
Memoirs of Childhood and Youth (1924)
Variant : The thinking man must oppose all cruel customs no matter how deeply rooted in tradition and surrounded by a halo. When we have a choice, we must avoid bringing torment and injury into the life of another, even the lowliest creature; to do so is to renounce our manhood and shoulder a guilt which nothing justifies.
As quoted in Becoming Vegan : The Complete Guide to Adopting a Healthy Plant-based Diet (2000) by Brenda Davis and Vesanto Melina, p. 261
Source: The Spiritual Life (1947), p. 305; also in The Animal World of Albert Schweitzer (1950), p. 179
Memoirs of Childhood and Youth (1924)
“It must be confessed that a sort of halo of personal grandeur surrounds a great actress.”
Source: Peg Woffington (1853), CHAPTER I
David Seabury, as quoted in The Forbes Scrapbook of Thoughts on the Business of Life (1950), p. 248
Misattributed
Atwood H. Townsend, editor of Good Reading, various editions from at least 1960
Misattributed, Not Chinese
“My father was a deeply sentimental man. And like all sentimental men, he was also very cruel.”
“Der Mensch ist ein abschätzendes Tier.”
Source: Philosophy and Real Politics (2008), pp. 38-39.
Source: The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke