"I looked at all the caged animals. . . . . . . the cast-offs of human society. I saw in their eyes love and hope, fear and dread, sadness and betrayal. And I was angry.
"God," I said, "this is terrible! Why don't you do something?"
God was silent for a moment and then He spoke softly.
"I have done something. . .
I created you."
Jim Willis 1999, Humanitarian, Author of "The Animal's Savior" and "How could you?"
"Moral principles can never be compromised; they can only be abandoned."
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882) Poet, Philosopher, Naturalist and Ethicist
"Thou shalt not kill' does not apply to murder of one's own kind only, but to all living beings. This commandment was inscribed in the human breast long before it was proclaimed from Sinai."
Count Leo Tolstoy (1828 - 1910) Russian Novelist, Poet, Ethicist
"The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence that it is not utterly absurd; indeed, in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more often likely to be foolish than sensible. There is no impersonal reason for regarding the interests of human beings as more important than those of animals. We can destroy animals more easily than they can destroy us; that is the only solid basis of our claim to superiority."
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) Humanitarian, Author, Nobel Prize for Literature 1950
"There is no fundamental difference between man and animals in their mental faculties. Like man, they manifestly feel pleasure and pain, happiness, and misery. Sympathy for the animals is one of the noblest virtues with which man is endowed"
Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882) Naturalist and Author of "The Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection"
"When a man has pity on all living creatures, then only, is he noble."
Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, (563 - 483 BCE) Indian founder of Buddhism
"You cannot do a kindness too soon, because you never know how soon it will be too late."
Ralph Waldo Emerson, (1803 - 1882) Poet, Philosopher, Naturalist and Ethicist
"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself."
Count Leo Tolstoy (1828 - 1910) Russian Novelist, Poet, Ethicist
"At one point I felt a gentle tap on my shoulder and turned around to see a female Moon bear reaching out through the cage. Without thinking, I took her paw and, whilst gazing into sad, dark, unblinking eyes, made a pledge that one day I'd be back to set her free."
Jill Robinson (CEO of Animals Asia Foundation)
"If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men."
St. Francis of Assisi (1182 - 1226)
"In their capacity to feel fear, pain, hunger, and thirst, a pig is a dog is a bear is a boy".
Ingrid Newkirk (Director, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)
"There is no difference between the pain of humans and the pain of other animals. The love and tenderness of the mother for the young are not produced by reasoning, but by feeling, and this faculty exists not only in humans but in animals as well."
Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, philosopher/scholar in Judaism (1135 - 1204)
"All the arguments to prove man's superiority cannot shatter this hard fact: in suffering the animals are our equals"
Dr Peter Singer, (1946 - ) Australian Ethicist, Author, Professor Princeton University
"Some will take refuge in the old cliches that humans are different from other animals. But when did a difference justify a moral prejudice? When did those with black hair have a right to mistreat those with red hair...or even those with blue or purple hair...Surely the crucial similarity that men share with other animals is the capacity to suffer? Regardless of the number of legs or the woolliness of our fur, we can all suffer...
Dr Richard Ryder (Author, Ethicist, Philosopher, coined the word "speciesism")
"Custom will reconcile people to any atrocity; and fashion will drive them to acquire any custom."
George Bernard Shaw, (1856 - 1950) Irish Playwright and Essayist, Nobel Laureate for Literature 1925
"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
Lao Tzu (China Taoist philosopher- BC 600)
"First it was necessary to civilise man in relation to man. Now it is necessary to civilise man in relation to nature and the animals."
Victor Hugo (1802 - 1885). French Poet, Author and Playwright
"The fate of our fellow animals is of greater importance to me than the fear of appearing ridiculous: it is indissolubly connected with the fate of men."
