There will be no justice as long as man will stand with a knife or with a gun and destroy those who are weaker than he is.  ~Isaac Bashevis Singer

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.  ~Albert Schweitzer, Novel Peace Prize address, "The Problem of Peace in the World Today"quoted in Joanne Stepaniak, The Vegan Sourcebook, 1998

I care not much for a man’s religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.  ~Abraham Lincoln

When a man wantonly destroys one of the works of man we call him a vandal.  When he destroys one of the works of god we call him a sportsman.  ~Joseph Wood Krutch

Michael W. Fox, vice-president of the Humane Society, said that, "to call an animal with whom you share your life a ‘pet,’ is reminiscent of men’s magazines where you (a figure of speech, don’t take it personally) have the Pet of the Month."  It is supposed that the continued use of the word "pet" to designate dogs or cats threatens to reduce their level of respect to the current status of twentieth century North American women.  Now that’s radical.  ~The McGill Red Herring

When I was twelve, I went hunting with my father and we shot a bird.  He was laying there and something struck me.  Why do we call this fun to kill this creature [who] was as happy as I was when I woke up this morning.  ~Marv Levy

Animals give me more pleasure through the viewfinder of a camera than they ever did in the crosshairs of a gunsight.  And after I’ve finished "shooting," my unharmed victims are still around for others to enjoy.  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.  ~Jimmy Stewart

I had bought two male chimps from a primate colony in Holland.  They lived next to each other in separate cages for several months before I used one as a [heart] donor.  When we put him to sleep in his cage in preparation for the operation, he chattered and cried incessantly.  We attached no significance to this, but it must have made a great impression on his companion, for when we removed the body to the operating room, the other chimp wept bitterly and was inconsolable for days.  The incident made a deep impression on me.  I vowed never again to experiment with such sensitive creatures.  ~Christian Barnard, surgeon

[T]he animal shall not be measured by man.  In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with extension of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear.  They are not brethren; they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth.  ~Henry Beston, The Outermost House, 1928

If a group of beings from another planet were to land on Earth – beings who
considered themselves as superior to you as you feel yourself to be to other
animals – would you concede them the rights over you that you assume over
other animals?  ~Attributed to George Bernard Shaw

If a rabbit defined intelligence the way man does, then the most intelligent animal would be a rabbit, followed by the animal most willing to obey the commands of a rabbit.  ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com

Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight.  ~Albert SchweitzerCUL

The indifference, callousness and contempt that so many people exhibit toward animals is evil first because it results in great suffering in animals, and second because it results in an incalculably great impoverishment of the human spirit.  All education should be directed toward the refinement of the individual’s sensibilities in relation not only to one’s fellow humans everywhere, but to all things whatsoever.  ~Ashley Montague

The only creature on earth whose natural habitat is a zoo is the zookeeper.  ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com

God loved the birds and invented trees.  Man loved the birds and invented cages.  ~Jacques Deval, Afin de vivre bel et bien

Get a feel for fur:  Slam your fingers in a car door.  ~Anonymous, on the use of steel traps to capture fur-bearing animals, cited in Audubon, November 1990

Animals can communicate quite well.  And they do.  And generally speaking, they are ignored.  ~Alice Walker

I think animal testing is a terrible idea. They get all nervous and give silly answers. ~Stephen Fry

I am not interested to know whether vivisection produces results that are profitable to the human race or doesn’t…. The pain which it inflicts upon unconsenting animals is the basis of my enmity toward it, and it is to me sufficient justification of the enmity without looking further.  ~Mark Twain

Cruelty is one fashion statement we can all do without.  ~Rue McClanahan

Whether hunting is right or wrong, a spiritual experience, or an outlet for the killer instinct, one thing it is not is a sport.  Sport is when individuals or teams compete against each other under equal circumstances to determine who is better at a given game or endeavor.  Hunting will be a sport when deer, elk, bears, and ducks are… endowed with human intelligence and given 12-gauge shotguns.  Bet we’d see a lot fewer drunk yahoos (live ones, anyway) in the woods if that happened.  ~R. Lerner, letter, Sierra, March-April 1991

As often as Herman had witnessed the slaughter of animals and fish, he always had the same thought:  in their behaviour toward creatures, all men were Nazis.  The smugness with which man could do with other species as he pleased exemplified the most extreme racist theories, the principle that might is right.  ~Isaac Bashevis Singer

It is just like man’s vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions.  ~Mark Twain

From beasts we scorn as soulless,
In forest, field and den,
The cry goes up to witness
The soullessness of men.
~M. Frida HartleyQSO

If you love animals called pets, why do you eat animals called dinner?  ~As seen on a shirt at veganstore.com

God made all the creatures and gave them our love and our fear,
To give sign, we and they are His children, one family here.
~Robert BrowningQSO

Support your right to arm bears.  ~Cleveland Amory  (Thank you, Leslie.)

I believe in animal rights, and high among them is the right to the gentle stroke of a human hand.  ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com

Wild animals never kill for sport.  Man is the only one to whom the torture and death of his fellow-creatures is amusing in itself.  ~James Anthony Froude, Oceana, 1886CDC

When it comes to having a central nervous system, and the ability to feel pain, hunger, and thirst, a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy.  ~Ingrid Newkirk

A Robin Redbreast in a cage
Puts all Heaven in a Rage.
~William Blake, Auguries of Innocence

Deer hunting would be fine sport, if only the deer had guns.  ~William S. GilbertCDC

Zoos are becoming facsimiles – or perhaps caricatures – of how animals once were in their natural habitat.  If the right policies toward nature were pursued, we would need no zoos at all.  ~Michael Fox, Sierra, November-December 1990

Drinking without being thirsty and making love at any time, Madame, are the only things that distinguish us from other animals.  ~Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, The Marriage of Figaro, 1784, translated, act 2; WLBUQ

Dear intelligent people of the world, don’t get shampoo in your eyes. It really stings. There. Done. Now fucking stop torturing animals. ~Ricky Gervais2012 twitter.com/rickygervais/status/226662410595991553

No one in the world needs a mink coat but a mink.  ~Murray Banks

We must fight against the spirit of unconscious cruelty with which we treat the animals.  Animals suffer as much as we do.  True humanity does not allow us to impose such sufferings on them.  It is our duty to make the whole world recognize it.  Until we extend our circle of compassion to all living things, humanity will not find peace.  ~Albert Schweitzer, The Philosophy of Civilization

Man is the only creature that consumes without producing.  He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits.  Yet he is lord of all the animals.  ~George Orwell, Animal Farm

Though boys throw stones at frogs in sport, the frogs do not die in sport, but in earnest.  ~Bion, "Water and Land Animals," PlutarchMBT

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.  ~Thomas A. Edison

Evolutionary biology is now uttering and seeking those forces that link us with all those that have being.  If we can discover the meaning in the trilling of a frog, perhaps we may understand why it is for us not merely noise but a song of poetry and emotion.  ~Adrian Forsyth, A Natural History of Sex, 1986