The deeper minds of all ages have had pity for animals.
- Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
When a man has pity on all living creatures only then is he noble.
- The Buddha (6th cent BCE)
There will come a day when such men as myself will view the slaughter
of innocent creatures as horrible a crime as the murder of his fellow man.
Our task must to be free ourselves - by widening our circle of compassion
to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.
- Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
Truly man is the king of beasts, for his brutality exceeds them.
We live by the death of others. We are burial places.
The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder
of animals as they now look upon the murder of men.
- Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519)
During my medical education at the University of Basel I found
[animal] experimentation horrible, barbarous, and above all unnecessary.
- Carl G. Jung (1875-1961)
The necessity for these experiments I dispute.
Man has no right to gratify an idle and purposeless curiosity through
the practice of cruelty.
- Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
Judge the behavior of a dog who has lost his master, who has searched
for him in the road barking miserably, who has come back to the house,
restless and anxious, who has run upstairs and down, from room to room,
and who has found the beloved master at last in his study, and then
shown his joy by barks, bounds and caresses.
There are some barbarians who will take this dog, that so
greatly excels man in capacity for friendship, who will nail
him to a table, and dissect him alive. And what you discover in him
are the same organs of sensation you have in yourself.
- Voltaire (1694-1778)
As custodians of the planet it is our responsibility to deal with all species with kindness, love, and compassion. That these animals suffer through human cruelty is beyond understanding.
- Richard Gere
What I think about vivisection is that if people admit that they have the right to take or endanger the life of living beings for the benefit of many, there will be no limit for their cruelty... Man by violating his own feelings becomes cruel. And how deeply seated in the human heart is the injunction not to take life.
- Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)
First it was necessary to civilize man in relation to man. Now it is necessary to civilize man in relation to nature and the animals.
- Victor Hugo (1802-1885)