Emile Zola (1840 - 1902) French Novelist, Author Accuse
"Man is a religious animal. He is the only religious animal. He is the only animal that has the 'True Religion' - several of them! He is the only animal that loves his neighbour as himself but cuts his throat if his theology isn't straight. He has made a graveyard of the globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brother's path to happiness and heaven. The animals have no religion. And we are told that they are going to be left out in the Hereafter. I wonder why? It seems questionable taste......Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it. It is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions. The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures. The fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot. I am not interested to know whether it is profitable to the human race or not. The pain it inflicts upon unconsenting animals is the basis and sufficient justification of my enmity towards it without looking further. In studying the traits and dispositions of the so-called lower animals, and contrasting them with man's, I find the result humiliating to me."
Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) Author (1835 - 1910)
"It may one day come to be recognised that the number of the legs, the villosity of the skin are reasons equally insufficient for abandoning a sensitive being to the same fate. What else is it that should trace the insuperable line? Is it the faculty of reason? Or perhaps the faculty of discourse? But a full-grown horse or dog is beyond comparison a more rational, as well as a more conversable animal, than an infant of a day, or a week, or even a month, old. But suppose they were otherwise, what should it avail? The question is not: Can they reason? nor Can they talk?, but Can they suffer?"
Jeremy Bentham (1748 - 1832) Introduction to the Principles of Morals and of Legislation
"I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again."
William Penn (1644 - 1718) Humanitarian, Philanthropist, Founder of the State of Pennsylvania. Now adapted to a prayer in Christian liturgy.
"The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men."
Leonardo Da Vinci, Italian Painter, Sculptor, Architect, Musician, Engineer, and Scientist
"Animals are those unfortunate slaves and victims of the most brutal part of mankind."
John Stuart Mill. (1806 - 1873). Economist, Philosopher, Member of Parliament Westminster
"We cannot glimpse the essential life of a caged animal, only the shadow of its former beauty."
Julia Allen Field (1937- )
"The soul is the same in all living creatures, although the body of each is different."
Hippocrates (ca. 460-377 BCE). Greek physician, described as the Father of Modern Medicine. The Hippocratic Oath is sworn by doctors at their graduation. The first rule is the most powerful "First, do no harm.
"To one whose mind is free, there is something even more intolerable in the suffering of animals than in the sufferings of humans. For with the latter, it is at least admitted that suffering is evil and that the person who causes it is a criminal. But thousands of animals are uselessly butchered every day without a shadow of remorse. It cries vengeance upon the human race. If God exists and tolerates it, it cries vengeance upon God"
Romain Rolland (Extract from his 1915 Nobel Prizewinning novel, Jean-Christophe
"The quiet conscience is the invention of the devil. No one of us may permit any preventable pain to be inflicted even though the responsibility for that pain is not ours. No one may shut his eyes and think that the pain which is therefore not visible, is nonexistent. Very little of the great cruelty shown by men can really be attributed to cruel instinct. Most of it comes from thoughtlessness or inherited habit. The roots of cruelty, therefore, are not so much strong as widespread. But the time will come when inhumanity protected by custom and thoughtlessness will succumb before humanity championed by thought. Let us work that this time may come. A man is ethical only when life is sacred to him, that of animals as well as that of his fellowman, and when he devotes himself helpfully to all life that is in need of help."
Dr Albert Schweitzer; Physician, Missionary, Theologian and Nobel Laureate for Peace 1952
"It is as if life had said, 'I am going to send you into a world of cruelty. I shall make you sensitive to pain, fear, heat, cold, hunger and starvation. In this world of cruelty, I shall make you defenceless. In addition, I shall strike you dumb.' This is the kind of world that animals are born into."
Grace Johnson, (1882 - 1967) Sculptor and Painter of Animals
"I tremble for my species when I reflect that God is just."
Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826) Statesman and Third President of the United States.
"Custom will reconcile people to any atrocity; and fashion will drive them to acquire any custom."
George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950) Irish Author, Essayist and Nobel Laureate for Literature 1925
"The most damaging phrase in any language is "It has always been done that way".
Rear Admiral Dr Grace Hopper (1906 - 1992) Mathematician, Mother of Computer Engineering, First woman Admiral in the US Navy.
"Our task must be to free ourselves...by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty"
Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955) Physicist, Author, Nobel Laureate in Physics 1921
"To close your eyes will not ease another's pain."
