Susan Orlean Quotes

We ought to do good to others as simply as a horse runs, or a bee makes honey, or a vine bears grapes season after season without thinking of the grapes it has borne.

There is not, in my opinion, anything more mysterious in nature than this instinct in animals, which thus rise above reason, and yet fall infinitely short of it.

I eat not because I want to, not because I have to overcome anything, not to prove myself to anyone, but because it's there. I eat because that's what people do. And somehow when the food is put in front of you by an institution, when there's a large gray force behind it and you don't have to thank anyone for it, you have the animal instinct to make it disappear.

Loyalty means nothing unless it has at its heart the absolute principle of self-sacrifice.

I find it valid to understand man as an animal before I am prepared to know him as a man.

Once you wake up the human animal, you can't put it back to sleep again.

Loving people the way Jesus did, means living a life of constant interruptions. Bring it.

At times almost all of us envy the animals. They suffer and die, but do not seem to make a "problem" of it.

You don't take your cat with you to go bird shopping. Not because the cat isn't polite, but because he's a cat.

You can be creative only when there is abandonment-which means, really, there is no sense of compulsion, no fear of not being, of not gaining, of not arriving. Then there is great austerity, simplicity, and with it there is love.

Only when we give joyfully, without hesitation or thought of gain, can we truly know what love means.

The wisdom of the ignorant somewhat resembles the instinct of animals; it is diffused in but a very narrow sphere, but within the circle it acts with vigor, uniformity, and success.

Love means to be willing to give until it hurts.

We're animals. We're violent.

The more love we give away, the more we have left. The laws of love differ from the laws of arithmetic. Love hoarded dwindles, but love given grows. If we give all our love, we will have more left than they who save some. Giving love, not receiving, is important; but when we give with no thought of receiving, we automatically, and inescapably receive abundantly. Heaven is a by-product of love. When we say, "I love you," we mean that "a little of God's love flows from me to you." Thereby, we do not have less, but more. For in flowing, the quantity is magnified.

If you come to think of it, you never see deer, dogs and rabbits worrying about their menus and yet they run much faster than humans.

I always find you go back to an animal; it will always show you the sort of primal aspects of behavior. You always know how to respond if you choose that.

Every animal loves itself.

Man is the only animal that is cruel. It kills just for the sake of it.

Animals we are, and animals we remain, and the path to our regeneration and happiness, if there be such a path, lies through our animal nature.

The squirrel hoards nuts and the bee gathers honey, without knowing what they do, and they are thus provided for without selfishness or disgrace.

Creating without claiming, Doing without taking credit, Guiding without interfering, This is Primal Virtue.

How Instinct varies in the grov'ling swine.

Dogs act exactly the way we would act if we had no shame.

True love is selfless. It is prepared to sacrifice.