“I am persuaded that if the brutes even--if the dog, the horse, the ox, the elephant, the bird, could speak, they would confess, that, at the bottom of their nature, their instincts, their sensations, their obtuse intelligence, assisted by organs less perfect than ours, there is a clouded, secret sentiment of this existence of a superior and primordial Being, from whom all emanates, and to whom all returns.” IfsSpeakPerfectSecretExistenceDogReturnBirdHorseInstinctBottomSuperiorsSensationsSentimentsOrgansElephantsBrutesCloudedEmanate Book:Lamartine on Atheism: Atheism Among the People Source: Lamartine on Atheism: Atheism Among the People
“Every man has a secret ambition: To outsmart horses, fish and women.” MenWomenSecretAmbitionHorseFishesEvery ManMen Women Author:Mark Twain
“Emulation, even in brutes, is sensitively "nervous." See the tremor of the thoroughbred racer before he starts. The dray-horse does not tremble, but he does not emulate. It is not his work to run a race. Says Marcus Antoninus, "It is all one to a stone whether it be thrown upward or downward." Yet the emulation of a man of genius is seldom with his contemporaries, that is, inwardly in his mind, although outwardly in his act it would seem so. The competitors with whom his secret ambition seems to vie are the dead.” MenMindDoeSeemsRunningSecretRaceGeniusAmbitionStonesHorseNervousThrownCompetitorsBrutesEmulateEmulationRacersThoroughbreds Author:Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton