Plato Quotes

Man...is a tame or civilized animal; never the less, he requires proper instruction and a fortunate nature, and then of all animals he becomes the most divine and most civilized; but if he be insufficiently or ill- educated he is the most savage of earthly creatures.

Are we savages or what?

The truth is, if a werewolf behaved like this psychopath it wouldn't be because he was part animal, but because he was still too human. Only humans kill for sport.

Quadruped lions are said to be savage, only when they are hungry; biped lions are rarely sulky longer than when their appetite for distinction remains unappeased.

We talk of wild animals but man is the only wild animal. It is man that has broken out. All other animals are tame animals; following the rugged respectability of the tribe or type.

People are only animals, but special animals. Every animal has fought and killed to survive, even before the dinosaurs. We're the only ones that do it for fun. That's why I don't know about Darwinism. Supposedly evolution and natural selection are all about survival, but we haven't gotten smarter over the years, only more dangerous.

Man is a game playing animal and a computer is another way to play games.

Is it possible that nobody has ever known that there never has been a completely civilized man, and won't be for another thousand years?

Impartial observers from other planets would consider ours an utterly bizarre enclave if it were populated by birds, defined as flying animals, that nevertheless rarely or never actually flew. They would also be perplexed if they encountered in our seas, lakes, rivers, and ponds, creatures defined as swimmers that never did any swimming. But they would be even more surprised to encounter a species defined as a thinking animal if, in fact, the creature very rarely indulged in actual thinking.

Animals have always left me with a curiosity about human nature. I trust animals more than most people.

Of all the animals which fly in the air, walk on the land, or swim in the sea, from Paris to Peru, from Japan to Rome, the most foolish animal in my opinion is man.

MAN IS FUNDAMENTALLY AN ANIMAL. Animals, as distinct from man, are not machine-like, not sadistic; their societies, within the same species, are incomparably more peaceful than those of man. The basic question, then is: What has made the animal, man, degenerate into a machine?

You should know as much as you can about the human species if you have a hand in designing human society. Of course, I'm not saying that you can derive moral rules from nature - that's deriving an ought from an is, as the philosophers say - but you do need to know what kind of animals we are if you want to design a stable society.

Man is a hating rather than a loving animal.

Brutes leave ingratitude to man.

Barbarism is the natural state of mankind.

What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages?

Man and other civilized animals are the only creatures that ever become dirty.

Man alone of animals plays the ape to his dreams .

Too much society makes a man frivolous; too little, a savage.

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

Mere animals couldn’t possibly manage to act like this. You need to be a human being to be really stupid.

The more experience and insight I obtain into human nature, the more convinced do I become that the greater portion of a man is purely animal.

Man is too near all kinds of beasts,--a fawning dog, a roaring lion, a thieving fox, a robbing wolf, a dissembling crocodile, a treacherous decoy, and a rapacious vulture.

Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it.