Animal Quotes

Over the years I've gathered various quotes with regard to animals.

Out of respect to those who have said or written the following, I've been as diligent as I can with citing sources but, please, if you notice incorrect citing of sources do let me know. (Oh, that the spelling oscillates between UK English and US is on purpose depending on where the quote comes from.)

The quotes are by a variety of people - from actors to politicians, from poets to scientists. There's something there for everyone, so read on!

• About Animals In General
• Inspiration For Animal Activists
• On Experimenting On Animals
• On The Ethics Of Killing And Eating Animals
• On Eating Animals From A Health Standpoint
• On Eating Animals From An Environmental Point Of View
• On Zoos

NOTE: feel free to copy and paste anything from this page, but please respect the person who said or wrote the quote and cite them as the source.

About Animals In General

“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened” – Anatole France (writer, Nobel Prize winner).

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." - Mahatma Gandhi (statesman, philosopher).

"Until he extends the circle of compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace." - Albert Schweitzer (Nobel Peace Prize recipient).

"As custodians of the planet, it is our responsibility to deal with all species with kindness." - Richard Gere (actor).

"We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." - Immanual Kant (philosopher).

"I ask people why they have deer heads on their walls. They always say because it's such a beautiful animal. There you go. I think my mother is attractive, but I have photographs of her." Ellen DeGeneres (comedienne).

"I hold that, the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man." - Mahatma Gandhi (statesman, philosopher).

"If man wants freedom why keep birds and animals in cages? Truly man is the king of beasts, for his brutality exceeds them." - Leonardo Da Vinci (painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, botanist, writer).

"I am in favour of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being." - Abraham Lincoln (the USA's 16th president).

"Our grandchildren will ask us one day: Where were you during the holocaust of the animals? What did you do against these horrifying crimes? We won't be able to offer the same excuse the second time, that we didn't know." - Helmut Kaplan (author).

"Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings we are still savages." - Thomas Edison (scientist, inventor).

"For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seeds of murder and pain cannot reap the joy of love." - Pythagoras (mathematician, philosopher).

"We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feather so badly that, beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion, they would depict the devil in human form." - William Ralph Inge (author, priest).

"To help reach full development, the good person is a friend of all living things." - Albert Schweitzer (Nobel Peace Prize recipient).

"Mankind's true moral test, its fundamental test...consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals." - Milan Kundera (writer).

"All beings tremble before violence. All fear death, all love life. See yourself in others. Then whom can you hurt? What harm can you do?" - Buddha (founder of Buddhism).

"A good deed done to an animal is as meritorious as a good deed done to a human being, while an act of cruelty to an animal is as bad as an act of cruelty to a human being." - the Prophet Mohammed (founder of Islam).

"To put it bluntly, we enslave and murder animals because it is in our self-interest to do so and we have the power to get away with it." - Norm Phelps (writer, animal activist).

"We can't stop all suffering, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't stop any. Our wish is for all people to act wisely and mercifully toward animals. We support compassion for all animals, even the most curious, smallest, and least sympathetic ones. We hope that everyone will take inspiration from Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Albert Schweitzer, who believed that even insects were deserving of compassion and who would stop to move a worm from hot pavement to cool earth. Aware of the problems and responsibilities that go along with an expanded ethical code, Schweitzer said that we each must 'live daily from judgement to judgement, deciding each case as it arises, as wisely and mercifully as we can.' " - from a blog by the organisation PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals).

"Why should man expect his prayer for mercy to be heard by what is above him when he shows no mercy to what is under him?" - Pierre Troubetzkoy (painter).

"The world, we are told, was made especially for man – a presumption not supported by all the facts. Why should man value himself as more than a small part of the one great unit of creation?" - John Muir (naturalist, explorer).

Inspiration For Animal Activists

"It is individuals who change societies, who give birth to ideas, who by standing out against the tides of opinion, change them." - Doris Lessing (writer, Nobel Prize winner).

"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss (author, illustrator).

“To live without hope is to cease to live.” - Fyodor Dostoyevsky (author).

"But where was I to start? The world is so vast, I shall start with the country I knew best, my own. But my country is so very large. I had better start with my town. But my town, too, is large. I had best start with my street. No, my home. No, my family. Never mind, I shall start with myself.” - Elie Wiesel (writer, human rights activist.)

"If you tremble in indignation at every injustice then you are a comrade of mine." - Ernesto Che Guevara (revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerilla leader, diplomat, military theorist).

