Animal Welfare Quotes – 60 Sayings Against Animal Cruelty

Looking for inspirational animal welfare quotes to fight animal cruelty? Then you've come to the right place! The sayings from this collection inspire, for example, to the plant-based diet, the vegan lifestyle, the fight against species extinction or to oppose cruelty to animals passionately.

Animals give us a lot of love, but they don't have a voice to demand it from us. This is exactly what makes it so important to stand up and raise our voice for them.

In this article you will find valuable and effective animal welfare quotes, aphorisms and wisdoms that you can use as an inspiration booster in the fight against animal cruelty. Let's go!

My please: Keep in mind that many of the quotes about animal welfare have been translated into English from other languages. I cannot guarantee that it is the original quote in each case. Therefore, double check them before you share them. If you like and share any of the quotes in the internet, please link this elaborately created collection. Thank you for your support!

The 60 Most Effective Quotes For Animal Protection

Whenever I find the time to look for some extra motivation I take a look at the following quotes.

They also give me courage, energy and hope – and the constant certainty of doing the right thing. I'm sure, that they will help you, too.

Animal Welfare Quotes #1-10

1. "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." (Mahatma Gandhi)
2. "As long as people think that animals don't feel, animals will have to feel that people don't think." (Unknown)
3. "Animal protection is education to humanity." (Albert Schweitzer)
4. "The lower animals, like man, manifestly feel pleasure and pain, happiness and misery." (Charles Darwin)
5. "The world is not an inferior product, and animals are not a fabrication for our use." (Arthur Schopenhauer)
6. "No animal deserves having its name misused to insult a human being with it." (Ernst R. Hauschka)
7. "There are times when you need the silence of animals to recover from humans." (Unknown)
8. "We don't have two hearts, one for animals and one for humans ; we have one heart or we don't have any." (Alphonse de Lamartine)
9. "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 Mikhailovich Dostoevsky)
10. "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." (Arthur Schopenhauer)

Animal Welfare Quotes #11-20

11. "He who tortures animals is unsouled and missing God's good spirit, however noble he may look, he should never be trusted." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
12. "All animals know it, except man, that the highest goal of life is joy." (Samuel Butler)
13. "The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look on the murder of men." (Leonardo da Vinci)
14. "You can't beat anything into the animals, but you can stroke some things out of them." (Astrid Lindgren)
15. "No matter how little money and how few possessions you own, having a dog makes you rich." (Louis Sabin)
16. "Animals are my friends and I don't eat my friends." (George Bernard Shaw)
17. "If you take in a starving dog and make sure it thrives, it will not bite you - This is the fundamental difference between dogs and humans." (Mark Twain)
18. "Cruelty to animals and cruelty to humans are two sides of the same page on which history is written in blood." (Ulrich Erckenbrecht)
19. "Truly man is the king of beasts, for his brutality exceeds them. We live by the death of others. We are burial places." (Leonardo da Vinci)
20. "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." (Albert Schweitzer)

Tip: There are countless good reasons for the vegan lifestyle. What exactly drives me personally, I'll gladly explain in the linked blog post.

Animal Welfare Quotes #21-30

21. "Any foolish boy can stamp on a beetle, but all the professors in the world cannot make a beetle." (Arthur Schopenhauer)
22. "It is the anonymity of animal victims that makes us deaf to their cries." (Luise Rinser)
23. "Beasts, in the eyes of man, are animals that defend themselves when they are attacked." (Jean de La Bruyère)
24. "Only beautiful animals or ugly people wear fur." (Unknown)
25. "The younger, simpler and more pious the people, the more love for animals." (Jean Paul)
26. "You can't save all the dogs in the world, but you can save one dog's whole world!" (Karen Davison)
27. "A heart for the animals also beats for humans and the planet." (Christoph Schulz)
28. "From animal murder to human murder is only one step, and so is from animal cruelty to human cruelty." (Leo Tolstoy)
29. "Tradition will accustom people to any atrocity." (George Bernard Shaw)
30. "A dog's cold snout is delightfully warm against the callousness of some fellow humans." (Ernst R. Hauschka)

