Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them.
 Samuel Butler, The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912). copy citation

Context

“We cannot get rid of persecution; if we feel at all we must persecute something; the mere acts of feeding and growing are acts of persecution. Our aim should be to persecute nothing but such things as are absolutely incapable of resisting us. Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them.
Matter Infinitely Subdivisible We must suppose it to be so, but it does not follow that we can know anything about it if it is divided into pieces smaller than a certain size; and, if we can know nothing about it when so divided, then, qua us, it has no existence and therefore matter, qua us, is not infinitely subdivisible.” source

Meaning and analysis

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