c2p-cmd/Good-Quotes-Authors huggingface dataset:
….In time, the Europeans brought in pigs and horses, both of which were allowed to run wild and multiply. Pigs in the wild soon became aggressive feral boars with tusks, eating everything in sight. Corn, which the Indians depended upon, was attacked and uprooted by the pigs before maturing, thus leaving the Indians without an important source of nourishment. Although pigs provided a necessary source of protein, they were also known to host worms and parasites, and spread viruses such as influenza. If undercooked, the meat could cause trichinosis infections that, depending upon the severity, could result in death in four to six weeks.The sailors returning to Europe brought with them tobacco and syphilis, both of which could be fatal. Syphilis is the gift that keeps on giving and soon spread throughout Europe and England. Unknown prior to the discovery of America, it became another blight on the European continent.Because of their close connection, many people were convinced that pigs were the carriers of Syphilis. Perhaps they were right…. .
— Hank Bracker, Suppressed I Rise
Why don't people get their children stuffed after they pass away. Why not, I mean you do love them right?
— James J-Pierre
As told by Kafka's close friend Max Brod:"Suddenly he began to speak to the fish in their illuminated tanks. 'Now at least I can look at you in peace, I don't eat you anymore.' It was the time he turned strictly vegetarian.
— Jonathan Safran Foer, Eating Animals
I really don't think it's a case of not caring at all about animals. Instead, I think it's a case of caring so much about one's own self that everything else becomes immaterial.
— Micheal Slusher
Ugh!' snarled the Wolf, as he limped through the brushwood with his tail between his legs, 'this is perfectly monstrous weather. Why doesn't the Government look to it?
— Oscar Wilde, The Star-Child and Other Tales
We are irrational animals trained to be rational.
— Ben Tolosa, Masterplan Your Success
Animal welfare - yes. Animal rights - don't make me laugh. I'm not an animals rights activist. I certainly do not love animals. In fact, I secretly mistrust all four-legged / furry / two-winged / feathered / shelled ar scaly brothers and sisters. If I were them, I would by now be plotting ultimate revenge on a scale previously unknown to man. ... I stick to a vegan diet only for reasons of self-preservertion. Call it insurance. When the time of the great animal uprising comes, I may have a small chance of escaping ...
— Sharon Dodua Otoo, the things i am thinking while smiling politely …
Salila!” said Maia, outraged. “Another DOG? ON TOP OF ALL THE OTHER ANIMALS?”“SO WHAT....?” I began, and then got cut off as Polly attempted to land her shaggy grey bulk into my lap,unmindful as ever of our respective sizes, long floppy ears flopping and entire behind wagging, whipping her long tail, and barking in ear-deafening bursts.
— Sonal Panse, The Sunshine Time: Season 1 Episode 4
LOOK AT HIM! Mum, LOOK! OUR NEW DOG! ISN’T HE A BEAUTY?”“Another DOG!” came Maia’s amazed voice.
— Sonal Panse, The Sunshine Time: Season 1 Episode 4
Sister Carmelita says animals don't have souls""Of course animals have souls, where did she get that idea?""She said the Pope says." "The Pope's an old meanie. Animals have much nicer souls than we do. They never tell lies or blow anybody up." "They eat each other." "Well, they have to eat each other; they can't go to Dairy Queen and get a large vanilla cone with sprinkles, can they? ""They could eat grass.""So could we, but we don't. We eat hamburgers.
— Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler's Wife
I believe we as humans are meant to have a bond and a connection with all of life itself, and our animals are trying to open our hearts to it.
— Catherine Louise Birmingham
If you want to see God, simply look into the eyes of an animal.
— J. Bartell, The 231 Club: My Ten Year Journey From Therapist to CIA Courier and Sanctioned Kills - A True Story
Places of confinement providing free food and medical care are called prisons.
— John Lilly
Love is love, wherever you may find it—even when it's covered in feathers.
— Alan Bradley, Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd
The life of an animal lies outside of conjecture. It is far beyond the scientific papers and the campfire stories. It is as true as breath. It is important as the words of children.
— Craig Childs, The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild
I saw my life flash before my eyes. It looked a lot like a Chihuahua with a severe overbite.
— Bethany Blake, Death by Chocolate Lab
Oh my boy, you are so huggable and snuggable, is that why they callyou Snugs Bear?”“I’ve simply always been Snugs,” Snugs said, with an unusual, mysterious air, for it was nearly time to go to bed.
— Suzy  Davies, Snugs The Snow Bear
The song was a sea-shanty, and Snugs loved that kind of song. The music had an accordion, and the tune reminded him of the ship, and the songs Captain LightOwler played, when he was off duty, about pirates and the baddies on the sea.
— Suzy  Davies, Snugs The Snow Bear
My favorite, how did you put it now? Landscapes, animals, plants? Favorite what? Books, music, architecture, painting? I don't have any favorite animals, no favorite mosquitoes, favorite beetles, favorite worms, even with the best will in the world I cannot tell you which birds or fish or predators I prefer, it would also be difficult for me to have to choose much more generally.
— Ingeborg Bachmann, Malina
In a country where even humans are treated brutally, animals must be in a totally desperate condition!