Ancient Chinese Proverb
"Look deep into the eyes of any animal, and then for a moment, trade places. Their lives become as precious as your life, and you become as vulnerable as them. Now smile if you believe all animals deserve our respect and our protection. For in a way, they are us. And we are them."
Philip Ochoa Board Member, All for Animals
"Teaching a child not to step on a caterpillar is as valuable to the child as it is to the caterpillar."
Bradley Millar
In actual laboratory experiments monkeys were forced to choose between electro-shocking other monkeys and doing without food themselves. Almost all of the monkeys went hungry for up to two weeks rather than shock others. These macaques, who have never gone to Sunday school, never heard of the Ten Commandments, never squirmed through a single junior high school civics lesson, seem courageous in their moral grounding and their resistance to evil. If the situation were reversed, and captive humans were offered the same deal by macaque scientists, would we do as well?"
Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan in their book "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors"
"As long as human beings shed the blood of animals, there will never be peace. There is only one little step from killing animals to creating gas chambers a la Hitler and concentration camps a la Stalin. All such deeds are done in the name of 'social justice.' There will be no justice as long as man will stand with a knife or with a gun and destroy those who are weaker than he is."
Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904 - 1991) Author, Nobel Laureate for Literature 1978
"Anyone who has accustomed himself to regard the life of any living creature as worthless is in danger of arriving also at the idea of worthless human lives. The quiet conscience is the invention of the devil. No one of us may permit any preventable pain to be inflicted even though the responsibility for that pain is not ours. No one may shut his eyes and think that the pain which is therefore not visible, is nonexistent."
Albert Schweitzer; Physician, Missionary, Theologian and Nobel Laureate for Peace 1952
"For too long we have let the animals down through ignoring their individuality and mercilessly exploiting them. It is our duty, as people who care, to help turn the tide."
Jill Robinson, MBE, CEO, Animals Asia Foundation
"Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see."
Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) American, Author (1835 - 1910)
"Living with animals can be a wonderful experience, especially if we choose to learn the valuable lessons animals teach through their natural enthusiasm, grace, resourcefulness, affection and forgiveness."
Dr Richard H. Pitcairn, American Veterinarian, Nutritionist and Author
"The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for whites or women for men."
Alice Walker (1944 - ) American Author, Multi Award winner including the Pulitzer Prize 1983
"True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power. Mankind's true moral test consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals. And in this respect mankind has suffered a fundamental debacle, a debacle so fundamental that all others stem from it."
Milan Kundera, (1929 - ) Czech Novelist, Poet, Philosopher
"Nothing cruel is useful or expedient."
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 - 43 BCE) Roman Orator, Senator,and Statesman.
"Hail to the day, hail to the hour, so long awaited, so long denied, when justice allied with mercy appears before the gate of our tomb!"
Chorus, finale to Beethovenï's Fidelio (1814)
"The deeper minds of all ages have had pity for animals."
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 - 1900). Prussian Philosopher and Professor of Comparative Philology, who died in Turin, clutching the throat of a horse being cruelly whipped by a coachman.
"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. I hold that, the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man."
Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948) Indian Statesman and Philosopher
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world"
Nelson Mandela, (1918 - ) Statesman, President of the Republic of South Africa, Philosopher, Author, Humanitarian. Nobel Laureate Peace Prize 1993
"To educate our people, and especially our children, to humane attitudes and actions toward living things is to preserve and strengthen our national heritage and the moral values we champion in the world".
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917 - 1963) President of the United States of America.
"Why is compassion not part of the established curriculum, an inherent part of our education? Compassion, awe, wonder, curiosity, humility - these are the foundation of any real civilisation, no longer the prerogatives, the preserves of any one church, but belonging to everyone, every child in every home in every school."
Yehudi Menhuin (1916 - 1999) Violinist and Conductor, Philanthropist and contributor to religious, social, and environmental affairs
"Show me the enforced laws of a state for the prevention of cruelty to animals and I in turn will give you a correct estimate of the refinement, enlightenment, integrity and equity of that commonwealth's people."
