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Animal Quotes

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Animal Quotes

“Perhaps no order of mammals presents us with so extraordinary a series of gradations as this [step by step, from humans to apes to monkeys to lemurs] - leading us insensibly from the crown and summit of the animal creation down to creatures, from which there is but a step, as it seems, to the lowest, smallest, and least intelligent of the placental Mammalia. It is as if nature herself had forseen the arrogance of man, and with Roman severity had provided that his intellect, by its very triumphs, should call into prominence the slaves, admonishing the conqueror that he is but dust.”

IfsMenShouldHumansSeemsOrderAnimalStepsCreationEvolutionCreaturesIntelligentSlaveSeriesExtraordinaryIntellectDustTriumphArroganceCrownsSmallestMonkeysLowestSummitApesConquerorMammalsSeverityProminenceLemurs
Author:Thomas Huxley
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“You should know as much as you can about the human species if you have a hand in designing human society. Of course, I'm not saying that you can derive moral rules from nature - that's deriving an ought from an is, as the philosophers say - but you do need to know what kind of animals we are if you want to design a stable society.”

IfsKnowsWantNeedsShouldHumansKindHandsAnimalMoralDesignOughtSpeciesPhilosopherStableHuman SocietyHuman Species
Author:Frans de Waal
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“The idea that humans could be related to ape-like ancestors and the rest of creation was considered subversive. If man was just an animal, then he doesn't live forever, he has no soul. And if men don't have a soul, then there's no afterlife. No heaven, no fiery deterrent of hell to keep people in line in this life. And if there's no fiery deterrent to keep people in line, "well then we might as well have hell on Earth!" the critics said.”

PeopleIfsMenHumansWellsSaidIdeasSoulMightEarthHeavenLinesAnimalHellForeverCreationCriticsThis LifeRelatedAfterlifeAncestorApesLive ForeverFierySubversiveHell On EarthDeterrent
Author:James Moore
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“Behaviorism proposes to study human behavior according to the methods developed by animal and infant psychology. It seeks to investigate reflexes and instincts, automatisms and unconscious reactions. But it has told us nothing about the reflexes that have built cathedrals, railroads, and fortresses, the instincts that have produced philosophies, poems, and legal systems, the automatisms that have resulted in the growth and decline of empires, the unconscious reactions that are splitting atoms.”

HumansPhilosophyGrowthAnimalStudyPsychologyBehaviorBuiltMethodInstinctReactionsUnconsciousEmpiresAtomsDeclineHuman BehaviorInfantProposeCathedralsRailroadsReflexesLegal SystemFortressesSplittingBehaviorismSplitting The Atom
Author:Ludwig von Mises
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“If you study Japanese art you see a man who is undoubtedly wise, philosophic and intelligent, who spends his time how? In studying the distance between the earth and the moon? No. In studying the policy of Bismarck? No. He studies a single blade of grass. But this blade of grass leads him to draw every plant and then the seasons, the wide aspects of the countryside, then animals, then the human figure. So he passes his life, and life is too short to do the whole.”

IfsMenHumansArtWholeEarthLife IsAnimalStudyWiseFiguresPolicyMoonDrawsAspectSeasonsIntelligentDistancePlantWideGrassToo ShortBladesLife Is Too ShortCountrysidePhilosophicBlades Of GrassJapanese ArtBismarck
Author:Vincent Van Gogh
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“We lose in depth of expression when we go to inferior animals for comparisons with human beauty. Homer calls Juno ox-eyed; and the epithet suits well with the eyes of that goddess, because she may be supposed, with all her beauty, to want a certain humanity. Her large eyes look at you with a royal indifference.”

WantHumansWellsLooksMayEyeCertainHumanityLosesAnimalExpressionDepthSuitsIndifferenceComparisonGoddessInferiorsRoyalHer BeautyEpithet
Book:Men, Women, and Books: A Selection of Sketches, Essays, and Critical Memoirs, from His Uncollected Prose Writings
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“The fact of our deriving constant pleasure from whatever is a type or semblance of divine attributes, and from nothing but that which is so, is the most glorious of all that can be demonstrated of human nature; it not only sets a great gulf of specific separation between us and the lower animals, but it seems a promise of a communion ultimately deep, close, and conscious, with the Being whose darkened manifestations we here feebly and unthinkingly delight in.”

HumansFactsSeemsPleasureAnimalHuman NatureDivineTypePromiseConsciousConstantDelightSeparationManifestationGloriousAttributesCommunionSemblance
Book:Modern Painters: (pt.3) Of ideas of beauty
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“The human mind delights in grand conceptions of supernatural beings. And the sea is precisely their best vehicle, the only medium through which these giants (against which terrestrial animals, such as elephants or rhinoceroses, are as nothing) can be produced or developed”

MindHumansAnimalSeaDelightMediumsGiantsHuman MindConceptionVehicleElephantsSupernatural Beings
Book:Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea / Vingt mille lieues sous les mers (Bilingual Edition: English - French / Édition bilingue: anglais - français)
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“Surely it should be a matter of moral responsibility that we humans, different from other animals mainly by virtue of our more highly developed intellect and, with it, our greater capacity for understanding and compassion, ensure that medical progress slowly detaches its roots from the manure of non-human animal suffering and despair.”

ShouldHumansDifferentMatterSufferingUnderstandingAnimalResponsibilityCompassionMoralVirtueGreaterProgressDespairCapacityRootsIntellectMedicalAnimal RightsHuman AnimalManureMoral ResponsibilityAnimal SufferingUnderstanding And Compassion
Author:Jane Goodall
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“Louis [Leakey] was anxious to initiate a scientific study of these chimpanzees. It would be difficult, he emphasized, for nothing was known; there were no guidelines for such a field study; and the habitat was remote and rugged. Dangerous wild animals would be living there, and chimpanzees themselves were considered at least four times stronger than humans. I remember wondering what kind of scientist he would find for such a herculean task.”

HumansKindWould BeRememberScienceDifficultAnimalKnownWonderStudyFourDangerousFieldsTasksScientistStrongerIronyAnxiousInitiateHabitatWild AnimalChimpanzeesGuidelinesRugged
Author:Jane Goodall
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“There is seemingly no biological benefit to acting with conscience; if there were, only moral individuals would survive and procreate. Sadly, we know that's not true. The benefit of conscience is that you won't suffer guilt (private) or shame (public), and that by your own self-imposed definition, you are a moral human, a special kind of animal who takes unique pride in elevating him/herself above the termites.”

IfsKnowsHumansKindSelfSufferingIndividualAnimalActingMoralSpecialPrideBenefitsUniqueConscienceShameGuiltDefinitionsElevating
Book:How Could You Do That?!: Abdication of Character, Courage, Consci
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“We humans are herd animals of the monkey tribe, not natural individuals as lions are. Our individuality is partial and restless; the stream of consciousness that we call 'I' is made of shifting elements that flow from our group and back to our group again. Always we seek to be ourselves and the herd together, not One against the herd.”

HumansMadeTogetherIndividualNaturalAnimalConsciousnessGroupsElementsFlowIndividualityStreamsLionsTribesMonkeysRestlessShiftingHerdsStream Of Consciousness
Author:Anna Louise Strong
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“'Everything beautiful occurs when the body / is suspended,' Helena Mesa quotes a performance artist who hangs his own pierced body in the air. Mesa's poems are artfully suspended between lyric and narrative, between humans and animals, between Latin America and the U.S., between desire and the difficulty of its fulfillment. Horse Dance Underwater is an inventive, musical, and powerful debut.”

HumansBodyAmericaBeautifulDesireArtistAnimalPowerfulAirPerformancesHorseDifficultyMusicalNarrativeFulfillmentLatinLatin AmericaSuspendedDebutUnderwaterHumans And Animals
Author:Mark Doty
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“We say that one gets cancer, or a cold, or kidney disease. One would never think to say that one is cancer. But we say that one is depressed, or bipolar, or schizophrenic. A disease of the body is a condition. But a disease of the mind, we think, is a state of being. We no longer believe, as we did 250 years ago, that the mentally ill are animals, but we are not yet ready to grant that they are fully human either.”

ThinkingYearsMindBelieveHumansStatesBodyAnimalConditionsReadyColdDiseaseYears AgoIllCancerGrantsBipolarKidneysSchizophrenicMentally IllKidney Disease
Author:Paul Gruchow
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