I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contained.… They do not sweat and whine about their condition, they do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins, they do not make me sick discussing their duty to God, not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, not one kneels to another nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago, not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth.

About Walt Whitman

Walter Whitman Jr. (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, and journalist; he also wrote two novels. He is considered one of the most influential poets in American literature and world literature. Whitman incorporated both transcendentalism and realism in his writings and is often...

More quotations from Walt Whitman

The habit of giving only enhances the desire to give.

—Walt Whitman

giving desire habit

I no doubt deserved my enemies, but I don't believe I deserved my friends.

—Walt Whitman

Give me the splendid silent sun with all his beams full-dazzling.

—Walt Whitman

Nothing endures but personal qualities.

—Walt Whitman

How beggarly appear arguments before a defiant deed!

—Walt Whitman

More quotations tagged with “animals”

Man, do not pride yourself on your superiority to the animals, for they are without sin, while you, with all your greatness, you defile the earth wherever you appear and leave an ignoble trail behind you—and that is true, alas, for almost every one of us!

—Fyodor Dostoyevsky

sin pride greatness animals earth

Practice love first on animals; they are more sensitive.

—George Gurdjieff

love relationships sensitivity animals

I am sometimes asked, “Why do you spend so much of your time and money talking about kindness to animals when there is so much cruelty to men?” I answer, “I am working at the roots.”

—George T. Angell

kindness time money animals cruelty

I hold that, the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man.

—Mahatma Gandhi

humanity animals mercy protection

The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too.

—Samuel Butler

dogs animals

History

7 Dec 2013 Added
26 Oct 2026 Wording changed

Previous wording

I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contained. … They do not sweat and whine about their condition, they do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins, they do not make me sick discussing their duty to God, not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, not one kneels to another nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago, not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth.