#animals

In any case I just cannot imagine attaching so much importance to any food or treat that I would grow irate or bitter at the mention of the suffering of animals. A pig to me will always seem more important than a pork rind. There is the risk here of confusing realism with cynicism, moral stoicism with moral sloth, of letting oneself become jaded and lazy and self-satisfied--what used to be called an 'appetitive' person. ↗

— Matthew Scully

#eating #ethics #food #meat #food

Anybody who hates dogs and babies can't be all bad. ↗

— Leo Rosten

#children #humor #w-c-fields #humor

Today we have made a fetish of choice; but a chosen death is forbidden. Perhaps what distinguishes humans from other animals is that humans have learnt to cling more abjectly to life. ↗

— John Gray

#dying-animals #humans #life #straw-dogs #suicide

The free animal has its dying always behind it and God in front of it, and its way is the eternal way, as the spring flowing. Never, not for a moment, do we have pure space before us, where the flowers endlessly open. ↗

— Rainer Maria Rilke

#death #religion #death

Zonder poes komt het nooit helemaal goed ↗

— Midas Dekkers

#love #pets #love

For several thousand years man has been in contact with animals whose character and habits have been deformed by domestication. He has ended by believing that he understands them. All he means by this is that he is able to rely on certain reflex actions which he himself has implanted in them. He will flatter himself at times on the grasp of animal psychology which has brought him the love of the dog and the purr of the cat; and on the strength of such assumptions he approaches the beasts of the jungle. The old tag about nature being an open book is just not true. What nature offers on a first examination may appear to be simple but it is never as simple as it appears. ↗

— Hans Brick

#circus #training #zoo #love

Though reason must guide us in laying down standards and laws regarding animals, and in examining the arguments of those who reject such standards, it is usually best in any moral inquiry to start with the original motivation, which in the case of animals we may without embarrassment call love. Human beings love animals as only the higher love the lower, the knowing love the innocent, and the strong love the vulnerable. When we wince at the suffering of animals, that feeling speaks well of us even when we ignore it, and those who dismiss love for our fellow creatures as mere sentimentality overlook a good and important part of our humanity. ↗

— Matthew Scully

#humanity #love #love

Let your autobiography contain these words; "I was able to think positively, love affectionately and work efficiently". Thinking, loving and working are what make us different from animals and trees. ↗

— Israelmore Ayivor

#affectionately #animals #autobiography #effecitively #effective

Go outside, talk to the birds, or the lizards, they want to meet you, they are part of your life, they share this world with you, they will talk back if you take the time to hear them. Look into their eyes, there is love, there is peace within them. ↗

— Martin Suarez

#birds #love #nature #peace #pets

Without close and reciprocal relationships with other animal beings, we're alienated from the rich, diverse, and magnificent world in which we live. ↗

— Marc Bekoff

#inspirational #inspirational