— Mehmet Murat ildan
He was just about to turn the light off, when there was a heavy, “Tappety, tap, tappety, tap,” on the door. It was the kind of loud sound that could only be made with a hoof. A moose’s hoof, that is." - Snugs The Snow Bear
— Suzy  Davies, Snugs The Snow Bear
Animal are more modern because they don't wear anything...!!!
— M.Rehan Behleem
And then he draws the lamb in one smooth strong stroke, and slaps and rakes its wet mosslike fur to make it breathe, feels the power of its fast heartbeat in the chicken-bone cage of its ribs, still wet in his hands from the grease of birth, all these things of life, from jissom to mucus slavered between thighs to the wet sack of birth and glistening oiled newborn thing—all of these things of life awatered.
— Cynan Jones, The Dig
Mountain lions are psychological animals, preying on the mind with secret eyes. They know that they still dominate, that they cannot be cornered without ripping their way out. They know that they are still the heart of firceness. Being pack animals ourselves, we humans have some alliance with other pack animals, like wolves or coyotes. When I see a free wolf, I feel as if we could sit down and talk, given that the details have been worked out. Not so with the cat. The cat speaks in symbols.
— Craig Childs, The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild
When Mother had told me that animals found quiet, unexposed places to die, I had always imagined they knew they were dying, and accepted it, almost gratefully. Now I saw that this wasn't so at all: they crept into corners in the hope of surviving, they only knew they were weakened and exposed, easy prey, and their instinct was to find a hidden place and try to outlive whatever it was they were suffering. It had been a mistake to imagine they wanted to be alone, to die in peace. Animals have no knowledge of death: for them, death is the unexpected end of life, something they resist by instinct, for no good reason. In that sense their existence has an almost mechanical quality.
— John Burnside, The Dumb House
Everything has an origin in it, and animals are no exception.
— Ari Berk & Carolyn Dunn, Coyote Speaks: Wonders of the Native American World
Jill showed friend Kay the cute white mice.They liked to run races for cheese.Mice were lots of fun to play with.Jill said, "Take Poopsie, the male one, please!
— Melinda K. Trotter, Poopsie the Pet White Mouse
Kaylee giggled as he tunneled up inside her sleeve.Out popped his head for a quick look, then he took leave.He enjoyed scaling up, down and around her shirt.What a sweet, funny and adorable flirt.
— Melinda K. Trotter, Tickles the Pet Squirrel
Many times we refer to people who express hate or behave in a barbaric, savage 'inhuman' way as 'animals', but on closer inspection we can clearly see that this is in fact, an insult to animals.
— Christina Engela, Dead Man's Hammer
The reason I dedicate myself to helping animals so much is because there are already so many people dedicated to hurting them.~♥~ EDS
— Erik Shein, Sanctuary
Even if we ourselves are not personally scandalized by the notion of other animals as close relatives, even if our age has accommodated to the idea, the passionate resistance of so many of us, in so many epochs and cultures, and by so many distinguished scholars, must say something important about us. What can we learn about ourselves from an apparent error so widespread, propagated by so many leading philosophers and scientists, both ancient and modern, with such assurance and self-satisfaction? One of several possible answers: A sharp distinction between humans and "animals" is essential if we are to bend them to our will, make them work for us, wear them, eat them--without any disquieting tinges of guilt or regret. With untroubled consciences, we can render whole species extinct--for our perceived short-term benefit, or even through simple carelessness. Their loss is of little import: Those beings, we tell ourselves, are not like us. An unbridgeable gap gas thus a practical role to play beyond the mere stroking of human egos. Darwin's formulation of this answer was: "Animals whom we have made our slaves, we do not like to consider our equals.
— Carl Sagan, Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
I have a cottage in a dense forest and the animals of the forest are members of my cottage.
— Tanmaya Guru
I've broken an arm before, but no one wanted to shoot me!' Suzie says. 'I mean, when you go to the emergency room I hope to God the doctors don't decide it might cost too much to care for.' -Suzie Schwab co-owner of East Maui Animal Refuge
— Toni Polancy
To my mind, the chief conclusion to be drawn from Derrida’s analysis is that the human-animal distinction is, strictly speaking, nonsensical. How could a simple (or even a highly refined) binary distinction approach doing justice to the complex ethical and ontological matters at stake here?
— Matthew Calarco, Zoographies: The Question of the Animal from Heidegger to Derrida
[T]he term 'nonhuman' grates on me, since it lumps millions of species together by an absence, as if they were missing something. Poor things, they are nonhuman! When students embrace this jargon in their writing, I cannot resist sarcastic corrections in the margin saying that for completeness's sake, they should add that the animals they are talking about are also nonpenguin, nonhyena, and a whole lot more.
— Frans de Waal, Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?
The thing about rabbits, sir, is that everybody has one. I'd like to see you step up to the goat-class where I feel you belong. Frankly you look more like a goat man to me.
— Philip K. Dick
You may kill for yourselves, and your mates,and your cubs as they need, and you can;But kill not for pleasure of killing, andSEVEN TIMES NEVER KILL MAN.
— Rudyard Kipling, The Second Jungle Book
You wouldn't walk with your underpants stuck in your bottom, you'd adjust them. So don't treat life like ill-fitting wondering underpants, adjust it to be comfortable again
— E.E.D. Horton, Conversations With A Pigeon
Something was wrong, and while Mr. Bones could scarcely imagine what that thing was, Henry's sadness was beginning to have an effect on him, and within a matter of minutes he had taken on the boy's sadness as his own. Such is the was with dogs.
