352 Quotes by Diane Ackerman

I don’t understand all the fuss. If any creature is in danger, you save it, human or animal.

In Manhattan last month I heard a woman borrowing the jargon of junkies to say to another, ‘Want to do some chocolate?’

Although Mengele’s subjects could be operated on without any painkillers at all, a remarkable example of Nazi zoophilia is that a leading biologist was once punished for not giving worms enough anesthesia during an experiment.

The senses don’t just make sense of life in bold or subtle acts of clarity, they tear reality apart into vibrant morsels and reassemble them into a meaningful pattern.

I’m fascinated how often and with what whole-heartedness people will risk their lives to perform acts of courage, sacrifice, and compassion for total strangers.

According to Jan, “The personality of animals will develop according to how you raise, train, educate them – you can’t generalize about them. Just like people who own dogs and cats will tell you, no two are exactly alike. Who knew that a rabbit could learn to kiss a human, open doors, or give us reminders about dinnertime?” Wicek’s.

The beauty and genius of a work of art may be reconceived, though its first material expression be destroyed; a vanished harmony may yet again inspire the composer; but when the last individual of a race of living things breathes no more, another heaven and another earth must pass before such a one can be again.

Europe enjoyed a heritage of fairy tales alive with talking animals – some almost real, other deliciously bogus – to spark child’s fantasies and gallop grownups to the cherished haunts of childhood. It pleased Antonina that her zoo offered on orient of fabled creatures, where book pages sprang alive and people could parley with ferocious animals.

I’m sure civilizations will still evolve through play, or rather as play, since that seems to be a fundamental mechanism of our humanity.