Animal Welfare Quotes #31-40

31. "Animals flee from man because they can no longer recognize God's image in them." (Manfred Kyber)
32. "Woe to humanity, should only a single animal have a seat in the Last Judgement." (Christian Morgenstern)
33. "If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian." (Paul McCartney)
34. "Animals often talk more reasonable with their eyes than humans with their mouths." (Ludovic Halévy)
35. "Men are the devils of the earth, and the animals are the tormented souls." (Arthur Schopenhauer)
36. "The question is not, 'Can they reason?' nor, 'Can they talk?' but 'Can they suffer?'" (Jeremy Bentham)
37. "Don't we seem animalic to animals when we find them human?" (Anke Maggauer-Kirsche)
38. "Maybe the world would be a better place if people had muzzles and dogs had laws." (George Bernard Shaw)
39. "Cruelty to animals is one of the most significant vices of a low and ignoble people. Wherever one notices them, they constitute a sign of ignorance and brutality which cannot be painted over even by all the evidence of wealth and luxury." (Alexander von Humboldt)
40. "Whole world ages of love will be necessary to repay the animals for their services and merits to us." (Christian Morgenstern)

Tip: There are many prejudices against veganism. I have compiled and debunked the most common clichés and myths in the linked article. Feel free to have a look and to use the answers to improve your own animal rights activism.

Animal Welfare Quotes #41-50

41. "When a human kills a tiger, it is called sport. When a tiger kills a human, it is cruelty." (George Bernard Shaw)
42. "An animal in need is a sacred object." (Ovid)
43. "Treat your pet like you can live with reversed roles in the next life without any problems." (Pascal Lachenmeier)
44. "If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went." (Will Rogers)
45. "I do feel that spiritual progress does demand at some stage that we should cease to kill our fellow creatures for the satisfaction of our bodily wants." (Mahatma Gandhi)
46. "The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men." (Alice Walker)
47. "Many people don't know much more about their dogs than what they cost." (Horst Stern)
48. "Injustice remains injustice even if everyone participates." (Magnus Schwantje)
49. "I am life that wants to live, in the midst of life that wants to live." (Albert Schweitzer)
50. "There are two categories of animals. One believes that there are two categories and the other suffers from it." (Richard David Precht)

Animal Welfare Quotes #51-60

51. "Freedom consists in being able to do anything that does not harm another." (Matthias Claudius)
52. "We will not be able to make up in eternity what we have done to the animals."  (Mark Twain)
53. "For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other." (Pythagoras)
54. "The fate of animals is of greater importance to me than the fear of appearing ridiculous; it is indissolubly connected with the fate of men." (Émile Zola)
55. "Love for all living beings is the noblest quality of man." (Charles Darwin)
56. "Babies and animals are the mirrors of nature." (Epicurus of Samos)
57. "The animals are our brothers, big and small. Only in this knowledge do we arrive at true humanity." (Albert Schweitzer)
58. "The oppression of animals is the gateway drug to oppressing humans." (Dr. Alex Hershaft)
59. "Under the tears of compassion grows that action which changes the world." (Jim Wallis)
60. "But for the sake of some little mouthful of flesh we deprive a soul of the sun and light, and of that proportion of life and time it had been born into the world to enjoy." (Plutarch)

Tip: If you want to get even more involved with animals, you can also learn a lot from the post about the best animal welfare organizations that I wrote for you.

Why is animal welfare so important?

Animals are sentient beings and can feel pain, fear and pleasure, just like you and me. Animal welfare tries to protect their right to integrity. Unfortunately, animals do not speak our language, which makes animal welfare by humans even more important.

Why should I get involved in animal welfare?

Animals are incredibly grateful for their rescuers and protectors. Your work to protect animals underlines your big heart and makes not only the animals, but also yourself happy. Not at least because you save and enlight the lives of other sentient beings simply by following your heart.

How can I help animals in everyday life?

You can help animals in your everyday life, by a plant based diet, the purchase of products with without animal testing, by adopting an animal from the shelter, by reporting animal cruelty to the police or by avoiding to consume fashion with animal fabrics (e.g. down, leather or silk).

Also by collecting garbage from your environment, by making your garden bird friendly or a by creating a wildflower corner, you are having an impact on animal welfare.

Use Animal Welfare Quotes In The Fight Against Animal Cruelty

Whether you're on an educational mission as a journalist, running an animal blog, or just looking for some motivational reasons to change your diet to veganism or vegetarianism: These animal welfare quotes should help you!

Animals are emotional beings. Respect for animals is human – and should be a valuable part of your personal attitude and our social coexistence.

Finally I have some additional blog posts for you, that could make your life even more animal-friendly:

• Why is animal welfare so important?
• The best reasons against eating eggs
• Why do vegans don't eat honey?

Do you have questions or more quotes against animal cruelty and for the protection of animals? Then feel free to write a comment under this post.

Be always kind to animals,

PS: In my animal welfare blog you will find many more tips matching these quotes. Take a look at the article about Factory farming, for example. You'll find out what it's all about and why it's the most cruel industry of the world.