There be beasts that, at a year old, observe more, and pursue that which is for their good more prudently, than a child can do at ten.
—Thomas Hobbes, 1651Quotes
The righteous know the needs of their animals, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.
—Book of Proverbs, c. 500 BCWeaseling out of things is important to learn. It’s what separates us from the animals—except the weasel.
—The Simpsons, 1993A dog starved at his master’s gate / Predicts the ruin of the state.
—William Blake, 1807Go to the ant, you lazybones; consider its ways, and be wise.
—Book of Proverbs, c. 350 BCI hate the sight of monkeys; they remind me so of poor relations.
—Henry Luttrell, 1820A good dog, sir, deserves a good bone.
—Ben Jonson, 1633Histories are more full of examples of the fidelity of dogs than of friends.
—Alexander Pope, 1709Animals are good to think with.
—Claude Lévi-Strauss, 1962Animals are in possession of themselves; their soul is in possession of their body. But they have no right to their life, because they do not will it.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, 1821Of all the creatures that breathe and creep on the surface of the earth, none is more to be pitied than man.
—Homer, c. 750 BCImitate the ass in his love to his master.
—St. John Chrysostom, c. 388The fox knows lots of tricks, the hedgehog only one—but it’s a winner.
—Archilochus, c. 650 BC