Francis of Assisi Quotes

Religious people... hold a kind and merciful view of life, the faith of the broken, the hounded, the hopeless. Yet too often, they will not extend that spirit to our fellow creatures.

Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages.

He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.

Truly, I would not hang a dog by my will, much more a man who hath any honesty in him.

Compassion is contempt with a human face.

To pity distress is but human; to relieve it is Godlike.

To live without killing is a thought which could electrify the world, if men were only capable of staying awake long enough to let the idea soak in.

The truth doesn't have to do with cruelty, the truth has to do with mercy.

Jesus had a universal concern for those who suffered that transcended the rules of the ancient world.

There is no religion without love, and people may talk as much as they like about their religion, but if it does not teach them to be good and kind to man and beast, it is all a sham.

I know for certain of only one commandment, one obligation, that God imposes upon us, and that is to be compassionate toward other human beings.

There are many reasons for kindness, and religion is just one of them.

The human spirit is not dead. It lives on in secret.... It has come to believe that compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind

A policy of humanity; a policy not of party, sect or creed; but of justice, of reason and mercy

Lincoln and I were alike in that neither of us liked to hunt and fish. We didn’t like to kill anything.

The happiest people I know as a nation are the Burmese; their brightness and cheeriness are proverbial. Kindness to animals is one of their greatest 'weaknesses'; no Burmese will kill an animal, even if it is to put it out of pain.

Kindness to animals seems to me to be one of the most rudimentary lessons of all.

Were it only to learn benevolence to humankind, we should be merciful to other creatures.

It is kindness that makes one strong and brave; and so we are kind to our prisoners.

Perchance that I might learn what pity is, That I might laugh at erring men no more.

Mercy, she had discovered, made mad alchemy: a drop of it could dilute a lake of hate.

When thou seest thine enemy in trouble, curl not thy whiskers in contempt; for in every bone there is marrow, and within every jacket there is a man.

I'll not hurt thee, says Uncle Toby, rising with the fly in his hand. Go, he says, opening the window to let it escape. Why should I hurt thee? This world is surely wide enough to hold both thee and me.

I am pleading for the future; I am pleading for a time when hatred and cruelty will not control the hearts of men. When we can learn by, reason and judgment and understanding and faith that all life is worth saving, and that mercy is the highest attribute of man.

No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity. But I know none, and therefore am no beast.