Lange, in Albuquerque Journal (15 December 2005)

Montesquieu photo
Daniel Handler photo
Thomas Aquinas photo
Franz Marc photo
John Dewey photo
William Alcott photo
Muhammad photo
Charles Fillmore photo
David Attenborough photo
David Dixon Porter photo

“Pecking order in birds or other animals.”

James Grier Miller (1916–2002) biologist

Living Systems: Basic Concepts (1969)

Alfred North Whitehead photo

“Scientists, animated by the purpose of proving they are purposeless, constitute an interesting subject for study.”

Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) English mathematician and philosopher

The Function of Reason (1929), Beacon Books, 1958, p. 16
1920s

Jane Roberts photo
Paul Theroux photo
Ray Comfort photo
Zalman Schachter-Shalomi photo
John Maynard Smith photo
Georg Friedrich Daumer photo

“Among the reforms necessary for the triumph of true refinement and true morality, which ought to be our earnest aim, is the Dietetic one, which, if not the weightiest of all (allerwichtigste), yet, undoubtedly, is one of the weightiest. Still is the ‘civilised’ world stained and defiled by the remains of a horrible barbarity; while the old-world revolting practice of slaughter of animals and feeding on their corpses still is in so universal vogue, that men have not the faculty even of recognising it as such, as otherwise they would recognise it; and aversion from this horror provokes censure of such eccentricity, and amazement at any manifestation of tendency to reform, as at something absurd and ridiculous — nay, arouses even bitterness and hate. To extirpate this barbarism is a task, the accomplishment of which lies in the closest relationship with the most important principles of humaneness, morality, æsthetics, and physiology. A foundation for real culture — a thorough civilising and refining of humanity — is clearly impossible so long as an organised system of murder and of corpse-eating (organiserten Mord-und-Leichenfratz System) prevails by recognised custom.”

Georg Friedrich Daumer (1800–1875) German philosopher and poet

Quoted in The Ethics of Diet: A Catena of Authorities Deprecatory of the Practice of Flesh-eating https://archive.org/stream/ethicsofdietcate00will/ethicsofdietcate00will#page/n3/mode/2up by Howard Williams (London: F. Pitman, 1883), p. 283.

Pierce Brown photo
Peter Greenaway photo

“Are animals like car-crashes -- Acts of God or mere Accidents -- bizarre, tragic, farcical, plotted nowadays into a scenario by an ingenious storyteller, Mr C Darwin?”

Peter Greenaway (1942) British film director

From the introduction to the published script.
A Zed and Two Noughts

Gary Yourofsky photo
Ramsay MacDonald photo

“The animal I wanted
Couldn't get into the world…
I can hear it crying
When I sit like this away from life.”

Kenneth Patchen (1911–1972) American writer and poet

"'The Animal I Wanted'"

Walt Disney photo

“Animation offers a medium of story telling and visual entertainment which can bring pleasure and information to people of all ages everywhere in the world.”

Walt Disney (1901–1966) American film producer and businessman

As quoted in "COSI exhibit explores world of cartoons" by Jeffrey Zupanic in The Review (2 August 2007) http://www.the-review.com/news/article/2344671

Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey photo
Will Cuppy photo
Ray Comfort photo
John Hagee photo
Mac Danzig photo
Michael Crichton photo
Sten Nadolny photo
Rachel Carson photo
Halldór Laxness photo
Sharon Gannon photo
Alexey Voyevoda photo
Julien Offray de La Mettrie photo
Plutarch photo
Eugene V. Debs photo
William Burges photo

