Animals

Explore 17 quotes about Animals

And this is what ye have shipped for, men! to chase that white whale on both sides of land, and over all sides of earth, till he spouts black blood and rolls fin out.

Herman Melville

Moby-Dick; or, The Whale

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Topic

Obsession Hunting Whales Charismatic megafauna Animals

Author

Herman Melville

Source

Moby-Dick; or, The Whale

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1851 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. London: Richard Bentley/New York: Harper & Brothers, 1851, ch. 36.

Current Citation

Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick or, The Whale. Penguin Classics, 2002, ch. 36.

Will you not allow that I have as much of the spirit of prophecy in me as the swans? For they, when they perceive that they must die, having sung all their life long, do then sing more lustily than ever, rejoicing in the thought that they are going to the god they serve.

Socrates

Quoted in Phaedo, by Plato

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Topic

Facing death Swans Birds Animals

Speaker

Socrates

Author

Plato

Source

Phaedo

Medium

Philosophical dialogue Dialogue

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Greek

Time

360 BC 360s BC 4th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Socrates. Quoted in Φαίδων [Phaedo], written by Plato. c. 360 BC.

Current Citation

Socrates. Quoted in "Phaedo." Plato: Five Dialogues: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Meno, Phaedo, written by Plato, translated by G. M. A. Grube and John M. Cooper. Hackett Publishing, 2002.

I think I could turn and live ahile with te animals, they are so placid and self-contain'd,
I stand and look at them sometimes half the day long.

They do not sweat and whine about their condition,
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,
Not one is dissatisfied...not one is demented with the mania of owning things,
Not one kneels to another nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago,
Not one is respectable or industrious over the whole earth.

Walt Whitman

Song of Myself

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Topic

Man and animals Animals The human condition

Author

Walt Whitman

Source

Song of Myself Leaves of Grass

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1855 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Brooklyn, New York: Self-published, 1855, poem 1.

Current Citation

Whitman, Walt. "Song of Myself." Leaves of Grass and Other Writings. W. W. Norton & Company, 2002, sect. 32.

When a building is about to fall down, all the mice desert it.

Pliny the Elder

Naturalis Historia

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Topic

Instinct Mice Animals

Author

Pliny the Elder

Source

Naturalis Historia

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

Latin

Time

77 70s 1st century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Pliny the Elder. Historia Naturalis [Natural History]. 77 AD, bk. 8.

Current Citation

Pliny the Elder. Natural History: A Selection, translated by John F. Healy. Penguin Classics, 1991, bk. 8.

He can't lift the seat, Greg. He lacks the strength in the opposable thumbs.

Jack Byrnes

Meet the Parents

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Topic

Cats Man and animals Animals

Speaker

Jack Byrnes

Actor

Robert De Niro

Source

Meet the Parents

Medium

Film

Genre

Comedy (film) Comedy

Language

English

Time

2000 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Meet the Parents. Directed by Jay Roach, TriBeCa Productions/Nancy Tenenbaum Productions, 2000.

Animals whom we have made our slaves we do not like to consider our equals.

Charles Darwin

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Topic

Man and animals Animals

Author

Charles Darwin

Source

Notebooks of Charles Darwin

Medium

Personal journal

Language

English

Time

1838 1830s 19th century

Authentication Score 0

Original Citation

Darwin, Charles. "Notebook B." Transmutation of Species. 1837-1838, p. 231.

Current Citation

Darwin, Charles. "Transmutation of Species: Notebook B [1837-1838]." Charles Darwin's Notebooks, 1836–1844, transcribed and edited by David Kohn. Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Even brute beasts and wandering birds do not fall into the same traps or nets twice.

St. Jerome

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Topic

Learning from mistakes Man and animals Animals

Author

St. Jerome

Medium

Letter

Language

Latin

Time

394 390s 4th century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Saint Jerome. Letter to Furia. c. 394, sect. 4.

Current Citation

Saint Jerome. "Letter LIV." Select Letters of Saint Jerome. Aeterna Press, 2015, sect. 4.

I'm not over-fond of animals. I am merely astounded by them.

David Attenborough

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Topic

Nature Animals

Speaker

David Attenborough

Source

Independent (newspaper)

Medium

Newspaper

Language

English

Time

1995 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Attenborough, David. Independent. 14 Jan. 1995.

