“Man has been called a rational being, but rationality is a matter of choice-and the alternative his nature offers him is: rational being or suicidal animal. Man has to be man-by choice; he has to hold his life as a value-by choice; he has to learn to sustain it-by choice; he has to discover the values it requires and practice his virtues-by choice. A code of values accepted by choice is a code of morality.” MenHas BeensMatterValuesChoicesAnimalPracticeVirtueMoralityOffersAcceptedRationalAlternativesCodeRationalitySuicidal Author:John Galt
“Wild animals never kill for sport. Man is the only one to whom the torture and death of his fellow creatures is amusing in itself.” MenCharacterSportsAnimalCompassionVirtueHonestyIntegrityCreaturesFellowsKillingCrueltyTortureVeganAnimal RightsHuntingVegetarianismVeganismAmusingCriminal MindAnimal WelfareAnimal CrueltyAnimal LoveWild AnimalVegetarian HealthAnimal WorldPet AnimalsAnimal CompassionAnimal AbuseAnimal TestingKilling AnimalsCompassion Towards AnimalsSmall CreaturesWild CreaturesKilling A ManWild ManOpen Season Author:James Anthony Froude
“The beauty of the animal form is in exact proportion to the amount of moral and intellectual virtue expressed by it.” FormAnimalBeautyMoralVirtueAmountIntellectualProportion Book:Of ideas of beauty Source: Of ideas of beauty
“Cruelty, very far from being a vice, is the first sentiment Nature injects in us all. The infant breaks his toy, bites his nurse's breast, strangles his canary long before he is able to reason; cruelty is stamped in animals, in whom, as I think I have said, Nature's laws are more emphatically to be read than in ourselves; cruelty exists amongst savages, so much nearer to Nature than civilized men are; absurd then to maintain cruelty is a consequence of depravity. . . . Cruelty is simply the energy in a man civilization has not yet altogether corrupted: therefore it is a virtue, not a vice.” ThinkingMenFirstsLongSaidReasonAbleLawEnergyAnimalBreakVirtueCivilizationConsequenceVicesAbsurdCrueltyBreastsCivilizedSentimentsBitesNurseToysSavagesInfantDepravityCanaries Author:Marquis de Sade
“Be free from grief not through insensibility like the irrational animals, nor through want of thought like the foolish, but like a man of virtue by having reason as the consolation of grief.” MenWantReasonAnimalGriefVirtueFoolishIrrationalConsolationInsensibility Book:Enchiridion Source: Enchiridion
“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
“All are agreed that the various moral qualities are in a sense bestowed by nature: we are just, and capable of temperance, and brave, and possessed of the other virtues from the moment of our birth. But nevertheless we expect to find that true goodness is something different, and that the virtues in the true sense come to belong to us in another way. For even children and wild animals possess the natural dispositions, yet without Intelligence these may manifestly be harmful.” WayMayChildrenDifferentMomentsNaturalAnimalQualityMoralVirtueHuman NatureBirthGoodnessCapableBraveVariousPossessedNeverthelessDispositionAnother WayTemperanceWild Animal Book:The Nicomachean ethics Source: The Nicomachean ethics
“The virtue of a faculty is related to the special function which that faculty performs. Now there are three elements in the soul which control action and the attainment of truth: namely, Sensation, Intellect, and Desire. Of these, Sensation never originates action, as is shown by the fact that animals have sensation but are not capable of action.” SoulFactsActionDesireThreeAnimalVirtueSpecialElementsCapableFunctionIntellectRelatedFacultySensationsAttainment Book:The Nicomachean ethics Source: The Nicomachean ethics
“Personal courage is really a very subordinate virtue-a virtue, indeed, in which we are surpassed by the lower animals; or else you would not hear people say, as brave as a lion.” PeopleAnimalCourageVirtueBraveLionsSubordinatesPersonal Courage Author:Arthur Schopenhauer
“Man is a rational animal—so at least I have been told. … Aristotle, so far as I know, was the first man to proclaim explicitly that man is a rational animal. His reason for this view was … that some people can do sums. … It is in virtue of the intellect that man is a rational animal. The intellect is shown in various ways, but most emphatically by mastery of arithmetic. The Greek system of numerals was very bad, so that the multiplication table was quite difficult, and complicated calculations could only be made by very clever people.” PeopleKnowsMenWayFirstsHas BeensMadeReasonDifficultCan DoAnimalViewsVirtueDifficultyTablesVariousComplicatedIntellectCleverRationalGreekMasteryGreeceCalculationsComplicationArithmeticVery CleverMultiplicationNumerals Author:Bertrand Russell
“Man is an Animal, formidable both from his Passions and his Reason; his Passions often urging him to great Evils, and his Reason furnishing Means to achieve them. To train this Animal, and make him amenable to Order; to inure him to a Sense of Justice and Virtue, to withhold him from ill Courses by Fear, and encourage him in his Duty by Hopes; in short, to fashion and model him for Society, hath been the Aim of civil and religious Institutions; and, in all Times, the Endeavour of good and wise Men. The aptest Method for attaining this End, hath been always judged a proper Education.” MenMeanEndsReasonOrderPassionCoursesEvilReligiousJusticeAnimalEducationVirtueWiseAchieveFashionDutyModelsAimMethodInstitutionsTrainIllAll TimeEndeavorJudgedFormidableAmenable Author:George Berkeley
“Well the thing is, once you have a snow leopard it's difficult to go back. Everything is going to be slightly disappointing. It's very telling what your choice would be. Because that's probably how you see yourself. We used to play that game as kids and you'd say if you were animal what would you be and it'd usually be the opposite of what it should be. But all animals have got their virtues. You know, cockroaches got virtues.” IfsKnowsShouldWellsPlayWould BeKidsUsedChoicesGamesDifficultAnimalVirtueOppositesSnowDisappointingCockroachesLeopardsSnow Leopards Author:Daniel Craig