“Nothing is more perishable than worn-out apparel, yet, thanks to documentary evidence, to the custom of burying people of high rank in their robes, and to the practice of wrapping up relics of saints in pieces of precious stuffs, we are enabled to form a veiy good idea of what these stuffs were like and where they came from. In the first instance they appear to have come from Byzantium, and from the East generally; but the manufacture afterwards extended to Sicily, and received great impetus at the Norman conquest of that island; Roger I. even transplanting Greek workmen from the towns sacked by his army, and settling them in Sicily. Of course many of the workers would be Mohammedans, and the old patterns, perhaps with the addition of sundry animals, would still continue in use; hence the frequency of Arabic inscriptions in the borders, the Cufic character being one of the most ornamental ever used. In the Hotel de Clu^ny at Paris are preserved the remains of the vestments of a bishop of Bayonne, found when his sepulchre was opened in 1853, the date of the entombment being the twelfth century. Some of these remains are cloth of gold, but the most remarkable is a very deep border ornamented with blue Cufic letters on a gold ground; the letters are fimbriated with white, and from them issue delicate red scrolls, which end in Arabic sort of flowers: this tissue probably is pure Eastern work. On the contrary, the coronation robes of the German emperors, although of an Eastern pattern, bear inscriptions which tell us very clearly where they were manufactured: thus the Cufic characters on the cope inform us that it was made in the city of Palermo in the year 1133, while the tunic has the date of 1181, but then the inscription is in the Latin language. The practice of putting Cufic inscriptions on precious stuffs was not confined to the Eastern and Sicilian manufactures; in process of time other Italian cities took up the art, and, either because it was the fashion, or because they wished to pass off" their own work as Sicilian or Eastern manufacture, imitations of Arabic characters are continually met with, both on the few examples that have come down to us of the stuffs themselves, or on painted statues or sculptured effigies. These are the inscriptions which used to be the despair of antiquaries, who vainly searched out their meaning until it was discovered that they had no meaning at all, and that they were mere ornaments. Sometimes the inscriptions appear to be imitations of the Greek, and sometimes even of the Hebrew. The celebrated ciborium of Limoges work in the Louvre, known as the work of Magister G. Alpais, bears an ornament around its rim which a French antiquary has discovered to be nothing more than the upper part of a Cufic word repeated and made into a decoration.”

William Burges (1827–1881) English architect

Quote was introduced with the phrase:
In the lecture on the weaver's art, we are reminded of the superiority of Indian muslins and Chinese and Persian carpets, and the gorgeous costumes of the middle ages are contrasted with our own dark ungraceful garments. The Cufic inscriptions that have so perplexed antiquaries, were introduced with the rich Eastern stuffs so much sought after by the wealthy class, and though, as Mr. Burges observes
Source: Art applied to industry: a series of lectures, 1865, p. 85; Cited in: " Belles Lettres http://books.google.com/books?id=0EegAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA143" in: The Westminster Review, Vol. 84-85. Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, 1865. p. 143

Dawn Richard photo

“Animals don’t have the ability to say how much pain they’re in or tell you not to rip their skin off for your ability to wear something. … Really get into the process of seeing what you’re putting not only inside your body, but outside, too.”

Dawn Richard (1983) American musician

“D△WN Poses Naked in Graphic Anti-Leather Ad,” video interview with PETA (27 September 2017) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RILtC1gVN58.

S. I. Hayakawa photo
Bernard Mandeville photo
Jane Roberts photo
Martin Heidegger photo
Immanuel Kant photo
Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak photo
Ralph Waldo Trine photo
Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson photo

“Animals can not disapprove, but they can complain and protest, at least until their vocal chords are cut to spare experimenters their protests.”

Annette Baier (1929–2012) New Zealand philosopher

Source: Knowing Our Place in the Animal World, p. 73

Marie-Louise von Franz photo
J.D. Fortune photo
Michelle Visage photo

“Human life without some form of poetry is not human life but animal existence.”

Randall Jarrell (1914–1965) poet, critic, novelist, essayist

"The Obscurity of the Poet", p. 16
Poetry and the Age (1953)

Ingrid Newkirk photo

“We do not advocate "right to life" for animals.”

Ingrid Newkirk (1949) British-American activist

On a postcard to Nathan Winograd, a neuter/release and no-kill shelter advocate http://www.nokillnow.com/PETAIngridNewkirkResign.htm.
On pets

Muhammad photo
Kenneth Grahame photo
Jim Butcher photo
Karl Kraus photo

“When someone has behaved like an animal, he says: "I'm only human!" But when he is treated like an animal, he says: "I'm human, too!"”