— Paul Auster, Timbuktu
Pets bring vital energy to our homes and lives. Pets communicate many messages about love and connection. Care tenderly for all pets throughout their precious lives. The interspecies dance of love softens and expands the heart.
— Laura Staley
The people knew then that Greg wasn't a monster, just a hungry animal.
— KayeC Jones, The Day the Aunts Disappeared
If you never leave me, I won't eat your stuff. - Belle, Dog Only Knows
— Terry Kaye, Dog Only Knows
If black and white are too different and separate calories zebras wouldn't have both.
— Mohamed Nur Hashi
The indifference of the many, combined with the active hatred of the few, has sealed the fate of animals.
— Yann Martel
My person says I don’t understand cause and effect. That’s not true, I get it: roll in the mud, you get the bath. But what shedoesn’t understand is, sometimes it’s just plain worth it. - Belle, Dog Only Knows
— Terry Kaye
But I'm not ready to let Winn-Dixie go.
— Kate DiCamillo, Because of Winn-Dixie
The first commandment of dog behavior: Thou shalt not hump. Thou shalt especially not hump in public. Thou shalt not hump thy neighbor’s wife, thy neighbor’s leg, or thy neighbor’s Jack Russell Terrier. - Belle, Dog Only Knows
— Terry Kaye, Dog Only Knows
When animals behave like humans or when humans behave like animals, don’t be surprised because in every animal there is a human and in every human there is an animal!
— Mehmet Murat ildan
Men and animals regard each other across a gulf of mutual incomprehension.
— W.G. Sebald
We might treat a rabbit as a pet or become emotionally attached to a goose, but we had come from cities and supermarkets, where flesh was hygienically distanced from any resemblance to living creatures. A shrink-wrapped pork chop has a sanitized, abstract appearance that has nothing whatever to do with the warm, mucky bulk of a pig. Out here in the country there was no avoiding the direct link between death and dinner.
— Peter Mayle, A Year in Provence
Animal? As in lion and tiger and chipmunk? Who's he kidding?
— Judith Whitelock McInerney, Judge Benjamin: The Superdog Secret
The how and why wild, little animals landed up with people will probably never be known for sure.
— P.J.  Nel, Embarrasments for Every Occassion: Kruger Park Stories
... because nobody wants to see a small creature left to suffer or left by itself out in the bushes.
— P.J.  Nel, Embarrasments for Every Occassion: Kruger Park Stories
When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we are spirits - not animals.
— Winston  Churchill
Opposable thumbs are overrated.
— Terry Kaye, Dog Only Knows
Dogs are angels full of poop.
— Oliver Gaspirtz, Pet Humor!
From horses we may learn not only about the horse itself but also about animals in general, indeed about ourselves and about life as a whole.
— George Gaylord Simpson
the doves, as we know, must be killed according to the law before Mary’s purification can be acknowledged and ratified. Any ironic or irreverent disciple of Voltaire will find it difficult to resist making the obvious remark that, things being what they are, purity can be maintained only so long as there are innocent creatures to sacrifice in this world, whether turtledoves, lambs, or others.
— José Saramago, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ
Honor is the only thing that separates us from animals.
— Peter Tieryas, United States of Japan
He rocked her against him. "No idea what I'm going to do with you."	She didn't know what he was going to do with her either, but she hoped it was good.
— Jill Shalvis, Animal Magnetism
But it was not the poor who ate the zoo animals in Paris.
— Ceridwen Dovey
The buffalo that in nature looks healthy and silken, in a zoo is a mangy creature with matted mane and dirty skin. Can those who see buffalo in captivity ever conceive how beautiful they can be? What a pity that most young people instead of seeing on animal in nature - which is worth a hundred in any zoo- must derive their knowledge of God's creatures from their appearances in prison. If we cannot perceive any right proportion of man's moral nature by looking at prisoners in a jail, how do we manage to think that we know all about an animal by gazing at him penned in a cage?
— Dhan Gopal Mukerji, Gay Neck: The Story of a Pigeon
To my way of thinking there's something wrong, or missing, with any person who hasn't got a soft spot in their heart for an animal of some kind. With most folks the dog stands highest as man's friend, then comes the horse, with others the cat is liked best as a pet, or a monkey is fussed over; but whatever kind of animal it is a person likes, it's all hunkydory so long as there's a place in the heart for one or a few of them.
— Will James, Smoky the Cow Horse
When Mother had told me that animals found quiet, unexposed places to die, I had always imagined they knew they were dying, and accepted it, almost gracefully. Now I saw that this wasn't so at all: they crept into corners in the hope of surviving, they only knew they were weakened and exposed, easy prey, and their instinct was to find a hidden place and try to outlive whatever it was they were suffering. It had been a mistake to imagine they wanted to be alone, to die in peace. Animals have no knowledge of death; for them, death is the unexpected end of life, something they resist by instinct, for no good reason. In that sense, their existence has an almost mechanical quality.
— John Burnside
Animals are inspirational. They don’t know how to lie. They are natural forces.
— Charles Bukowski, On Cats
Every wild thing is in tune with its surroundings, awake to its fate and in absolute harmony with the planet. Their attention is focused totally outwards. Humans, on the other hand, tend to focus introspectively on their own lives too often, brooding and magnifying problems that the animal kingdom would not waste a millisecond of energy upon. To most people, the magnificent order of the natural world where life and death actually mean something has become unrecognizable.
