Animal Rights Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old animal rights quotes, animal rights sayings, and animal rights proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

Being a humanitarian, supporting animal rights activists, human rights activists, it's all the same. Daryl Hannah
The assumption that animals are without rights and the illusion that our treatment of them has no moral significance is a positively outrageous example of Western crudity and barbarity. Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality. Arthur Schopenhauer
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
True benevolence or compassion, extends itself through the whole of existence and sympathizes with the distress of every creature capable of sensation. Joseph Addison
Life is life--whether in a cat, or dog or man. There is no difference there between a cat or a man. The idea of difference is a human conception for man's own advantage. Sri Aurobindo
Love of animals is a universal impulse, a common ground on which all of us may meet. By loving and understanding animals, perhaps we humans shall come to understand each other. Louis J. Camuti
Hunting is not a sport. In a sport, both sides should know they're in the game. Paul Rodriguez
The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men. Alice Walker
Those who wish to pet and baby wild animals "love" them. But those who respect their natures and wish to let them live normal lives, love them more. Edwin Way Teale
Living with animals can be a wonderful experience, especially if we choose to learn the valuable lessons animals teach through their natural enthusiasm, grace, resourcefulness, affection and forgiveness. Richard H. Pitcairn
If man is not to stifle his human feelings, he must practise kindness towards animals, for 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. Immanuel Kant
Animals are like little angels sent to earth to teach us how to love. They don't get angry or play silly games. They are always there for us. Whitney Mandel
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. Mahatma Gandhi
A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite. And to act so is immoral. Leo Tolstoy
Our task must be to free ourselves... by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty. Albert Einstein
Life is as dear to a mute creature as it is to man. Just as one wants happiness and fears pain, just as one wants to live and not die, so do other creatures. His Holiness The Dalai Lama
This is what an animal rights philosophy is really about. Understanding the importance of recognizing that all animals have an inherent right not to be abused by us and then following the ethical path this understanding leads us to is special indeed. John F. Kullberg
The main principle of animals' rights, if admitted to be fundamentally sound, will not be essentially affected by the wildness or the domesticity, as the case may be, of the animals in question; both classes have their rights, though these rights may differ largely in extent and importance. Henry S. Salt
I care not for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it. Abraham Lincoln
It ill becomes us to invoke in our daily prayers the blessings of God, the Compassionate, if we in turn will not practice elementary compassion towards our fellow creatures. Mahatma Gandhi
Life is as dear to a mute creature as it is to man. Just as one wants happiness and fears pain, just as one wants to live and not die, so do other creatures. Dalai Lama XIV
The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man. Charles Darwin
Animals are my friends... and I don't eat my friends. George Bernard Shaw
I believe animals should be respected as citizens of this earth. They should have the right to their own freedom, their own families, and their own life. John Feldmann
It is much easier to show compassion to animals. They are never wicked. Haile Selassie
I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being. Abraham Lincoln
As long as people will shed the blood of innocent creatures there can be no peace, no liberty, no harmony between people. Slaughter and justice cannot dwell together. Isaac Bashevis Singer
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
If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men. Francis of Assisi
The thinking person must oppose all cruel customs, no matter how deeply rooted in tradition and surrounded by a halo. When we have a choice, we must avoid bringing torment and injury into the life of another. Albert Schweitzer
Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight. Albert Schweitzer
We should remember in our dealings with animals that they are a sacred trust to us from our Heavenly Father. They are dumb and cannot speak for themselves. Harriet Beecher Stowe
Humanity's true moral test, its fundamental test. Consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy. Animals. Milan Kundera
The fate of animals is of greater importance to me than the fear of appearing ridiculous; it is indissolubly connected with the fate of men. Emile Zola
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
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. Ali MacGraw
All the arguments to prove man's superiority cannot shatter this hard fact: in suffering, the animals are our equals. Peter Singer
God loved the birds and invented trees. Man loved the birds and invented cages. Jacques Deval
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. Mark Twain
Our nonviolent tactics are not as effective. We ask nicely for years and get nothing. Someone makes a threat, and it works. Ingrid Newkirk
Violence begins with the fork. Mahatma Gandhi
If a man aspires towards a righteous life, his first act of abstinence is from injury to animals. Albert Einstein
The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them. That's the essence of inhumanity. George Bernard Shaw
We cannot have peace among men whose hearts find delight in killing any living creature. Rachel Carson
It is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions. Mark Twain
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
Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages. Thomas Edison
Animals are not brethren, they are not underlings. They are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time. Henry Beston
When a man wants to murder a tiger he calls it sport. When a tiger wants to murder him he calls it ferocity. George Bernard Shaw
Animals can communicate quite well. And they do. And generally speaking, they are ignored Alice Walker
I believe in animal rights, and high among them is the right to the gentle stroke of a human hand. Robert Breault
An animal experiment cannot be justifiable unless the experiment is so important that the use of a brain-damaged human would be justifiable. Peter Singer
Killing an animal to make a coat is sin. It wasn't meant to be, and we have no right to do it. Doris Day
That the awful wrongs and sufferings forced upon the innocent, helpless, faithful animal race form the blackest chapter in the whole world's history. R. Edward Freeman
Cruelty to animals is one of the most significant vices of a low and ignoble people. Wherever one notices them, they constitute a sign of ignorance and brutality which cannot be painted over even by all the evidence of wealth and luxury. Alexander von Humboldt