"We can not do great things in this world. We can only do small things with great LOVE." - Mother Theresa (missionary).

"Nobody makes a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little." - Edmund Burke (statesman).

"Advocating non-violence towards animals (expressed through a vegan diet), is no more 'holier than thou' than advocating non-violence towards humans. Most people would say they oppose murder, rape, slavery and so on. Does that mean they're being judgmental and 'holier than thou'?" - Jo Tyler (artist, animal advocate).

"Think globally, act locally." - Katrina Shields (environmental activist).

''The cruellest lies are often told in silence." - Robert Louis Stevenson (novelist, poet, essayist, travel writer).

"Almost anything you do will seem insignificant, but it is very important that you do it." - Mahatma Gandhi (statesman and philosopher).

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." - Martin Luther King, Jr (clergyman, activist).

"Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done." - Lois Brandeis (US Supreme Court Justice).

"We must fight against the spirit of unconscious cruelty with which we treat the animals. Animals suffer as much as we do. True humanity does not allow us to impose such sufferings on them. It is our duty to make the WHOLE WORLD recognize it." - Albert Schweitzer (Nobel Peace Prize recipient).

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead (anthropologist).

"Do less and do it better." - Katrina Shields (environmental activist).

"Large change doesn't come from clever quick fixes from smart tense people, but from long conversations and silences among people who know different things and need to learn different things" - Anne Herbert (peace activist).

"The [Agricultural] Minister felt that as a vegan I was not in a position to debate animal husbandry, to which I replied that only vegans can truly talk on behalf of animals, as they are the only ones without any personal interest in using animals." - Martin Bulluch (academic, animal activist).

"Never, never be afraid to do what's right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society's punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way." - Martin Luther King, Jr (clergyman, activist).

"All truth goes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Then it is violently opposed. Finally, it is accepted as self evident." - Arthur Schopenhauer (philosopher).

“If you think you're too small to be effective, you have never been in bed with a mosquito.” - Betty Reese (officer, pilot).

On Experimenting On Animals

"Unseen the suffer, unheard they cry, in agony they linger, in loneliness they die...the victims of vivisection." - author unknown.

"Ask the experimenters why they experiment on animals, and the answer is 'Because the animals are like us.' Ask the experimenters why it is morally okay to experiment on animals, and the answer is: 'Because the animals are not like us'" - Charles R. Magel (professor of philosophy).

“The question is not, 'Can they reason?' nor, 'Can they talk?' but rather 'Can they suffer?'” - Jeremy Bentham (philosopher and activist).

"Much cruel violence is perpetrated against animals in the name of medical research, for example, because it is thought to be a necessary evil. In using animals for medical research, we rationalise the cruelty involved by declaring that the results of the research may relieve suffering for many people. But no lasting benefit can ever come from causing harm to another. When we understand the law of karma [simply: what goes around, comes around], we realise that we cannot torture animals and receive any lasting benefit. Only the foolish would be deluded otherwise." - Sharon Gannon & David Life (yogis and animal activists).

On The Ethics Of Killing And Eating Animals

"If you eat animals, you don't love animals. Who could ever make an argument that you love an animal that you pay someone to inhumanely confine, torture, and kill so you can eat it when you don't need it to survive? This culture is so backwards and the norm is so deeply ingrained that few people take the time to consider the irrationality of it all." -  Andrew Kirschner (chef).

"Flesh eating is unprovoked murder." - Benjamin Franklin (one of the USA's founding fathers, author, printer, satirist, political theorist, politician, scientist, inventor, civil activist, statesman, soldier, diplomat).

"If you knew how meat was made, you'd probably lose your lunch. I'm from cattle country. That's why I became a vegetarian." - k.d. lang (singer).

"Few of us would wish to visit an abattoir. They are hellish places. The stench of death, the blood-slicked floors, the noise of machinery, chain-saws tearing flesh and bone, the report of the captive bolt pistols that stun animals before they have their throats cut and, above all, the noises of fear and distress as animals are led to their deaths; all contribute to make a slaughterhouse a hell on earth." - Bodhipaksa (author, Buddhist monk).

"Compassion is an essential ingredient of 'ahimsa' [non-violence]. Through compassion you begin to see yourself in other beings. This helps you refrain from causing harm to them. Developing compassion does something else, however, which is of special interest to the yogi. It trains the mind to see past outer differences of form. You begin to catch glimpses of the inner essence of other beings, which is happiness. You begin to see that every single creature desires happiness." - Sharon Gannon and David Life (yogis, authors).