— Lawrence Anthony, The Elephant Whisperer
Of the animals I saw, I could write volumes. All were wild; for the Great Race's mechanised culture had long since done away with domestic beasts, while food was wholly vegetable or synthetic.
— H.P. Lovecraft
Through the metal bars of the jungle gym, she watches two gray squirrels chase each other around a tree. Around and around and around. So gratuitous.
— Thomas Pierce, Hall of Small Mammals: Stories
We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals... They are not our brethren; they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life...
— Henry Beston, The Outermost House: A Year of Life On The Great Beach of Cape Cod
I feel at ease and, in an indefinable way, at home, when dolphins are around. I now know when they are nearby before they appear. I dream after they leave.
— Virginia Coyle
All the wild beasts have been extinct for years, but it's perfectly possible to synthesize them autobiogenically. On the other hand, why be bound to what was once produced by natural evolution? The spokesman for surrealist zoology was most eloquent - we should populate our preserves with bold, original conceptions, not slavish imitations, we should forge the New, not plagiarize the Old.
— Stanisław Lem, The Futurological Congress: From the Memoirs of Ijon Tichy
Animales depend on us to take care of them.
— Angela Cervantes, Gaby, Lost and Found
Such a nice ring…Dead Furry Friends Animal Shelter…so warm and comforting.
— Angela Cervantes, Gaby, Lost and Found
Our sentimentality toward animals is a sure sign of the disdain in which we hold them. Sentimentality is nothing but the infinitely degraded form of bestiality, the racist commiseration.
— Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation
Alma had been falling in love with a crazy terrier that thought “stay” mean to take off like a rocket. Gaby knew he’d already taken off with Alma’s heart.
— Angela Cervantes, Gaby, Lost and Found
There's an exact moment for leaping into the lives of wild animals. You have to feel their lives first, how they fit the world around them. It's like the beat of music. Their eyes, the sounds they make, their head, movements, their feet and their whole body, the closeness of things around them - all this and more make up the way they perceive and adjust to their world.
— Richard O'Barry
He was a squirrel. Could he be a superhero, too?
— Kate DiCamillo
Farmers today keep themselves in ignorance of the needs and true nature of pigs precisely because to know would put their conscience in a terrible bind. Wilful ignorance of this kind is no better than complicity.
— Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, The Pig Who Sang to the Moon: The Emotional World of Farm Animals
For her part, Amy Kev's Waffles with a passionate ferocity that she felt a little bit guilty about not being able to feel, most of the time, for humans. It probably helped that he was constantly doing cute shit and couldn't speak.
— Emily Gould, Friendship
I have come to your group for somewhere to belong, I promise I shall adapt before too long, I will accept anything you ask me to, I have come a long way, I have run away from home''But you are not like us', the pigeon said to her'You cannot come and pretend you do,Pack your bags and go somewhere new,You can't even sing our song, This is not your home'All the other pigeons stopped talking and staredAnd their looks made it clear that they also sharedThat Romy could no longer stay and Romy felt there was no other wayBut to accept and fly away.
— Elise Icten, Romy the White Dove: Somewhere to Belong
Right from the start he is dressed in his best - his blacks and his whitesLittle Fauntleroy - quiffed and glossy,A Sunday suit, a wedding natty get-up,Standing in dunged strawUnder cobwebby beams, near the mud wall,Half of him legs, Shining-eyed, requiring nothing moreBut that mother's milk come back often.Everything else is in order, just as it is.Let the summer skies hold off, for the moment.This is just as he wants it.A little at a time, of each new thing, is best.Too much and too sudden is too frightening -When I block the light, a bulk from space,To let him in to his mother for a suck,He bolts a yard or two, then freezes,Staring from every hair in all directions,Ready for the worst, shut up in his hopeful religion,A little syllogismWith a wet blue-reddish muzzle, for God's thumb.You see all his hopes bustlingAs he reaches between the worn rails towardsThe topheavy oven of his mother.He trembles to grow, stretching his curl-tip tongue -What did cattle ever find hereTo make this dear little fellowSo eager to prepare himself?He is already in the race, and quivering to win -His new purpled eyeball swivel-jerksIn the elbowing push of his plans.Hungry people are getting hungrier,Butchers developing expertise and markets,But he just wobbles his tail - and glistensWithin his dapper profileUnaware of how his whole lineage Has been tied up.He shivers for feel of the world licking his side.He is like an ember - one glowOf lighting himself upWith the fuel of himself, breathing and brightening.Soon he'll plunge out, to scatter his seething joy,To be present at the grass,To be free on the surface of such a wideness,To find himself. To stand. T
— Ted Hughes
They all went to Bobbi and tried to reasonThey told him because of the cold winter, it was a bad seasonThey pleaded with Bobbi and asked if he could shareas they wouldn't survive if he didn't careBobbi laughed at them and zoomed even louder'What a bunch of losers', he thought even prouderSome bees died and the rest flew awayTo another field far, far away
— Elise Icten, Bobbi the Bumble Bee
If a fox strangles a goose just to eat the brains, you wouldn’t say the fox killed the brains. You’d say the fox offed the goose.
— Vladimir Lorchenkov, The Good Life Elsewhere
Tracks were adumbrations of the energy of life all about us, the recent history book of wilderness.
