There is no religion without love, and people may talk as much as they like about their religion, but if it does not teach them to be good and kind to man and beast, it is all a sham.
Anna SewellRead
Why don't they cut their own children's ears into points to make them look sharp? Why don't they cut off their noses to make them look plucky? One would be just as sensible as the other. What right have they to torment and disfigure God's creatures?
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote questions the morality of altering one's natural appearance for superficial reasons.
In this quote by Anna Sewell, the author uses hyperbole to criticize the practice of inflicting unnecessary harm on living beings for the sake of aesthetic preferences. By comparing such actions to the irrational notion of physically altering children's features, Sewell emphasizes the ethical implications of societal norms that prioritize appearance over the well-being of individuals.
Themes
MoralityAppearanceSufferingNatureBeauty
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech about animal rights, this quote can highlight the absurdity of cosmetic practices.
More from Anna Sewell
All quotes βMy doctrine is this, that if we see cruelty or wrong that we have the power to stop, and do nothing, we make ourselves sharers in the guilt.
Anna SewellRead
We call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words.
Anna SewellRead
What right had they to make me suffer like that?
Anna SewellRead
Do you know why this world is as bad as it is?... It is because people think only about their own business, and won't trouble themselves to stand up for the oppressed, nor bring the wrong-doers to light... My doctrine is this, that if we see cruelty or wrong that we have the power to stop, and do nothing, we make ourselves sharers in the guilt.
Anna SewellRead
Similar quotes
After reading all that has been written, and after thinking all that can be thought, on the topics of God and the soul, the man who has a right to say that he thinks at all, will find himself face to face with the conclusion that, on these topics, the most profound thought is that which can be the least easily distinguished from the most superficial sentiment.
Edgar Allan PoeRead
The guest of our soul knows our misery; He comes to find an empty tent within us - that is all He asks.
Therese Of LisieuxRead
I feel like the Internet needs to be disarmed in some way. There needs to be a philosophical undermining of the Internet. We take it too seriously and too literally. For a reference we go to Wikipedia, which is full of inaccuracies and misinformation. It's kind of beautiful - it's all the product of imagination; it's not reality at all.
Sufjan StevensRead
People, human beings with all their creative diversity, are the makers of history.
Mikhail GorbachevRead
The balancing of the budget will not in itself place a teaspoonful of milk in a hungry baby's stomach, or remove the rags from its mother's back.
John L. LewisRead
It may be thought justifiable to require tests on animals of potentially life-saving drugs, but the same kinds of tests are used for products like cosmetics, food coloring, and floor polishes. Should thousands of animals suffer so that a new kind of lipstick or floor wax can be put on the market? Don't we already have an excess of most of these products? Who benefits from their introduction, except the companies that hope to profit from them?
Peter SingerRead