The Quotes canon
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Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Classical antiquity10 quotes
There are many wonderful things, and nothing is more wonderful than man. — Sophocles · 441 BCOf all wild creatures, the child is the most intractable. — Plato · 346 BCThe animal needing something knows how much it needs, the man does not. — Democritus · 370 BCDonkeys would prefer refuse to gold. — HeraclitusThough boys throw stones at frogs in sport, the frogs do not die in sport, but in earnest. — Bion of Borysthenes · 100He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must either be a beast or a god. — Aristotle · 350 BCAll 10 quotes →The Renaissance5 quotes
A prince being thus obliged to know well how to act as a beast must imitate the fox and the lion, for the lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1532They that deny a God destroy a man's nobility, for certainly man is of a kin to the beasts by his body; and if he be not of kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature. — Francis Bacon · 1625The sense of death is most in apprehension,
And the poor beetle that we tread upon
In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great
As when a giant dies. — William Shakespeare · 1616What is a man
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more. — William Shakespeare · 1616Man and animal are merely a passage and channel for food, a tomb for other animals, a haven for the dead, giving life by the death of others, a coffer full of corruption. — Leonardo da Vinci · 1508Age of Enlightenment3 quotes
The life of man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster. — David Hume · 1776Drinking when we are not thirsty and making love all year round madam; that is all there is to distinguish us from other animals. — Pierre Beaumarchais · 1784Histories are more full of Examples of the Fidelity of dogs than of Friends. — Alexander Pope · 1709Ancient World3 quotes
People suppose that words are different from the peeps of baby birds, but is there any difference, or isn't there? — Zhuang Zhou · 220 BCAll breathing, existing, living, sentient creatures should not be slain, nor treated with violence, nor abused, not tormented, nor driven away. This is the pure, unchangeable, eternal law. — Jaina Sutras · 500 BCThis is the quintessence of wisdom: not to kill anything. Know this to be the legitimate conclusion from the principle of the reciprocity with regard to non-killing. — Jaina Sutras · 300 BCOld Testament Era3 quotes
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. — Genesis 1:28 · 1405 BCFor what happens to the sons of men also happens to animals; one thing befalls them: as one dies, so dies the other. Surely, they all have one breath; man has no advantage over animals, for all is vanity. — Ecclesiastes 3:19-20 · 931 BCOh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest. — Psalm 55:6 · 450 BCColonial America1 quote
The Horse thinks one thing, and he that saddles him another. — Benjamin Franklin · 1754Early Christianity1 quote
Even brute beasts and wandering birds do not fall into the same traps or nets twice. — St. Jerome · 394