Wolves and sheep will live together in peace, And leopards will lie down with young goats, Calves and lion cubs will feed together, And little children will take care of them. Cows and bears will eat together, And their calves and cubs will lie down in peace. Lions will eat straw as cattle do. Even a baby will not be harmed If it plays near a poisonous snake.

Isaiah 11:6-8 Good News Bible

The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for whites or women for men.

Alice Walker, foreword to Marjorie Spiegel, The Dreaded Comparison: Human and Animal Slavery, 1996

A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him, that of plants and animals as well as that of his fellowman, and when he devotes himself helpfully to all life that is in need of help.

Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965), Out of My Life and Thought, 1998

They tell us that plants are not like man immortal, but are perishable—soulless. I think that is something that we know exactly nothing about.

John Muir (1838-1914), Journal, Autumn 1867

In this light, my spirit saw through all things and into all creatures, and I recognized God in grass and plants.

Jacob Boehme (1575-1624)

Every flower of the field, every fiber of a plant, every particle of an insect carries with it the impress of its Maker and can—if duly considered—read us lectures of ethics or divinity.

Sir Thomas Pope Blount (1649-1697)

Leaving the complications of the human breakfast-table out of account, in an elemental sense, the egg only exists to produce the chicken. But the chicken does not exist only in order to produce another egg. He may also exist to amuse himself, to praise God, and even to suggest ideas to a French dramatist. Being a conscious life, he is, or may be, valuable in himself.

G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936), “Wanted: An Unpractical Man,” What’s Wrong With the World, 1910

The kiss of the sun for pardon The song of the birds for mirth You are nearer God's heart in a garden Than anywhere else on earth.

Dorothy Frances Gurney (1858-1932), "God's Garden"

If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.

Francis of Assisi (1181-1226)

Man, even now, can do wonders to animals: my cat and dog live together in my house and seem to like it. It may have been one of man's functions to restore peace to the animal world, and if he had not joined the enemy he might have succeeded in doing so to an extent now hardly imaginable.

C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), The Problem of Pain, 1940

The abuse of a harmless thing is the essence of sin.

A. W. Tozer (1897-1963)

Kindness to all God's creatures is an absolute rock-bottom necessity if peace and righteousness are to prevail.

Sir Wilfred T. Grenfell (1865-1940