Karl Kraus (1874–1936) Czech playwright and publicist

Half-Truths and One-And-A-Half Truths (1976)

Linda McCartney photo
Jane Roberts photo
Percy Bysshe Shelley photo
Karl Pilkington photo

“If an animal is named after what it eats, how interesting is it?”

Karl Pilkington (1972) English television personality, social commentator, actor, author and former radio producer

Xfm 26 July 2003
On Nature

Carol J. Adams photo

“In ontologizing women and animals as objects, our language simultaneously eliminates the fact that someone else is acting as a subject/agent/perpetrator of violence.”

Carol J. Adams (1951) author, animal rights activist

“Ecofeminism and the Eating of Animals”, in Ecological Feminist Philosophies, edited by Karen J. Warren (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996), p. 125.

Pippa Black photo

“Of course, going vegetarian is a positive step to help stop animal suffering; it's also great for your health and the environment. I just feel better since I stopped eating meat, and when you feel better, I think you look better too.”

Pippa Black (1982) actress

Interview with PETA Asia Pacific; quoted in "TV Star Goes Green for PETA's Ad Campaign" http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/GE0711/S00107.htm, Scoop (20 November 2007).

William Gilbert (astronomer) photo
Joel Fuhrman photo
Octavia E. Butler photo
Jeff Flake photo
Murray Leinster photo
William Edward Hartpole Lecky photo
Chad Johnson photo
Mata Amritanandamayi photo

“Animals that are killed for their flesh lead miserable lives. They are kept in disgusting conditions. The simplest little thing you can do not to hurt animals is just not eat them. I'm bringing my four children up vegetarian, and I know absolutely that I'm giving them the very best start in life.”

Sadie Frost (1965) English actress and producer

“Sadie Frost: Vegetarian Testimonial for PETA”, video ad for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (14 October 2011) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTkXMQSJOpI.

“Since Hedorah was supposed to be a monster created by pollution instead of an animal, I tried to avoid portraying him as an animal. I tried to make him seem spooky and grotesque.”

Kenpachiro Satsuma (1947) Japanese actor

As quoted by David Milner, "Kenpachiro Satsuma Interview I" http://www.davmil.org/www.kaijuconversations.com/satsum.htm, Kaiju Conversations (December 1993)

Everett Dean Martin photo

“Animal training may give one the means to make a living; liberal education gives living a meaning.”

Everett Dean Martin (1880–1941)

Source: The Meaning of a Liberal Education (1926), p. 44

Denis Diderot photo
Joanna Krupa photo
Theodosius Dobzhansky photo
Chuck Jones photo

“The two most important people in animation are Winsor McCay and Walt Disney, and I'm not sure which should go first.”

Chuck Jones (1912–2002) American animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer, and director of animated films

quoted in Canemaker, John (2005). Winsor McCay: His Life and Art (Revised ed.). pg. 257. Abrams Books.

Hannah Teter photo
Jimmy Kimmel photo
Richard Dawkins photo

“The argument of this book is that we, and all other animals, are machines created by our genes.”

Source: The Selfish Gene (1976, 1989), Ch. 1. Why Are People?

RZA photo
Temple Grandin photo
Samuel Johnson photo

“A cow is a very good animal in the field; but we turn her out of a garden.”

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer

April 14, 1772, p. 201
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol II

Rashi photo

“They were not aware of the way of modesty, to distinguish between good and bad. Even though there had been put in man knowledge to be able to call the animals names, there had not been put in him the drive towards evil.”

Rashi (1040–1105) French rabbi and commentator

Commenting on Gen. 2:25; they were both naked and they were not ashamed.
Commentary on Genesis

Alan Clark photo

“John Pilger: I read that you were a vegetarian and you are seriously concerned about the way animals are killed.
Alan Clark: Yeah.
John Pilger: Doesn’t that concern extend to the way humans, albeit foreigners, are killed?
Alan Clark: Curiously not.”

Alan Clark (1928–1999) British politician

Interviewed by John Pilger in the documentary Death of a Nation, broadcast on ITV February 22, 1994.
The interview was transcribed in New Statesman and Society, February 18, 1994 http://www.hamline.edu/apakabar/basisdata/1994/02/21/0009.html.