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This page is for quotes about animals.
Sourced[]
Organized alphabetically by author.
- The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog one big one.
- Archilochus, in Plutarch Moralia
- The Dodo never had a chance. He seems to have been invented for the sole purpose of becoming extinct and that was all he was good for.
- Will Cuppy, How to Become Extinct, 1941.
- It is my view that the vegetarian manner of living by its purely physical effect on the human temperament would most beneficially influence the lot of mankind.
- Albert Einstein, (Letter to Vegetarian Watch-Tower (27 December 1930).
- Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.
- George Eliot, Scences of a Clerical Life (1858).
- A horse is dangerous at both ends and uncomfortable in the middle.
- Ian Fleming, The Sunday Times (1966).
- Animals are always loyal and love you, whereas children you never know where you are.
- Christina Foyle, The Times (1993).
- Animals when in company walk in a proper and sensible manner, in single file, instead of sprawling all across the road and being of no use or support to each other in case of sudden trouble or danger.
- Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows (1908)
- We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form.
- William Ralph Inge, "The Idea of Progress" (Romanes Lecture, 27 May 1920), reprinted in Outspoken Essays: Second Series (1922).
- Cet animal est tres méchant;
Quand on l'attaque il se défend.- This animal is very malicious; when attacked it defends itself.
- From a song, La Ménagerie, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 30.
- The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
- George Orwell, Animal Farm.
- Four legs good, two legs bad.
- George Orwell, Animal Farm.
- All animals are equal — but some animals are more equal than others.
- George Orwell, Animal Farm.
- What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form, in moving, how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me; no, nor woman neither, though, by your smiling, you seem to say so.
- William Shakespeare in Hamlet
- If a man aspires towards a righteous life, his first act of abstinence is from injury to animals.
- Leo Tolstoy in The First Step
- There are two things for which animals are to be envied: they know nothing of future evils, or of what people say about them.
- Voltaire, Letter (1739).
Unsourced[]
- Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.
- Adolf Hitler (sometimes attributed to Albert Einstein).
- We should venture on the study of every kind of animal without distaste; for each and all will reveal to us something natural and something beautiful.
- Man perfected by society is the best of all animals; he is the most terrible of all when he lives without law, and without justice.
- Aristotle
- The very fact that the jaguar can become extinct while the Pekingese survives indicates to me that someone hasn't thought this thing through.
- A. Whitney Brown
- If an animal does something, we call it instinct; if we do the same thing for the same reason, we call it intelligence.
- Will Cuppy
- The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.
- Mahatma Gandhi
- I bought myself a parrot. The parrot talked. But it did not say, "I'm hungry,"... so it died. ~ Mitch Hedberg
- Dogs are forever in the push-up position.
- Mitch Hedberg
- I'd hate to be a giraffe with a sore throat. ~ Mitch Hedberg
- Hot dogs: feeding the hand that bites it.
- Laurence J. Peter, paraphrased
- We hope that, when insects take over the world, they will remember with gratitude how we took them along on our picnics.
- Bill Vaughan
Anonymous[]
- A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
- A heedless dog will not do for the chase.
- A lurking dog does not lie in the hyena's lair.
- A zebra is a light-colored animal with dark stripes, not a dark one with light stripes. — American Museum of Natural History
- From Encarta Online, featured in Newsweek on December 30, 1957.
- Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.
- Also an Italian proverb: A caval donato non si guarda in bocca.
- Also a Spanish proverb: A caballo regalado no le mires el dentado.
- Also a Dutch proverb: Men moet een gegeven paard niet in de bek kijken.
- He who can not move an ant, and yet tries to move an elephant, shall find out his folly.
- He who goes with the wolf will learn to howl.
- His bark is worse than his bite.
- If the dog is not at home, he barks not.
- If the fly flies, the frog goes not supperless to bed.
- If you think dogs can't count, try keeping three cookies in your pocket, and giving your dog only 2.
- It has just been discovered that research causes cancer in rats.
- The butterfly that brushes against thorns will tear its wings.
- The elephant does not find his trunk heavy.
- Were no elephant in the jungle, the buffalo would be a great animal.
- When the fox dies, fowls do not mourn.
- When the goat goes abroad, the sheep must run.
- When the rat laughs at the cat, there is a hole. The rat has not power to call the cat to account. The rat does not go to sleep in the cat's bed.
Spanish proverbs[]
- A perro flaco, todos son pulgas.
- To a skinny dog, all are fleas.
- En boca cerrada no entran moscas.
- A closed mouth gathers no flies.
- Gato escaldado del agua fría huye.
- The cat that has been scalded flees from cold water.
- Más vale pájaro en mano que ciento volando.
- A bird in the hand is better than a hundred flying birds.
- Perro ladrador, poco mordedor.
- A barking dog doesn't bite much.
- Ser como el perro del hortelano, que ni come las berzas, ni las deja comer al amo.
- To be like the gardener's dog, who doesn't eat the cabbages, nor lets the master eat them.
- Si quieres el perro, acepta las pulgas.
- If you want the dog, accept the fleas.
See also[]
- Animal rights
- Cats
- Goats
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