The North York Mirror

Over the holidays I was searching web sites for animal-related information and stumbled across a page that offered some remarkable quotes. I was so moved by them I decided to look for more and share them with you. I hope you find these passages as inspirational as I did and find them a wonderful way to start a new year!

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." - Mahatma Gandhi

"Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace."

- Dr. Albert Schweitzer

"Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole." - Roger Caras

"In the beginning, God created man, but seeing him so feeble, He gave him the cat" - Warren Eckstein

"Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened." - Anatole France

"You think dogs will not be in heaven? I tell you, they will be there long before any of us" - Robert Louis Stevenson

"If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans" - James Herriot

"Don't accept your dog's admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful." - Ann Landers

"A Horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!" - Shakespeare

"All of the animals except for man know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it." - Samuel Butler

"You can say any foolish thing to a dog, and the dog will give you a look that says, 'My God, you're right! I never would've thought of that!'" - Dave Barry

"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

"There is nothing in which the birds differ more from man than the way in which they can build and yet leave a landscape as it was before." - Robert Lynd

"Love the animals: God has given them the rudiments of thought and joy untroubled." - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

"A dog has lots of friends because he wags his tail and not his tongue." - Anonymous

"The bird of paradise alights only upon the hand that does not grasp." - John Berry

"The average dog is a nicer person than the average person." - Andrew A. Rooney

"A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song." - Chinese Proverb

"Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms." - George Elliot

"I care not for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it."

- Abraham Lincoln

"The best thing about animals is that they don't talk much." - Thornton Wilder

"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

"There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats." - Albert Schweitzer

"It is contrary to human dignity to cause animals to suffer and die needlessly." - Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 2418

"An animal's eyes have the power to speak a great language." - Martin Buber