— Shannon Huffman Polson, North of Hope: A Daughter's Arctic Journey
She loved all the creatures of the farm. Each one, even a hen, was like a person to her, even more real than many of the real people she knew. Some were playful or bold, and some were shy. Some were gentle, and some were wicked. Some were smart, like Fido, and some were foolish, like the hens.
— Roger Lea MacBride, In the Land of the Big Red Apple
One day, Billy sat homeafter work and prayed,'Why oh why did you create methis way?The lion looked at Billy and answered,'first, you must love yourself. Be proud of yourself and jnow you are just as perfect as me.' 'Do not climb over others to reach your height. The more gentle you are, the more others will lift you up.'Billy like this answer and thanked the giraffe.'You are as big and as strong as me. Your job in the dungs is not easy. You have your own unique skills. Be in service and help others.' Billy liked this answer and thanked the elephant.
— Elise Icten, Billy the Dung Beetle
Many animals flourish not in spite of the fact that they are "animals" but because they are "animals"—or even more precisely, perhaps, because they are felt to be members of our families and our communities, regardless of their species. And yet, at the very same moment, billions of animals in factory farms, many of whom are very near to or indeed exceed cats and dogs and other companion animals in the capacities we take to be relevant to standing (the ability to experience pain and suffering, anticipatory dread, emotional bonds and complex social interactions, and so on), have as horrible a life as one could imagine, also because they are "animals."Clearly, then, the question here is not simply of the "animal" as the abjected other of the "human" tout court, but rather something like a distinction between bios and zoe that obtains within the domain of domesticated animals itself.
— Cary Wolfe, Before the Law: Humans and Other Animals in a Biopolitical Frame
Make peace with people, make peace with animals, make peace with trees!
— Mehmet Murat ildan
The death of a dog may not by some be regarded as a tragedy, but some dogs are more worthy than some men, and can be more justly mourned.
— J. Jefferson Farson
Some night soon, I'll sneak back in here and we can eat chocolates until we vomit.""We're such refined, genteel ladies.""Please," Lysandra said, waving a manicured hand, "you and I are nothing but wild beasts wearing human skins. Don't even try to deny it.
— Sarah J. Maas, Queen of Shadows
There is no greater gift of love than that of an animal choosing to share part of his soul’s journey here with you.
— Amy  Miller, Beyond Companionship: Connecting with Kindred Souls of Animal Companions.
:...For animals and birds are like people, too, though they do not talk the same or do the same things. Without them the earth would be an unhappy place.
— Scott O'Dell
So many stories lived behind my eyes. I carried the people I hurt, the lies I told, my sick relationship with food, wherever I went. My mind was rarely grounded in the moment. My past was heavy and constant; my thoughts wouldn’t leave me alone. But when I was with the shelter dogs, I didn’t have anything to hide. Sometimes what existed behind my eyes fell away. I wasn’t bulimic or unlovable or fat or a liar. I was a part of life again. I was an observer, and to more than just the dark cyclical patterns of the mind—here was the strong, sturdy presence of another—the breath moving in and out of Angel’s chest, the beating of her heart, the force of life moving through her and through me.
— Shannon Kopp, Pound for Pound: A Story of One Woman's Recovery and the Shelter Dogs Who Loved Her Back to Life
Meow!" said the chicken.
— Roger Hargreaves, Mr. Silly
Once again he was aware of eyes staring fixedly at him. He glanced sideways into the long, pointed face of Goodboy Bindle Featherstone, rearing up in a pose best described as The Last Puppy in the Shop.To his astonishment, he found himself reaching over and scratching it behind its ears, or at least behind the two spiky things at the sides of its head which were presumably its ears. It responded with a strange noise that sounded like a complicated blockage in a brewery. He took his hand away hurriedly.“It's all right,” said Lady Ramkin. “It's his stomachs rumbling. That means he likes you.”To his amazement, Vimes found that he was rather pleased about this. As far as he could recall, nothing in his life before had thought him worth a burp.
— Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!
When it is time for you to say goodbye to a beloved animal friend, remember that while the physical interaction ceases, the soul connection you share is eternal and remains with you both forever.
— Amy  Miller, Beyond Companionship: Connecting with Kindred Souls of Animal Companions.
We, animal and human, come to this time and space to have an experience embedded with our own divine purpose.
— Amy  Miller, Beyond Companionship: Connecting with Kindred Souls of Animal Companions.
When an animal companion becomes part of your life, there's an opportunity for you to experience love, support and guidance in a compelling new way. The extent to which that love, support, and guidance manifests in your life is directly related to level of connectivity you foster with your animal friend throughout your time together.
— Amy  Miller, Beyond Companionship: Connecting with Kindred Souls of Animal Companions.
...Everything that’s not asexual has two sexes, male and female. Most of the time it takes one of each to reproduce. Then there’s the whiptail lizard. This is a lizard that lives way the fuck out there in the middle of the desert, and sometimes it’s hard to find another lizard to mate with out there. Therefore, what the female whiptail can do is sort of make her eggs start dividing on their own. She makes daughters, clones of herself. It’s called parthenogenesis.
— Erin O'Riordan, Cut
Animal companions come into your life for an infinite number of reasons, each one being in service to you, your current life experience, and moreover, your soul's growth and evolution.