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... Humans—who enslave, castrate, experiment on, and fillet other animals—have had an understandable penchant for pretending that animals do not feel pain... It is unseemly of us, who often behave so unfeelingly toward other animals, to contend that only humans can suffer... The behavior of other animals, especially the chimps and bonobos, renders such pretensions specious. They are just too much like us.

Carl Sagan

More information about this quote

Topic

Animal cruelty Man and animals Animals

Author

Carl Sagan

Source

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: A Search for Who We Are

Genre

Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1992 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sagan, Carl and Ann Druyan. Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: A Search for Who We Are. Random House, 1992, ch. 19.

The Dodo never had a chance. He seems to have been invented for the sole purpose of becoming extinct and that was all he was good for.

William Cuppy

More information about this quote

Topic

Extinction Animals

Author

William Cuppy

Language

English

Time

1941 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Cuppy, William. "The Dodo." How to Become Extinct. Farrar & Rinehart, 1941.

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

William Blake

Songs of Experience

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Topic

Charismatic megafauna Animals

Author

William Blake

Source

Songs of Experience

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1794 1790s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Blake, William. "The Tyger." Songs of Innocence and of Experience Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul. London, 1794.

Current Citation

Blake, William. "The Tyger." William Blake: Selected Poems, edited by Nicholas Shrimpton. Oxford University Press, 2019.

Nature's great masterpiece, an elephant,
The only harmless great thing.

John Donne

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Topic

Elephants Animals

Author

John Donne

Source

The Progress of the Soul Poems

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1633 1630s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Donne, John. "The Progress of the Soul." Poems. London: John Marriot, 1633, st. 39.

Current Citation

Donne, John. "The Progress of the Soul. Metempsychosis." John Donne: The Major Works, edited by John Carey. Oxford University Press, 2009, st. 39.

The ape, vilest of beasts, how like to us.

Quintus Ennius

Quoted in On the Nature of the Gods, by Cicero

More information about this quote

Topic

Apes Primates Animals Man and animals

Speaker

Quintus Ennius

Author

Cicero

Source

On the Nature of the Gods

Medium

Essay

Language

Latin

Time

45 BC 40s BC 1st century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Quintus Ennius. Quoted in De Natura Deorum [On the Nature of the Gods], written by Cicero. c. 45 BC, bk. 1.

Current Citation

Quintus Ennius. Quoted in The Nature of the Gods, written by Cicero, translated by P. G. Walsh. Oxford University Press, 2008, bk. 1.

Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?
Gave thee life and bid the feed
By the stream and o'er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing, wooly, bright.

William Blake

Songs of Innocence

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Topic

Animals

Author

William Blake

Source

Songs of Innocence

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1789 1780s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Blake, William. "The Lamb." Songs of Innocence. London, 1789.

Current Citation

Blake, William. "The Lamb." William Blake: Selected Poems, edited by Nicholas Shrimpton. Oxford University Press, 2019.

It was none the less a perfectly ordinary horse, such as convergent evolution has produced in many of the places that life is to be found. They have always understood a great deal more than they let on. It is difficult to be sat on all day, every day, by some other creature, without forming an opinion about them.

Douglas Adams

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

More information about this quote

Topic

Horses Animals Man and animals

Author

Douglas Adams

Source

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

Medium

Novel

Genre

Detective fiction

Language

English

Time

1987 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Adams, Douglas. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. William Heinemann Ltd./Pocket Books, 1987, ch. 2.

If you look at a dog following the advice of his nose, he traverses a patch of land in a completely unplottable manner. And he invariably finds what he's looking for.

W.G. Sebald

More information about this quote

Topic

Dogs Animals Discovery

Speaker

W.G. Sebald

Medium

Interview

Language

English

Time

2001 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Sebald, Winifred Georg. Interview with Joe Cuomo. Queens College Evening Reading Series. 13 Mar. 2001, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA. Question and answer session.

The cow is of the bovine ilk;
One end is moo, the other, milk.

Ogden Nash

More information about this quote

Topic

Cows Animals

Author

Ogden Nash

Source

The Cow

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1931 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Nash, Ogden. "The Cow." Free Wheeling. Simon and Schuster, 1931.