Archive

Quotes

Go to the ant, you lazybones; consider its ways, and be wise.

—Book of Proverbs, c. 350 BC

Alas! We are ridiculous animals.

—Horace Walpole, 1777

Man is a troublesome animal and therefore is not very manageable.

—Plato, c. 349 BC

Do you not see how God is praised by those in the heavens and those on earth? The very birds praised Him as they wing their way.

—The Qur’an, c. 620

Who hears the fishes when they cry?

—Henry David Thoreau, 1849

There are some who, if a cat accidentally comes into the room, though they neither see it nor are told of it, will presently be in a sweat and ready to die away.

—Increase Mather, 1684

Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them.

—Samuel Butler, c. 1890

Animals 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, 1821

Man is a noble animal, splendid in ashes and pompous in the grave.

—Thomas Browne, 1658

Man, when perfected, is the best of animals, but when separated from law and justice, he is the worst of all. 

—Aristotle, c. 350 BC

An ape will be an ape, though clad in purple.

—Erasmus, 1511

Animals are good to think with.

—Claude Lévi-Strauss, 1962

Every ass thinks himself worthy to stand with the king’s horses.

—Gnomologia, 1732