"What separates pets from the animals we abuse in factory farms and in labs is physical proximity. Our disregard for 'food' or 'lab' animals persists because we don't see them. Few people are aware of the ways in which they are mistreated and even fewer actually see the abuse. When people become aware, they are typically appalled - not because they have adopted a new ethical theory, but because they believe animals feel pain and they believe morally decent people should want to prevent pain whenever possible." - Gaverick Matheny (university professor, developer of faux meats).

"We can do no greater harm than to kill another sentient being. Killing is the ultimate expression of indifference to the well-being of others. All, except in the most extreme of circumstances, cherish life. In the contemporary hell of the modern slaughterhouse animals cry out and cower in terror when they realise that their life is nearing a premature end. All beings, except in the most desperate circumstances, try to escape death." - Bodhipaksa (author, Buddhist monk).

"A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking life merely for the sake of his appetite." Leo Tolstoy (writer).

"People often say that humans have always eaten animals, as if this is a justification for continuing the practice. According to this logic, we should not try to prevent people from murdering other people, since this has also been done since the earliest of times." Isaac Bashevis Singer (Nobel Prize winner).

"I have learned from an early age to abjure the use of meat, and 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 (painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, botanist, writer).

"If you could see or feel the suffering, you would think twice. Give back life, don't eat meat." - Kim Basinger (actor).

"There are remarkably few contemporary defenses of our traditional treatment of animals. This may suggest that the principal obstacles to improving the treatment of animals are not philosophical uncertainties about their proper treatment but, rather, our ignorance about their current abuse and our reluctance to change deeply ingrained habits. Even the most reasonable among us is not invulnerable to the pressures of habit. Many moral philosophers who believe that eating animals is unethcial continue to eat meat. This reflects the limits of reasoned argument in changing behaviour. While I can't overcome those limits here, I encourage you...to replace in your mind the animals being discussed with an animal familiar to you, such as a dog or cat, or, better yet, a human infant. If you do this, you are taking to heart the principle of equal consideration of interests and giving animals the consideration they deserve." - Gaverick Matheny (university professor, developer of faux meats).

"Alas, what wickedness to swallow flesh into our own flesh, to fatten our greedy bodies by cramming in other bodies, to have one living creature fed by the death of another!” - Pythagoras (mathematician, philosopher).

"Can you really ask what reason Pythagoras had for abstaining from flesh? For my part I rather wonder both by what accident and in what state of soul or mind the first man did so, touched his mouth to gore and brought his lips to the flesh of a dead creature, he who set forth tables of dead, stale bodies and ventured to call food and nourishment the parts that had a little before bellowed and cried, moved and lived. How could his eyes endure the slaughter when throats were slit and hides flayed and limbs torn from limb? How could his nose endure the stench? How was it that the pollution did not turn away his taste, which made contact with the sores of others and sucked juices and serums from mortal wounds?" -Plutarch (historian, biographer, essayist).

"As long as people will shed the blood of innocent creatures there can be no peace, no liberty, no harmony between people. Slaughter and justice cannot dwell together." - Isaac Bashevis Singer (Nobel Prize winner).

"We often wish to deny the inescapable fact that meat-eating requires killing to take place. In order for meat to appear on a plate an animal must die. Our appetites are part of a complex chain of events resulting in suffering and death. Meat-eating inevitably entails the violence of the slaughterhouse and farm. Most of us have been brought up eating meat and we have not been encouraged to think much about this. And few of us will have seen farm animals suffering. If we actually saw an animal in terror in front of us, about to be killed, we might feel compassion and wish the animal to go free, but the 'nasty business' is usually conveniently hidden away." - Bodhipaksa (author, Buddhist monk).

“Every time we sit down to eat, we make a choice: Please choose vegetarianism. Do it for animals. Do it for the environment and do it for your health.” - Alec Baldwin (actor).

"We consume the carcasses of creatures of like appetites, passions and organs as our own, and fill the slaughterhouses daily with screams of pain and fear." - Robert Louis Stevenson (novelist, poet, essayist, travel writer).

"To my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being. I should be unwilling to take the life of a lamb for the sake of the human body." - Mahatma Gandhi (statesman, philosopher).

