Pastoral Resources

I can find God in nature, in animals, in birds and the environment.

I have agreed to lend my voice to Nature's Guard, an animated series which hopefully will go into production in the near future. The characters are all animals. My voice will be for a character named Longtail.

I don't wear fur and I understand their cause. I am the biggest animal lover in the world. I have four dogs and two horses, and I have rescued animals all my life.

All animals, except man, know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it.

I like animals because they are not consciously cruel and don't betray each other.

I blame it on Walt Disney, where animals are given human qualities. People don't understand that a wild animal is not something that is nice to pat. It can seriously harm you.

Only the most acute and active animals are capable of boredom. - A theme for a great poet would be God's boredom on the seventh day of creation.

I dressed up as a veterinarian for a Halloween costume party. I had the lab coat. I got a couple of stuffed animals for patients and put bandages on them.

Animals awaken, first facially, then bodily. Men's bodies wake before their faces do. The animal sleeps within its body, man sleeps with his body in his mind.

Our expression and our words never coincide, which is why the animals don't understand us.

Men feel that cruelty to the poor is a kind of cruelty to animals. They never feel that it is an injustice to equals; nay it is treachery to comrades.

Man is an exception, whatever else he is. If he is not the image of God, then he is a disease of the dust. If it is not true that a divine being fell, then we can only say that one of the animals went entirely off its head.

If God did not intend for us to eat animals, then why did he make them out of meat?

Those who actually hate animals to the point of being cruel to them are outcasts to the rest of us, no matter where in the world they live.

Respect and affection for animals, particularly those who share our homes, recognize no geographic borders.

As I listened, it occurred to me that interest in and affection for the animals that share the planet with us may be a more unifying force than any other.

The most important of all rights is the right to life, and I cannot foresee a day when domesticated animals will be granted that right in law.

Strictly speaking, my interest is not in legal rights for animals but in a change of heart towards animals.

If it is indeed impossible - or at least very difficult - to inhabit the consciousness of an animal, then in writing about animals there is a temptation to project upon them feelings and thoughts that may belong only to our own human mind and heart.

They are the most fascinating, intelligent, resourceful, adaptable animals I have ever seen. Grizzlies are a real symbol of true wildness.