— Amy  Miller, Beyond Companionship: Connecting with Kindred Souls of Animal Companions.
Humans are the most inhumane of all creatures.
— Gregory Lovvorn
Listening, it occurred to Randall that the love people feel for animals is the purest form of love. Loving an animal, a horse, cat, or dog, was always a romantic tragedy. It meant loving something that would die before you. Like that movie with Ali McGraw. There was no future, just the affection of the present moment. You didn't expect a big payoff, someday.
— Chuck Palahniuk, Make Something Up: Stories You Can't Unread
Most of us humans have no idea how stressful any change is for animals.
— Colleen M. Flanagan, Tapping for Rescued & Adopted Dogs: Fast Surrogate EFT Methods for Canine Emotional Well Being
Aniimal Town:~) The place where Dreams & Adventures come true!
— Aniimal Town
Animals store their fears and at times OUR fears in the body and manifest physical illnesses like we do. Like us, these fears may have occurred in infancy and are still carried in the adult body.
— Colleen M. Flanagan, Tapping for Rescued & Adopted Dogs: Fast Surrogate EFT Methods for Canine Emotional Well Being
Contrary to our metaphors, humans are much more imitative than the other apes. For example: if chimps watch a demonstration on how to get food out of a puzzle box, they, in their turn, skip any unnecessary steps, go straight to the treat. Human children overimitate, reproducing each step regardless of its necessity. There is some reason why, now that it’s our behavior, being slavishly imitative is superior to being thoughtful and efficient, but I forget exactly what that reason is.
— Karen Joy Fowler, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
At last, I came to the Lost Dog's Home which my map told me marked teh turnoff to Shelly Beach.You could hear some of the dogs barking, calling out for their owners to come and get them away from there...I hated going to those places because I always wanted to take all the dogs home or let them go free, even though I knew most of them would go straight out and be hit by a car or starve to death. I sometimes wished I could have a place where I could take those dogs and let them live. The Phantom had this sanctuary called Eden and all the animals there lived together, even tigers and baby deer, because they'd never learned it's kill or be killed. The maneaters ate fish out of the lagoon and the island was protected by the Bandar poison pygmies and by the piranha fish in the lagoon. I would have liked there to be such a place for pets who had been dumped of abandoned. They could feed the owners to the piranha.
— Isobelle Carmody, The Gathering
A man who learns complicated things from animals is a clever man, but an animal who learns complicated things from men is a genius animal!
— Mehmet Murat ildan
It didn't have a name. Animals don't normally bother with them.
— Terry Pratchett, Soul Music
I asked a girl once why she was vegetarian. I said, is it because you love animals? And she replied, no it's because I had plants. To that I said, don't ever let someone take you to see the Palace Gardens- you'd both end up in jail.
— Kelly Batten, One Day You'll Find Me
The instinct of the thief is most strongly marked in the Skua tribe, and I am afraid that the mere love of thieving alone actuates them on many occasions.
— George Murray Levick
Having shot down a number, some of which were anly wounded, the whole flock swept repeatedly around their prostrate companions, and again settled on a low tree, within twenty yards of the spot where I stood. At each successive discharge, though showers of them fell, yet the affection of the survivors seemed rather to increase; for after a few circuits around the place, they again alighted near me.
— Ron Rash
People love dogs. This is, I hope, the least surprising sentence you will read in this book. I myself have had long discussions with my dog friends, and by that I mean my friends who are dogs.
— Bill Nye, Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation
The beauty in the genome is of course that it's so small. The human genome is only on the order of a gigabyte of data...which is a tiny little database. If you take the entire living biosphere, that's the assemblage of 20 million species or so that constitute all the living creatures on the planet, and you have a genome for every species the total is still about one petabyte, that's a million gigabytes - that's still very small compared with Google or the Wikipedia and it's a database that you can easily put in a small room, easily transmit from one place to another. And somehow mother nature manages to create this incredible biosphere, to create this incredibly rich environment of animals and plants with this amazingly small amount of data.
— Freeman Dyson
If you are a kind person and love animals, you may be lucky enough to find the Magic Valley. There you will discover a land where snow leopards play and mountains smile. I should tell you, though, that it will be a very hard journey. But I should also tell you that it is well worth the effort.
— Helen Freeman
My hope is that we can navigate through this world and our lives with the grace and integrity of those who need our protection. May we have the sense of humor and liveliness of the goats; may we have the maternal instincts and protective nature of the hens and the sassiness of the roosters. May we have the gentleness and strength of the cattle, and the wisdom, humility, and serenity of the donkeys. May we appreciate the need for community as do the sheep and choose our companion as carefully as do the rabbits. May we have the faithfulness and commitment to family as the geese, and adaptability and affability of the ducks. May we have the intelligence, loyalty, and affection of the pigs and the inquisitiveness, sensitivity, and playfulness of the turkeys.My hope is that we learn from the animals what it is we need to become better people.
— Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, Vegan's Daily Companion: 365 Days of Inspiration for Cooking, Eating, and Living Compassionately
Dogs were not loyal but servile, that cats were opportunists and traitors,
— Gabriel García Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera
Humans don’t just kill to survive. Sometimes, they kill out of rage. And they don’t just eat to survive; sometimes, they eat when their belly is already full. They are violent and greedy. They aren’t like any of the other beasts in the forest; they want to own it all.
