Sayings about Animals
Do not eat before you have fed your animal. ~ Hebrew Proverb
Better to be watched by a wild animal than a nosey man. ~ Berber Proverb
Every animal knows more than you do. ~ American Proverbs
The kind man feeds his beast before sitting down to dinner. ~ Hebrew Proverb
It takes two days to learn everything about a man; to know animals you will need more time. ~ Iranian Proverbs
An animal’s end is slaughter. ~ Yiddish Proverbs
The flesh of a young animal tastes flat. ~ Congolese Proverb
Man is the only animal who can be skinned twice. ~ United States Proverb
A mule driver is not aware of the stink of his animals. ~ Yemeni Proverbs
One ass calls the other a pack animal.~ Yiddish Proverbs
The mountains are never so far apart but the animals find one another. ~ American Proverb
The zebra told the white horse, “I am white,” and told the black horse, “I am actually black.” ~ African Proverb
If there were no elephant in the jungle, the buffalo would be a great animal. ~ Ghanaian Proverbs
Sometimes the cry of the animal is worse than the animal itself. ~ French Proverb
Quotations about Animals
Animals are not property or “things” but rather living organisms, subjects of a life, who are worthy of our compassion, respect, friendship, and support. ~ Marc Bekoff
I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals. ~ Winston Churchill Quotes
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 Hegel
If a man aspires towards a righteous life, his first act of abstinence is from injury to animals. ~ Leo Tolstoy
Animals have these advantages over man: they never hear the clock strike, they die without any idea of death, they have no theologians to instruct them, their last moments are not disturbed by unwelcome and unpleasant ceremonies, their funerals cost them nothing, and no one starts lawsuits over their wills. ~ Voltaire Quotes
Animals are like people because people are animals. ~ Barbara T. Gates
Man is a clever animal who behaves like an imbecile. ~ Albert Schweitzer
Our many domestic animals have played an important role in the civilization of man. Without them, especially the dog, the horse, the cow, and the sheep, man’s development onward and upward would have been slow and uncertain. ~ C. W. Burkett
If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans. ~ James Herriot
Of all the ways of defining man, the worst is the one which makes him out to be a rational animal. ~ Anatole France
You should never name an animal which is not yours to keep, or which you intend to eat. ~ Deborah Boliver Boehm
Anyone would be hard pressed to put forth that animals are not perfect creations of God; they are just different types of creations. ~ Sylvia Browne
Man is an animal that makes bargains; no other animal does this — one dog does not change a bone with another. ~ Adam Smith
At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst. ~ Aristotle
Animals are like little angels sent to earth to teach us how to love. They don’t get angry or play silly games. They are always there for us. ~ Whitney Mandel
Man is a gaming animal. He must always be trying to get the better in something or other. ~ Charles Lamb
Animals awaken, first facially, then bodily. Men’s bodies wake before their faces do. The animal sleeps within its body, man sleeps with his body in his mind. ~ Malcolm De Chazal
Animals, in their generation, are wiser than the sons of men; but their wisdom is confined to a few particulars, and lies in a very narrow compass. ~ Joseph Addison
Animals, whom we have made our slaves, we do not like to consider our equal. ~ Charles Darwin Quotes
I think I could turn and live with animals; they are so placid and self-contained. I stand and look at them long and long. ~ Walt Whitman
An animal’s eyes have the power to speak a great language. ~ Martin Buber
In the animal kingdom, the rule is, eat or be eaten; in the human kingdom, define or be defined. ~ Thomas Szasz
Lots of people talk to animals…. Not very many listen, though…. That’s the problem. ~ Benjamin Hoff
Animals are stylized characters in a kind of old saga — stylized because even the most acute of them have little leeway as they play out their parts. ~ Edward Hoagland
Only animals were not expelled from Paradise. ~ Milan Kundera
Four legs good, two legs bad. ~ George Orwell
Man is a make-believe animal — he is never so truly himself as when he is acting a part. ~ William Hazlitt
An animal will always look for a person’s intentions by looking them right in the eyes. ~ H. Powers
Nothing can be more obvious than that all animals were created solely and exclusively for the use of man. ~ Thomas Love Peacock
Animals are such agreeable friends — they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms. ~ George Eliot
Animals are like little children a bit. They’re simple. They don’t have politics driving them. ~ Annabelle Sabloff
Animals have one thing that puts them way ahead of people: they don’t dissemble, and you don’t have to pretend in front of them. ~ Ivan Klima
Let us never forget that the greatest man is never more than an animal disguised as a god. ~ Francis Picabia
Man 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 might have been.~ William Hazlitt
The best thing about animals is that they don’t talk much. ~ Thornton Wilder
Be a good animal, true to your animal instincts. ~ D. H. Lawrence
Animals are like humans, only more openly carnal and sexual, more openly and therefore more disarmingly absurd. ~ Yi-Fu Tuan
God gave unto the Animals a wisdom past our power to see: Each knows innately how to live, which we must learn laboriously. ~ Margaret Atwood
Animals are simply sophisticated machines created by the infinitely skilled artisan, God. ~ Brian G. Henning
Nothing to be done really about animals. Anything you do looks foolish. The answer isn’t in us. It’s almost as if we’re put here on earth to show how silly they aren’t. ~ Russell Hoban
Everywhere animals are in chains, but we image them as free. ~ Carol J. Adams
Animals when in company walk in a proper and sensible manner, in single file, instead of sprawling all across the road and being of no use or support to each other in case of sudden trouble or danger. ~ Kenneth Grahame
Those who wish to pet and baby wild animals, “love” them. But those who respect their natures and wish to let them live normal lives, love them more. ~ Edwin Way Teale
Animals are not humans with reduced capacities. They have their own capacities, their own spectrum of aptitudes and behaviors. ~ David Fraser
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
Man is the only animal that blushes, or needs to. ~ Mark Twain Quotes
Animals are neither gods nor fiends, but men in their way without the lust and greed of man. ~ Robert E. Howard
Every time I look into the eyes of an animal I see life; the force of life and the beauty of creation. ~ Radar O’Reilly
A mule has neither pride of ancestry nor hope of posterity. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll
Whenever you observe an animal closely, you feel as if a human being sitting inside were making fun of you. ~ Elias Canetti
You can always tell about somebody by the way they put their hands on an animal. ~ Betty White
Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened. ~ Anatole France
Man is the only animal who causes pain to others with no other object than wanting to do so. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer
Instinct guides the animal better than the man. In the animal it is pure, in man it is led astray by his reason and intelligence. ~ Denis Diderot
All animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than others. ~ George Orwell
Animals often strike us as passionate machines. ~ Eric Hoffer
If we’re not supposed to eat animals … how come they’re made out of meat? ~ Author Unknown
Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them. ~ Samuel Butler
You enter into a certain amount of madness when you marry a person with pets. ~ Nora Ephron
Drinking, when we are not thirsty and making love all year round, madam; that is all there is to distinguish us from other animals.~ Pierre De Beaumarchais