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Animal quotes

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“The reason the beasts give among themselves is that Man is the weakest and most defenseless of all living things, and it is unsportsmanlike to touch him.” Rudyard Kipling, “The Jungle Book” - 1894

“The question of the position of man, as an animal, has given rise to much disputation, with the result of proving that there is no anatomical or developmental character by which he is more widely distinguished from the group of animals most...” Thomas Henry Huxley, “The Advance of Science in the Last Half-Century” - 1887

“This latter was a remarkably large and beautiful animal, entirely black, and sagacious to an astonishing degree.” Edgar Allan Poe, “The Black Cat” - 1843

“He who believes that each being has been created as we now see it, must occasionally have felt surprise when he has met with an animal having habits and structure not in agreement.” Charles Darwin, “On The Origin of Species” - 1859

“In dim ways he recognised in man the animal that had fought itself to primacy over the other animals of the Wild.” Jack London, “White Fang” - 1906

“Clothes therefore, must be truly a badge of greatness; the insignia of the superiority of man over all other animals, for surely there could be no other reason for wearing the hideous things.” Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Tarzan of the Apes” - 1912

“Of all the animals kept by the farmer, the labourer, the instrumentum vocale, was, thenceforth, the most oppressed, the worst nourished, the most brutally treated.” Karl Marx, “Das Kapital” - 1867

“But it is essential to every inquiry about duty that we keep before our eyes how far superior man is by nature to cattle and other beasts: they have no thought except for sensual pleasure and this they are impelled by every instinct to seek;” Marcus Tullius Cicero, “On Duties” - 44 BC

“No animal, according to the rules of animal-etiquette, is ever expected to do anything strenuous, or heroic, or even moderately active during the off-season of winter.” Kenneth Grahame, “The Wind in the Willows” - 1908

“I made up my mind that I would hold on to nothing, that I would expect nothing, that henceforth I would live as an animal, a beast of prey, a rover, a plunderer.” Henry Miller, “Tropic of Cancer” - 1934

“I wonder who it was defined man as a rational animal. It was the most premature definition ever given. Man is many things, but he is not rational.” Oscar Wilde, “The Picture of Dorian Gray” - 1890

“I tell you, that dragon’s the most horrible animal I’ve ever met, but the way Hagrid goes on about it, you’d think it was a fluffy little bunny rabbit. When it bit me he told me off for frightening it. And when I left, he was singing it a...” J. K. Rowling, “Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone” - 1997

“Mankind's true moral test, its fundamental test (which lies deeply buried from view), consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals.” Milan Kundera, “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” - 1984

Related topics

man reason weakness belief respect winter morality duty black instinct beast clothes activity evolution creationism primacy labourer treatment dragon expectations

Related authors

Oscar Wilde (1)
Edgar Allan Poe (1)
J. K. Rowling (1)
Rudyard Kipling (1)
Charles Darwin (1)
Jack London (1)
Edgar Rice Burroughs (1)
Karl Marx (1)
Marcus Tullius Cicero (1)
Kenneth Grahame (1)
Henry Miller (1)
Milan Kundera (1)
Thomas Henry Huxley (1)

Related sources

The Picture of Dorian Gray (1)
The Black Cat (1)
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1)
The Jungle Book (1)
On The Origin of Species (1)
White Fang (1)
Tarzan of the Apes (1)
Das Kapital (1)
On Duties (1)
The Wind in the Willows (1)
Tropic of Cancer (1)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1)
The Advance of Science in the Last Half-Century (1)