It is remarkable that only small birds properly sing.
—Charles Darwin, 1871Quotes
If you are a dog and your owner suggests that you wear a sweater, suggest that he wear a tail.
—Fran Lebowitz, 1981Alas! We are ridiculous animals.
—Horace Walpole, 1777In every man is a wild beast; most of them don’t know how to hold it back, and the majority give it full rein when they are not restrained by terror of law.
—Frederick the Great, 1759Man and animals are really the conduit of food, the sepulcher of animals, and resting place of the dead, one causing the death of the other, making themselves the covering for the corruption of other dead bodies.
—Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1500What delight can there be, and not rather displeasure, in hearing the barking and howling of dogs? Or what greater pleasure is there to be felt when a dog followeth a hare than when a dog followeth a dog?
—Thomas More, 1516Man is the only animal for whom his own existence is a problem which he has to solve and from which he cannot escape.
—Erich Fromm, 1947Life is no way to treat an animal.
—Kurt Vonnegut, 2005Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps, for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are and what they ought to be.
—William Hazlitt, 1819Every ass thinks himself worthy to stand with the king’s horses.
—Gnomologia, 1732The fox knows lots of tricks, the hedgehog only one—but it’s a winner.
—Archilochus, c. 650 BCEvery creature in the world is like a book and a picture, to us, and a mirror.
—Alain de Lille, c. 1200Who sleepeth with dogs shall rise with fleas.
—John Florio, 1578