How people treat animals has occupied philosophers, scientists and writers for centuries, and their conclusions have often been strikingly direct. This week’s selection brings together seven figures, from the Enlightenment to modern conservation, whose words on animals remain widely cited today.
Philosophers on suffering and character
Some of the most enduring arguments about animals came from philosophers, who asked what moral weight their suffering should carry.
Jeremy Bentham, English philosopher and social reformer
“The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?”
Immanuel Kant, German philosopher
“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.”
Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher
“Compassion for animals is intimately associated with goodness of character, and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man.”
Science and the animal mind
Scientific study of animals has repeatedly narrowed the distance people once assumed existed between humans and other species.
Charles Darwin, English naturalist and biologist
“There is no fundamental difference between man and the higher mammals in their mental faculties.”
Jane Goodall, British primatologist and conservationist
“Only if we understand, will we care. Only if we care, will we help. Only if we help shall all be saved.”
Writers and thinkers on human nature
Others turned the subject back on humanity itself, using animals as a mirror for human behaviour and responsibility.
Mark Twain, American writer and humorist
“Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to.”
Albert Einstein, Theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate
“Our task must be to free ourselves... by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