"Vegetarian food leaves a deep impression on our nature. If the whole world adopts vegetarianism, it can change the destiny of humankind." - Albert Einstein (scientist, inventor).

"People get offended by animal rights campaigns. It's ludicrous. It's not as bad as mass animal death in a factory." - Richard Gere (actor).

"When you recognise that cows and chickens want happiness, just as you do, you recognise kindred souls. The distinction between you and other beings wears thin, as awareness begins to dawn." - Sharon Gannon and David Life (yogis, authors).

"We live by the death of others. We are burial places! I have since an early age abjured the use of meat." - Leonardo Da Vinci (painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, botanist, writer).

"Few people are aware what happens to animals reared for slaughter, or what death in an abattoir is like. Few of us have had any real contact with farms other than seeing animals grazing in the fields as we travel past. This isn't surprising. Much of what happens on modern farms…is deeply unpleasant. Because of this farmers tend to be defensive and even secretive about what they do. A friend of mine who was involved in making documentary films told me she found it easier to get access to nuclear power stations than to farms." - Bodhipaksa (author, Buddhist monk).

"Even in the worm that crawls in the earth there glows a divine spark. When you slaughter a creature, you slaughter God." - Isaac Bashevis Singer (Nobel Prize winner).

"Animals are my friends...and I don't eat my friends." - George Bernard Shaw (Nobel Prize winner).

"Nothing's changed my life more. I feel better about myself as a person, being conscious and responsible for my actions and I lost weight and my skin cleared up and I got bright eyes and I just became stronger and healthier and happier. Can't think of anything better in the world to be but be vegan." - Alicia Silverstone (actor).

"But for the sake of some little mouthful of flesh we deprive a soul of the sun and light, and of that proportion of life and time it had been born into the world to enjoy." - Plutarch (historian, biographer, essayist).

"If you think that being vegan is difficult, imagine how difficult it is for the animals that you are not vegan." - Gary L. Francione (legal scholar, animal rights activist, pioneer of the abolitionist theory of animal rights).

“Nothing more strongly arouses our disgust than cannibalism, yet we make the same impression on Buddhists and vegetarians, for we feed on babies, though not our own.” - Robert Louis Stevenson (novelist, poet, essayist, travel writer).

"Often it is a question of 'out of sight, out of mind.' We don't know, and frankly, we'd often rather not know, what goes on in order to feed us. We'd rather not feel connected with the results of our actions…But now, perhaps, we have more awareness of the consequences of our actions when we eat meat. When we are more aware that our appetites can lead to real suffering we may even feel an urge to change. That urge may be strong enough to make us give up meat at one - for ever. On the other hand we may just have a niggling doubt and find ourselves with an uneasy conscience." - Bodhipaksa (author, Buddhist monk).

"If any kid ever realised what was involved in factory farming they would never touch meat again. I was so moved by the intelligence, sense of fun and personalities of the animals I worked with on Babe that by the end of the film I was a vegetarian." - James Cromwell (actor).

"Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight." - Albert Schweitzer (Nobel Peace Prize recipient).

"For many of us, eating meat is very pleasurable, and changing our diet may be a sacrifice we are reluctant to make. However, once we are truly aware of the consequences of our actions, we are in a dilemma. Our deeper, more ethical response is one of compassion for the animals that are harmed in order for us to have meat. This sense of compassion is in conflict with our habits and our desire to keep on doing what seems pleasurable." - Bodhipaksa (author, Buddhist monk).

"Almost all of us agree that we should treat dogs and cats humanely. There are few opponents, for instance, of current anti-cruelty laws aimed at protecting pets from abuse, neglect, or sport fighting. And therein lies a bizarre contradiction. For if these anti-cruelty laws applied to animals in factory farms or laboratories, the ways in which these animals are treated would be illegal throughout North America and Europe. Do we believe dogs and cats are so different from apes, pigs, cows, chickens, and rabbits that one group of animals - pets - deserve legal protection from human abuse, while the other group - animals in factory farms and in labs - deserve to have their abuse institutionalised? We cannot justify this contradiction by claming that the abuse of famed animals, for example, serves a purpose, whereas the abuse of pets does not. Arguably, the satisfaction enjoyed by someone who fights or otherwise abuses dogs and cats is just as great as that enjoyed by someone who eats meat." - Gaverick Matheny (university professor and developer of faux meats).