— Mark Van Steenwyk, A Wolf at the Gate
A dog is a dog, a bird is a bird, and a cat is a person.
— Mugsy Peabody
This is what I find so strange: we are not necessarily kind to animals. We use them, we eat them. But we don’t like them to suffer. Yet humans must. They have to wait for the great Vet himself to decide how long their anguish must last and how deep it must reach. And He has, as far as I can see, a habit of waiting a long, long time before deciding to end their misery.
— Beverly Rycroft, A Slim Green Silence
How is it that animals understand things I do not know, but it is certain that they do understand. Perhaps there is a language that is not made up of words & everything in this world understands it. Perhaps there is a soul hidden in everything & it can always speak, without making a sound, to another soul.
— Frances Hodgson Burnett, A Little Princess
...I would not engage the wombatIn any form of mortal combat.
— Ogden Nash, Custard and Company: Poems
I stepped to the tank's edge, leaned in, and concentrated on keeping my eyes open. Which fish would be the shooter? The fish were all facing me, but one in particular seemed to be staring directly at my left eye, like a hunter targeting his prey. Wham! The water hit my pupil with such force that I jerked back …. Laughing, I wiped my left eye but stayed by the tank, my left hand resting on its edge. Another fish quickly seized the opportunity to blast the diamond in my engagement ring, while a third targeted the red carnelian stone in my earring, and yet another shot my right eye.
— Virginia Morell
The truth is that she was always much more forgiving of animals than people...Her sympathy for the underdog--or the underwasp, underrat, undercat, undersnail, underbird, underspider, undermouse, undergecko, undercentipede--was limitless. In the depths of a gloomy London winter she would trudge to the park with a bag of snacks--stale bread specially sautéed in drippings--for the poor freezing seagulls and ducks. At the height of a Provencal summer she would fill a shallow bowl with water, put it on the terrace, and watch, transfixed, as the poor thirsty wasps hovered just above the surface to take a restorative sip or two. Dogs and cats slept in her bed, baby birds were fed warm milk with eyedroppers, spiders were fished out of baths, and a colony or red ants, which feasted on honey and scurried around inside a special box with a glass lid, lived on the kitchen table in London for many years.
— Gully Wells
Big Brown MooseI'm a big brown moose,I'm a rascally moose,I'm a moose with a tough, shaggy hide;and I kick and I prancein a long-legged dancewith my moose-mama close by my side.I shrug off the coldand I sneeze at the windand I swivel my ears in the snow;and I tramp and I trompover forest and swamp,'cause there's nowhere a moose cannot go.I'm a big brown moose, I'm a ravenous mooseas I hunt for the willow and yew;with a snort and a crunch,I rip off each bunch,and I chew and I chew and I chew.When together we slumpin a comfortable clump --my mountainous mama and I --I give her a nuzzleof velvety muzzle.Our frosty breath drifts to the sky.I'm a big brown moose,I'm a slumberous moose,I'm a moose with a warm, snuggly hide;and I bask in the moonas the coyotes croon,with my moose-mama close by my side.
— Joyce Sidman, Winter Bees & Other Poems of the Cold
Sometimes you had to make the animals perform.
— Matthew Reilly, The Great Zoo of China
Out there is South Dakota," Kitch had said, "Matt said they treated Fern like some kind of animal.
— Karen Joy Fowler
In most cases, one can learn at least as much about the writer and the culture of his era from such descriptions as one can about the animals. Literature about animals is relatively less self-conscious, and, for that reason, more revealing than writing directly about human beings. We are less defensive, so egotism and paranoia, while present often enough, are less elaborately concealed. Animals always figure very prominently in the symbols that express human identity, from heraldic crests to the names of sports teams.
— the mythical zoo animals in life legend and literature
Our behavior is human with a sliver of animal, our souls animal with a sliver of human.
— Carrie Latet
For me the saddest thing was that these animals smelled the brokenness in him – the human defect – and kept away.
— Alice Sebold
I wish people were more like animals. Animals don't try to change you or make you fit in. They just enjoy the pleasure of your company. Animals aren't conditional about friendships. Animals like you just the way you are. They listen to your problems, they comfort you when you're sad, and all they ask in return is a little kindness.
— Bill Watterson, The Revenge of the Baby-Sat
It was great to see the owls," I said.She smiled."Yes. They're wild things, of course. Killers, savages. They're wonderful.
— David Almond, Skellig
If you do not have a memory like an elephant, leave impressions like one.
Charlie Wind once told me we must keep the animals on Earth, for they know everything: how to keep warm, predict the storms, live in darkness or blazing sun, how to navigate the skies, to organize societies, how to make chemicals and fireproof skins. The animals know the Earth as we do not.
— Jean Craighead George, The Talking Earth
I loved him with a passion of which I had no idea I was capable. I loved him partly to defend him against the world and partly because I genuinely believed we were soul mates.
— Clare Balding, My Animals and Other Family
If it weren't for the animals waiting for her, she wouldn't bother getting out of bed. Then, room service was a little lacking when you lived alone.
— Dale Mayer, Tuesday's Child
In the beginning of all things, wisdom and knowledge were with the animals, for Tirawa, the One Above, did not speak directly to man. He sent certain animals to tell men that he showed himself through the beast, and that from them, and from the stars and the sun and moon should man learn.. all things tell of Tirawa. What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.
