Cruelty Quotes

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  Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.

  Bertrand Russell

  Inspirational, Motivational, Fear

  Unpopular Essays (1950) "Outline of Intellectual Rubbish"

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• All cruelty springs from weakness.

  Seneca the Younger

  Spring, Philosophical, Animal

  "On the Happy Life". Essay by Seneca the Younger (58 AD); later published in Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton "Caxtoniana: A Series of Essays on Life, Literature, and Manners", p. 174 (in the essay "The Sympathetic Temperment"), 1863.

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• The best political weapon is the weapon of terror. Cruelty commands respect. Men may hate us. But, we don't ask for their love; only for their fear.

  Heinrich Himmler

  Hate, Men, History

  "Visions of Reality - A Study of Abnormal Perception and Behavior". Book by Alberto Rivas, p. 162, 2007.

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• Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight.

  Albert Schweitzer

  Philosophical, Animal, Thinking

  38 Copy quote
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  The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man.

  Charles Darwin

  Love, Life, Nature

  Charles Darwin (2015). “Darwin on Evolution: Words of Wisdom from the Father of Evolution”, p.25, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• Cruelty is, perhaps, the worst kid of sin. Intellectual cruelty is certainly the worst kind of cruelty.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Kids, Intellectual, Literature

  7 Copy quote

• When we think of cruelty, we must try to remember the stupidity, the envy, the frustration from which it has arisen.

  Edith Sitwell

  Frustration, Thinking, Envy

  Edith Sitwell (2011). “Taken Care Of: An Autobiography”, p.172, A&C Black

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• Cruelty is fed, not weakened, by tears.

  Tacitus

  Compassion, Tears, Politics

  10 Copy quote
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  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

  Inspirational, Life, Beauty

  Albert Einstein (2015). “Bite-Size Einstein: Quotations on Just About Everything from the Greatest Mind of the Twentieth Century”, p.15, St. Martin's Press

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• In order to get the power and retain it, it is necessary to love power; but love of power is not connected with goodness, but with qualities which are the opposite of goodness, such as pride, cunning, cruelty.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Pride, Order, Opposites

  "The Complete Works of Leo Tolstoy".

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• Cruelty must be whitewashed by a moral excuse, and pretense of reluctance.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Peace, War, Animal Rights

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• Animals share with us the privilege of having a soul.

  Pythagoras

  I Hate You, Animal, Soul

  155 Copy quote

• Cruelty, like every other vice, requires no motive outside of itself; it only requires opportunity.

  George Eliot

  Opportunity, Politics, Vices

  George Eliot (2010). “Scenes of Clerical Life”, p.549, The Floating Press

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• Hypocrisy, the lie, is the true sister of evil, intolerance, and cruelty.

  Raisa Gorbacheva

  Lying, Evil, Hypocrisy

  18 Copy quote

• Cruelty practiced as a matter of social principle or public policy, and presented to the community as a means to a higher goal is the most obscene and decadent phenomenon of any civilization.

  Vernon Howard

  Mean, Animal, Civilization

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• One of the ill effects of cruelty is that it makes the bystanders cruel.

  Sir Fowell Buxton, 1st Baronet

  Animal, Bystanders, Ill

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• It may be a mistake, that man, in a state of nature, is more disposed to cruelty than courtesy

  Mercy Otis Warren

  Mistake, Men, May

  Mercy Otis Warren (1805). “History of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution: Interspersed with Biographical, Political and Moral Observations. In Three Volumes”, p.19

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• What is a wife and what is a harlot? What is a church and what is a theatre? are they two and not one? Can they exist separate? Are not religion and politics the same thing? Brotherhood is religion. O demonstrations of reason dividing families in cruelty and pride!

  William Blake

  Pride, Two, Wife

  William Blake (1964). “Jerusalem: A Simplified Version”

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• Cruelty is the highest pleasure to the cruel man; it is his love.

  Walter Savage Landor

  Men, His Love, Pleasure

  Walter Savage Landor (1829). “Barrow and Newton. Peleus and Thetis. The King of Ava and Rao-Gong-Fao. Photo Zavellas and his sister Kaido. Epicurus, Leontion, and Ternissa. The Empress Catharine and Princess Dashkoff. William Penn and Lord Peterborough. Miguel and mother. Metellus and Marius. Nicolas and Michel. Leofric and Godiva. Izaac Walton, Cotton, and William Oldways”, p.27

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• 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

  Love, Animal, Understanding

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• We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.

  Immanuel Kant

  Dog, Heart, Animal

  "True animal instinct", www.theguardian.com. September 2, 2005.

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• I ask people why they have deer heads on their walls. They always say because it's such a beautiful animal. There you go. I think my mother is attractive, but I have photographs of her.

  Ellen DeGeneres

  Funny, Beautiful, Mom

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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  My doctrine is this, that if we see cruelty or wrong that we have the power to stop, and do nothing, we make ourselves sharers in the guilt.

  Anna Sewell

  Perseverance, Animal, Compassion

  Anna Sewell (1895). “Black Beauty: The Autobiography of a Horse”, p.195

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• Where does discipline end? Where does cruelty begin? Somewhere between these, thousands of children inhabit a voiceless hell.

  Francois Mauriac

  Children, Discipline, Doe

  "Journal, 1932-1939". Book by François Mauriac, Table ronde, p. 278, 1947.

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  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

  Fighting, Compassion, Animal

  174 Copy quote