L.T. Danshiell, (1914 - ) Advocate for non-human animals and ethicist in a legislative Address to the House, Texas
"How long can you hear someone crying - how long can you hear someone dying - before you ask yourself why?"
Jackson Browne (1948 - ) Singer, Songwriter, Musician, Activist
"Animals cannot speak, but can you and I not speak for them and represent them? Let us all feel their silent cry of agony and let us all help that cry to be heard in the world."
Rukmini Devi Arundale - Hindhu musician, dancer, theosophist and Sanskrit scholar.
"To say nothing, to do nothing, stops nothing"
Roni McCall, Founder, Through Their Eyes, The National Animal Abuse Registry
"My doctrine is this: If we see cruelty that we have the power to stop, and we do nothing, we make ourselves sharers in the guilt."
Anna Sewell, (1820 - 1877) English Author of "Black Beauty."
"Each of us must be the change agent we want to see in the world."
Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948)
"It is almost a definition of a gentleman to say he is one who never inflicts pain".
Cardinal Newman (1801 - 1890) Catholic Theologian, Humanitarian and Ethicist
"The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them, that is the essence of inhumanity."
George Bernard Shaw, (1856 - 1950) Irish Playwright and Essayist, Nobel Laureate for Literature 1925
"Compassion for animals is intimately connected with goodness of character and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man."
Arthur Schopenhauer, (1788 - 1860) German Philosopher
"If a man aspires toward a righteous life, his first act of abstinence is from injury to animals."
Count Leo Tolstoy (1828 - 1910) Russian Novelist, Poet, Ethicist
"If man is not to stifle his human feelings, he must practise kindness towards animals, for he who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals."
Immanuel Kant, (1724 - 1804) German Philosopher,Ethicist.
"The highest realms of thought are impossible to reach without first attaining an understanding of compassion."
Socrates (470- 399 BCE) Greek Philosopher and Teacher
"Let us correctly extend the great principles of liberty, equality and fraternity over the tragic lives of animals. Let animal slavery join human slavery in the graveyard of the past".
Professor Patrick Corbett, Fellow Balliol College, Oxford
"Yesterday is but a dream, tomorrow is but a vision. But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well, therefore, to This Day."
Sanskrit Proverb
"For as long as men kill animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love. Primoque a caede ferarum incaluisse puto maculatum sanguine ferrum (The blood of animals was the first to stain our weapons)."
Pythagoras (ca. 580 - 520 BCE). Pre-Socratic Greek Mathematician and Philosopher
"It were much better that a sentient being should never have existed, than that it should have existed only to endure unmitigated misery."
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822). Poet
"Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy".
Jesus Christ
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little."
Edmund Burke (1729 - 1797) English Parliamentarian, Philosopher and Ethicist
"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965) Prime Minister and Statesman of Great Britain
"To be doing good deeds is man's most glorious task."
Sophocles (BCE 495-406) Greek Playwright, Administrator, Board of Generals
"A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love."
St.Basil, Bishop of Caesarea (329 - 379 AD)
"All the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action."
James Russell Lowell, (1819 - 1891) American Poet, Writer, Diplomat, Anti-Slavery Advocate, Essayist, Professor of Modern Languages, Harvard
"Well done is better than well said."
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American Statesman, Scientist, Author, Revolutionary, drafted the Declaration of Independence.
"Not to hurt our humble brethren is our first duty to them, but to stop there is not enough. We have a higher mission--to be of service to them wherever they require it."
Saint Francis of Assisi (1182 - 1226)
"A person's true wealth is the good he or she does in the world."
The Prophet Mohammed, Peace be upon his name.
"After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb."
Nelson Mandela (1918 - ) Statesman, President of the Republic of South Africa, Philosopher, Author, Humanitarian. Nobel Laureate Peace Prize 1993
"If man is not to stifle his human feelings, he must practise kindness towards animals, for he who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals."
Immanuel Kant, (1724 - 1804) German Philosopher, Ethicist
|