— Eagle Chief Letakos-Lesa Pawnee
God gave man the authority to rule and protect all the animals in the aquatic ecosystems.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, The Alphabets of  Success: Passion Driven Life
Leave it man. Squirrel’s botherin nae cunt likesay! Ah hate it the wey Mark’s intae hurtin animals… it’s wrong man. Ye cannae love yirsel if ye want tae hurt things like that… ah mean… what hope is thir? The squirrel’s likes fuckin lovely. He’s daein his ain thing. He’s free. That’s mibble what Rents cannae stand. The squirrel’s free man.
— Irvine Welsh
Now just a word about zoos. Many folks think that animals in a zoo know no comforts; nothing but constant fright from living in captivity. Such folks do not stop to think of a thing or two about an animal’s wild condition. Wild animals must not only constantly hunt for food, but invariably fight to kill it and to hold it, too; for, in such a fight, a big antagonist will naturally win from a small individual. Thus, what food is found, is also lost; and hunting must go on, day by day, or night by night until a tragic climax—by thirst or starvation. But in a zoo, food is brought daily, with facility for drinking, and laid right in front of hoofs, paws or bills. For small animals, roofs and thick walls ward off cold winds and rain; and so, days of calm inactivity, daily naps without worrying about attack; and a carting away of all rubbish and filth soon puts a zoo animal in bodily form which has no comparison with its wild condition. Lack of room in which to climb, roam or play, may bring a zoo animal to that condition known as “soft”; but, as it now has no call for vigor, and its fighting passions find no opportunity for display, such an animal is gradually approaching that condition which has brought Man, who is only an animal, anyway, to his lofty point in Natural History, today. Truly, with such tribulations, worry, and hard work as Man puts up with to obtain his food and lodging, a zoo animal, if it could only know of our daily grind, would comfortably yawn, thankful that Man is so kindly looking out for it. With similar animals all around it, and, day by day, just a happy growth from cub-hood to maturity, I almost wish that I was a zoo animal, with no boss to growl about my not showing up, mornings, at a customary hour!
— Ernest Vincent Wright, Gadsby
Animals and nature are known to open our hearts, calm us, and reduce blood pressure and stress.
— Baptist de Pape, The Power Of The Heart: Finding Your True Purpose
I went back to my conversation with Siegfried that morning
—  we had just about decided that the man with a lot of animals couldn't be expected to feel affection for individuals among them. But those buildings back there were full of John Skipton's animals - he must have hundreds. Yet what made him trail down that hillside every day in all weathers? Why had he filled the last years of those two old horses with peace and beauty? Why had he given them a final ease and comfort which he had withheld from himself? It could only be love.
One does not have to be Witted to know the companionship of a beast, and to know that the friendship of an animal is every bit as rich and complicated as that of a man or woman.
— Robin Hobb, Assassin's Quest
Animals are on earth to protect mankind. When you gather a bunch of them together like this, you create a safe haven. Nothing can touch you here.
— Jonathan Carroll, White Apples
And so what do dogs want? They want what they want when they want it. Just like us.
— Ted Kerasote, Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog
I could hear an old man in the stall next to ours sucking a hustler’s cock
—  I thought of animals gathering at a salt lick during the night near a cave: carnivore rubbing shoulders with deer.
Here's something you must know and don't forget it - animals never lie. They don't like, they don't put on disguises, and they are always true to what they are. That's why you can trust them.
— Jonathan Carroll, White Apples
It was a fitting animal for a priest. Cats guard the secrets of the otherworld and are liaisons with mystic realms. Protectors of esoteric knowledge, cats can open the gates through which a priest can see the future and gain insight.
— M.J. Rose, Seduction
It is my understanding from an intuitive relationship with animals that it is complete folly to try to figure out what is right or wrong for humans by observing what other animals are doing. Observe any animal and you will quickly figure out that a hawk does not try to hunt like an eagle. The wolf does not try to be a lion.
— Linda Bender, Animal Wisdom: Learning from the Spiritual Lives of Animals
Humans and animals regard each other across a gulf of mutual incomprehension. With aliens, that has to go double.
— Gregory Benford, Shipstar
To be sure, there are human abilities that other animals lack, but the more we learn about animals, the more abilities we discover that humans lack. Obviously, if animals were included in the Olympics, humans wouldn’t take home any gold medals. We can’t run as fast as a cheetah, swim as well as a fish, or lift as much weight as an elephant.
— Linda Bender
Every species embodies a solution to some environmental challenge, and some of these solutions are breathtaking in their elegance.
— Linda Bender, Animal Wisdom: Learning from the Spiritual Lives of Animals
Animals remind us that all beings who walk, stand, swim, crawl, or fly are radiant, mysterious, and unique expressions of the Source. Every species, every culture, has it’s own genius.
— Linda Bender, Animal Wisdom: Learning from the Spiritual Lives of Animals
Healing is about choices—choices to treat or not to treat, tochoose one type of intervention over another, or to choose onemethod of treatment in conjunction with another. One choice does not eliminate all other possibilities.You can choose and choose again. The most importantchoice is the decision to heal; all else follows.
— Wanda Buckner, Choosing Energy Therapy: A Practical Guide to Healing Options for People and Animals
She was not a vegetarian and knew firsthand animals had to die for her delectation, but she never liked to think about it.
— Thomm Quackenbush, Artificial Gods