Cows are among the gentlest of breathing creatures; none show more passionate tenderness to their young when deprived of them—and, in short, I am not ashamed to profess a deep love for these quiet creatures.

Do you not see how God is praised by those in the heavens and those on earth? The very birds praised Him as they wing their way.

I do not mean to call an elephant a vulgar animal, but if you think about him carefully, you will find that his nonvulgarity consists in such gentleness as is possible to elephantine nature—not in his insensitive hide, nor in his clumsy foot, but in the way he will lift his foot if a child lies in his way; and in his sensitive trunk, and still more sensitive mind, and capability of pique on points of honor.

An ape will be an ape, though clad in purple.

Animals have these advantages over man: they never hear the clock strike, they die without any idea of death, they have no theologians to instruct them, their last moments are not disturbed by unwelcome and unpleasant ceremonies, their funerals cost them nothing, and no one starts lawsuits over their wills.

Happiness is a warm puppy.

Life is no way to treat an animal.

The righteous know the needs of their animals, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.

Man is a noble animal, splendid in ashes and pompous in the grave.

Animals, in their generation, are wiser than the sons of men, but their wisdom is confined to a few particulars, and lies in a very narrow compass.

Who hears the fishes when they cry?

Man is the only animal for whom his own existence is a problem which he has to solve and from which he cannot escape.

Animals are in possession of themselves; their soul is in possession of their body. But they have no right to their life, because they do not will it.