"Eating animals is obviously very cruel, and you either want to avoid inflicting pain on another living being, or else you don't care much. If you eat animals, you surely hate them. If you respect or love animals, you could never eat them. It's that simple." - Morrissey (leader of the 80's band Smiths).

"I do feel that spiritual progress does demand at some stage that we should cease to kill our fellow creatures for the satisfaction of our bodily wants." - Mahatma Gandhi (statesman and philosopher).

"They (farm animals) are far more aware and intelligent than we ever imagined and, despite having been bred as domestic slaves, they are individual beings in their own right. As such, they deserve our respect. And our help. Who will plead for them if we are silent?”  - Dr. Jane Goodall (primatologist, anthropologist, ethologist).

"If we are beginning to become aware of the suffering involved in the meat trade, but still eat meat, then we have a problem. We have a source of conflict in our lives. We have to decide what to do with that awareness of the suffering inherent in meat-eating. It's all too tempting to push the awareness away so that we can carry on acting as before. We may even recall having done this in the past with this very issue. Another, and more creative, response would be to face up to and explore the conflict so that we can learn and grow from the insights this might reveal." - Bodhipaksa (author and Buddhist monk).

On Eating Animals From A Health Standpoint

"If you step back and look at the data, the optimum amount of red meat you eat should be zero." - Walter Willett (M.D. of Brigham and Women's Hospital and director of a study that found a close correlation between red meat consumption and colon cancer).

"I'll never have to worry about my weight ever again…because the food I'm putting in my mouth is really healthy and good for me. I've begun to sleep solidly through the night because my food digests more smoothly, my energy levels have suddenly gone whoosh, and I've noticed it's made my hair and skin really shine." - Alicia Silverstone (actor).

"When we kill the animals to eat them, they end up killing us because their flesh, which contains cholesterol and saturated fat, was never intended for human beings." -William C. Roberts (M.D. and editor of The American Journal of Cardiology).

"My refusing to eat flesh occasioned an inconveniency, and I was frequently chided for my singularity, but, with this lighter repast, I made the greater progress, for greater clearness of head and quicker comprehension" - Benjamin Franklin (one of the USA's founding fathers, author, printer, satirist, political theorist, politician, scientist, inventor, civil activist, statesman, soldier, and diplomat).

“Isn’t man an amazing animal? He kills wildlife by the millions in order to protect his domestic animals and their feed. Then he kills domestic animals by the billions and eats them. This in turn kills man by the millions, because eating all those animals leads to degenerative – and fatal – health conditions like heart disease, kidney disease, and cancer. So then man tortures and kills millions more animals to look for cures for these diseases. Elsewhere, millions of other human beings are being killed by hunger and malnutrition because food they could eat is being used to fatten domestic animals. Meanwhile, some people are dying of sad laughter at the absurdity of man, who kills so easily and so violently, and once a year sends out cards praying for 'Peace on Earth.' - C. David Coates (businessman and radical).

On Eating Animals From An Environmental Point Of View

"With fewer people eating meat these pressures will lessen and the effects may even be reversed. With more of the population becoming vegetarian we may be able to allow land presently under cultivation to return to wilderness…With more farmland being freed up there is enormous potential for cultivating biomass fuels - plants grown for fuel - which make a zero net contribution to global warming. By adopting a vegetarian diet we will help support a more sustainable world for future generations." - Bodhipaksa (author and Buddhist monk).

"The tragedy of a non-vegetarian lifestyle is that it causes needless, cruel victimisation…not only of the animals' deaths, but also of the devastating environmental impact of meat eating: the pollution of water and air by slaughterhouses and farms and the razing of forests to create pastures. Due to the greed of the meat-eating majority, much of the world starves while the grains that could feed them are fed to cattle. Don't fall into the trap of believing that your good life is separate from the suffering of animals who are abused or killed to maintain that good life." - Sharon Gannon and David Life (yogis and authors).

On Zoos

"The zoo is a prison for animals who have been sentenced without trial." - Russell Hoban (writer).

"We cannot glimpse the essential life of a caged animal, only the shadow of its former beauty." - Julia Allen Field (environmental activist, writer).

"The saddest thing about zoos is the way they drive animals mad. Much of the behaviour we take for granted in zoo animals - repetitive padding up and down, head banging, obsessive paw swinging, or just plain moping - is actually psychotic, the sort of thing humans get driven to when they are kept in solitary confinement." - Bill Travers (actor, screenwriter, director, animal activist).