411 Quotes by Peter Singer

Marx portrays religion as a response to the oppression and heartlessness of the world; but an inadequate response because instead of challenging the oppression itself, it merely numbs the pain.

Christian magazine Sojourners, likes to point out that the Bible contains more than three thousand references to alleviating poverty – enough reason, he thinks, for making this a central moral issue for Christians.

Hebrew word for “charity” tzedakah, simply means “justice” and as this suggests, for Jews, giving to the poor is no optional extra but an essential part of living a just life.

We need to recognise that what really matters isn’t buying more and more consumer goods, but family, friends, and knowing that we are doing something worthwhile with our lives. Helping to reduce the appalling consequences of world poverty should be part of that reassessment.

Words do have consequences, and what one generation says but does not really believe, the next generation may believe, and even act upon.

I don’t think there’s anything in the compromise that means that there’s a clash of ethics.

So why don’t we make ourselves the last generation on earth? If we would all agree to have ourselves sterilized then no sacrifices would be required – we could party our way into extinction!

Cutting out meat would do more to help combat climate change than any other action we could feasibly take in the next 20 years.

What we must do is bring nonhuman animals within our sphere of moral concern and cease to treat their lives as expendable for whatever trivial purposes we may have.