Leo Tolstoy Quotes

Any glimpse into the life of an animal quickens our own and makes it so much the larger and better in every way." ... "Surely a better time must be drawing nigh when godlike human beings will become truly humane, and learn to put their animal fellow mortals in their hearts instead of on their backs or in their dinners.

The obligations of law and equity reach only to mankind; but kindness and beneficence should be extended to the creatures of every species, and these will flow from the breast of a true man, as streams that issue from the living fountain.

Animals are not here for us to do as we please with. We are not their superiors, we are their equals. We are their family. Be kind to them.

We are compelled by the commandment of love contained in our hearts and thought, and proclaimed by Jesus, to give rein to our natural sympathy for animals. We are also compelled to help them and spare them suffering.

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

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.

The medical argument for animal testing doesn't stand up. Even if it did, I don't think we should kill other species. We think we're so much better; I'm not sure we are. I tell people, We've beaten into submission every animal on the face of the Earth, so we are the clear winners of whatever battle is going on between the species. Couldn't we be generous? I really do think it's time to get nice. No need to keep beating up on them. I think we've got to show that we're kind.

Children should from the beginning be bred up in an abhorrence of killing or tormenting any living creature; and be taught not to spoil or destroy any thing, unless it be for the preservation or advantage of some other that is nobler.

Surely we ought to show them (animals) great kindness and gentleness for many reasons, but, above all, because they are of the same origin as ourselves.

It takes nothing away from a human to be kind to an animal.

You can judge a man's true character by the way he treats his fellow animals.

If people were superior to animals, they'd take good care of them," said Pooh.

At PETA, we often say that the issue of how animals are treated isn't just about them; it's about us, how we behave.

I like animals, all animals. I wouldn't hurt a cat or a dog - or a chicken or a cow. And I wouldn't ask someone else to hurt them for me. That's why I'm a vegetarian.

I believe in preventing cruelty to all living beings in any form.

We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.

I believe that animals are on the planet so that we can know love and compassion.

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

No animal has to suffer for me to live.

Without the perfect sympathy with the animals around them, no gentleman's education, no Christian education, could be of any possible use.

Life is no way to treat an animal.

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 wish no living thing to suffer pain.

If a chimp who has been abused horribly by humans can help a human friend in a time of need, how much more should we help the animals - and other people for that matter - in their time of need?

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.