I love quotes. Always have. But I find these especially inspiring because they remind me that I'm not alone in my beliefs, that the quest to end animal suffering is not new, and that intelligent thinkers from all walks of life have concluded that how the human animal treats other species is just not right. And that, gives me hope.
The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men.
--ALICE WALKER
The assumption that animals are without rights and the illusion that our treatment of them has no moral significance is a positively outrageous example of Western crudity and barbarity. Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality.
--ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER, German philosopher (1788-1860)
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. --JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE, Oceana, 1886
I am not interested to know whether vivisection produces results that are profitable to the human race or doesn't.... The pain which it inflicts upon unconsenting animals is the basis of my enmity toward it, and it is to me sufficient justification of the enmity without looking further. --MARK TWAIN
I had bought two male chimps from a primate colony in Holland. They lived next to each other in separate cages for several months before I used one as a [heart] donor. When we put him to sleep in his cage in preparation for the operation, he chattered and cried incessantly. We attached no significance to this, but it must have made a great impression on his companion, for when we removed the body to the operating room, the other chimp wept bitterly and was inconsolable for days. The incident made a deep impression on me. I vowed never again to experiment with such sensitive creatures.
--CHRISTIAN BARNARD, surgeon
I abhor vivisection with my whole soul. All the scientific discoveries stained with innocent blood I count as of no consequence. --MAHATMA GANDHI
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." Animal experimentation rests on a logical contradiction. --CHARLES R. MAGEL
I am in favour of animals rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being. --ABRAHAM LINCOLN
For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sews the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love. --PYTHAGORAS
About sacrifice and the offering of sacrifices, sacrificial animals think quite differently from those who look on: but they have never been allowed to have their say. --
If one person is unkind to an animal, it is considered to be cruelty, but where a lot of people are unkind to animals, especially in the name of commerce, the cruelty is condoned and once sums of money are at stake, will be defended to the last by otherwise intelligent people. --RUTH HARRISON, Animal Machines, 1964.
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. --MAHATMA GHANDI
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
It is inexcusable for scientists to torture animals; let them make their experiments on journalists and politicians. --HENRIK IBSEN
Until he extends the circle of compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace. --ALBERT SCHWEITZER
A righteous man has regard for the life of his beast. --PROVERBS 12:10
I care not for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.
All the arguments to prove man's superiority cannot shatter this hard fact: in suffering the animals are our equals. --PETER SINGER
He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals. --IMMANUEL KANT -- There are more quotes on the Vegan Quotes Page as well! --
--FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
--ABRAHAM LINCOLN
