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Animal Quotes

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Animal Quotes

“Most persons think that a state in order to be happy ought to be large; but even if they are right, they have no idea of what is a large and what a small state.... To the size of states there is a limit, as there is to other things, plants, animals, implements; for none of these retain their natural power when they are too large or too small, but they either wholly lose their nature, or are spoiled.”

Ifs Thinking Persons Ideas States Order Loses Natural Animal Ought Limits Plant Size No Idea Consumerism Spoiled Overconsumption

Book:The Essential Aristotle

Source: The Essential Aristotle

“The mortal enemies of man are not his fellows of another continent or race; they are the aspects of the physical world which limit or challenge his control, the disease germs that attack him and his domesticated plants and animals, and the insects that carry many of these germs as well as working notable direct injury. This is not the age of man, however great his superiority in size and intelligence; it is literally the age of insects.”

“And there are also languages that divide nouns into much more specific genders. The African language Supyire from Mali has five genders: humans, big things, small things, collectives, and liquids. Bantu languages such as Swahili have up to ten genders, and the Australian language Ngan’gityemerri is said to have fifteen different genders, which include, among others, masculine human, feminine human, canines, non-canine animals, vegetables, drinks, and two different genders for spears (depending on size and material).”

“Your average witch is not, by nature, a social animal.... The natural size of a coven is one. Witches only get together when they can't avoid it.”

Together Social Natural Animal Average Size Witch Witchcraft Get Together

Book:The Folklore of Discworld

Source: The Folklore of Discworld

“Human beings thought with their hands. It was their hands that were the answer of curiosity, that felt and pinched and turned and lifted and hefted. There were animals that had brains of respectable size, but they had no hands and that made all the difference.”

Humans Made Hands Felt Differences Human Beings Answers Animal Brain Curiosity Size Respectable

Book:Foundation's Edge

Source: Foundation's Edge

“English stupidity is an organism so primitive that it is apparently impossible to kill off. It reminds me of Physarum Polycephalum, the gigantic slime mould recently bred by scientists at Bonn. Bright yellow and about two millimetres thick, this monocellular creature--neither plant nor animal--grew to a size of 10 square yards before the scientists took fright and froze it. It can smell its favourite food, and move towards it at a speed of up to two centimetres an hour. This favourite food is porridge.”

Two Moving Hours Animal Impossible Grew Creatures Scientist Plant Size Smell Stupidity Speed Squares Yellow Thick Favourite Primitive Organisms Yards Fright Mould Slime Porridge

Author:Neal Ascherson

“I know animals more gallant than the African warthog, but none more courageous. He is the peasant of the plains - the drab and dowdy digger in the earth. He is the uncomely but intrepid defender of family, home, and bourgeois convention, and he will fight anything of any size that intrudes upon his smug existence. ... His eyes are small and lightless and capable of but one expression - suspicion. What he does not understand, he suspects, and what he suspects, he fights.”

Knows Doe Home Eye Earth Fighting Animal Existence Expression Capable Size His Eyes Courageous Suspects Conventions Suspicion Peasants Bourgeois Defenders Gallant Family Home

Book:West with the Night

Source: West with the Night

“Everything is 'colossalized' - events, fortunes, accidents, climate, conversation, ambitions - everything is in the extreme ... They can't even have a tram run off a line, which in England or France might kill one or two people, without its making a holocaust of half a street full. ... The thing which surprises me is they should still employ animals of normal size; one would expect to see elephants and mammoths drawing the hansoms and carts!”

“Because of his capacity for abstract communications and language and his ability to enter in imagination into the lives of others, man is able to build organizations of a size and complexity far beyond those of the lower animals.”

Men Able Language Imagination Ability Animal Communication Capacity Organization Size Abstract Complexity Lives Of Others

Author:Kenneth E. Boulding

“I love being in the ocean. I love the unpredictability of it- size of wave, animals you see, etc.”

Love Is Animal Ocean Size Wave Etc Unpredictability

Author:Francis Chan

“Given the huge size of Aegirocassis and its very alien appearance, I assume most people would probably be terrified if they'd encounter it while swimming. However, contrary to almost all other anomalocaridids which were active predators, our animal would have been a very peaceful guy.”

People Ifs Has Beens Guy Given Animal Huge Assuming Size Appearance Active Contrary Peaceful Aliens Encounters Swimming Terrified Predator

Author:Benjamin Van Roy

“If the basic human nature was aggressive, we would have been born with animal claws & huge teeth -- but ours are very short, very pretty, very weak! That means we are not well equipped to be aggressive beings. Even the size of our mouth is very small. So I think the basic nature of human beings should be gentle.”

Ifs Thinking Should Humans Wells Mean Has Beens Born Human Beings Animal Human Nature Huge Mouths Weak Size Teeth Gentle Aggressive Claws

Author:Dalai Lama