River Phoenix Quotes

Animals don't have a voice, so I think it is our job to give them one.

The thing about animals that speaks to me so much is that my passion for the animals and against animal abuse is based on the knowledge that these creatures which think and feel can't speak for themselves. I feel it is my responsibility to speak for those who can't speak for themselves.

The deeper minds of all ages have had pity for animals.

I was always empathetic with animals. It's a terrible and self-involved point of view that we do something because someone else is exploitable.

I have always felt that the way we treat animals is a pretty good indicator of the compassion we are capable of for the human race.

Lissa knelt down, compassion on her face. I wasn't surprised, since she'd always had a thing for animals. She'd lectured me for days after I'd instigated the infamous hamster-and-hermit-crab fight. I'd viewed the fight as a testing of worthy opponents. She'd seen it as animal cruelty.

I've always had a fascination for animals. I loved watching them, and even then I thought of them as beings rather than pets. I call it a birth affect!

Ever since I was a little girl, I have always loved animals and been fascinated with them.

I support the rights of non-humans wholeheartedly with my voice, my money, my presence, my writing and any other way I can.

I know young people are all going to have different passions, but I would say that if you happen to have a heart for animals, never forget that without your voice, there is no channel for them.

I always befriended animals and have said many a good word for them. Even to the least-loved mosquitoes I gave many a meal, and told them to go in peace.

We are often more merciful to our animals than we are to each other.

The only thing I ever really care about is animals - animal causes. I don't really care about people that much, but animals I feel like they always need to be protected.

We have to be aggressive when those we stick up for have no voice. I don't consider it radical to say cruelty is wrong and that animals should be respected. I consider it radical to eat corpses, put electrodes in animals' heads, make elephants live in chains in the circus, and poison animals we consider a nuisance.

I have developed a deep respect for animals. I consider them fellow living creatures with certain rights that should not be violated any more than those of humans.

I've always been very bonded to animals - more so than most people. (laughs) I don't think that they can defend themselves, so we have to help them.

We do not advocate 'right to life' for animals.

As Jeremy Bentham had asked about animals well over two hundred years ago, the question was not whether they could reason or talk, but could they suffer? And yet, somehow, it seemed to take more imagination for humans to identify with animal suffering than it did to conceive of space flight or cloning or nuclear fusion. Yes, she was a fanatic in the eyes of most of the country. . .Mostly, however, she just lacked patience for people who wouldn't accept her belief that humans inflicted needless agony on the animals around them, and they did so in numbers that were absolutely staggering.

For centuries poets, some poets, have tried to give a voice to the animals, and readers, some readers, have felt empathy and sorrow. If animals did have voices, and they could speak with the tongues of angels-at the very least with the tongues of angels-they would be unable to save themselves from us. What good would language do? Their mysterious otherness has not saved them, nor have their beautiful songs and coats and skins and shells and eyes.

I'm in favor of animal liberation. Why? Because I'm an animal.

I respect animals. I have more sympathy for an injured or dead animal than I do for an injured or dead human being, because human beings participate and cooperate in their own undoing. Animals are completely innocent. There are no innocent human beings.

Animal rights is a part of my everyday life. When you live by example, you create a certain level of awareness. Friends of mine - people I have never discussed animal rights or vegetarianism with - are adopting vegetarian habits because they see it.

But if there were two dogs left in the universe and it were up to us as to whether they were allowed to breed so that we could continue to live with dogs, and even if we could guarantee that all dogs would have homes as loving as the one that we provide, we would not hesitate for a second to bring the whole institution of 'pet' ownership to an end.

Animals should be treated the same as you would a kid. Would you want someone just to walk up and skin your kid? Hell no!

Animal lovers often tend to be misanthropes or loners, and so they transfer their affection to the creature in their control.