QuoteProject
We are the living graves of murdered beasts, slaughtered to satisfy our appetites. How can we hope in this world to attain the peace we say we are so anxious for?
George Bernard Shaw
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote critiques human consumption and questions the possibility of peace amidst the violence against animals.

George Bernard Shaw's quote reflects on the ethical implications of humanity's appetite for meat and the consequent violence inflicted upon animals. It challenges us to consider how we can seek peace in our lives while contributing to suffering through our choices, prompting a deeper reflection on morality, compassion, and the interconnectedness of all living beings.

Themes

PeaceViolenceConsumptionEthicsAnimalsMorality

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about animal rights, one could emphasize the need for ethical consumption by quoting Shaw's insight.

More from George Bernard Shaw

What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child.
George Bernard ShawRead
Marriage is good enough for the lower classes: they have facilities for desertion that are denied to us.
George Bernard ShawRead
Forgive him, for he believes that the customs of his tribe are the laws of nature!
George Bernard ShawRead
Those who talk most about the blessings of marriage and the constancy of its vows are the very people who declare that if the chain were broken and the prisoners left free to choose, the whole social fabric would fly asunder. You cannot have the argument both ways. If the prisoner is happy, why lock him in? If he is not, why pretend that he is?
George Bernard ShawRead
Treat a friend as a person who may someday become your enemy; an enemy as a person who may someday become your friend.
George Bernard ShawRead
The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality.
George Bernard ShawRead

Similar quotes

Voidness is that which stands right in the middle between this and that. The void is all-inclusive, having no opposite--there is nothing which it excludes or opposes. It is living void, because all forms come out of it and whoever realizes the void is filled with life and power and the love of all beings.
Bruce LeeRead
Because I'm a Karamazov. Because when I fall into the abyss, I go straight into it, head down and heels up, and I'm even pleased that I'm falling in just such a humiliating position, and for me I find it beautiful.
Fyodor DostoevskyRead
I can think of nothing less pleasurable than a life devoted to pleasure.
John D. RockefellerRead
He's got hands so long and white and dainty I think they carved each other out of soap, and sometimes they get loose and glide around in front of him free as two white birds until he notices them and traps them between his knees; it bothers him that he's got pretty hands.
Ken KeseyRead
All sound heard at the greatest possible distance produces one and the same effect, a vibration of the universal lyre, just as the intervening atmosphere makes a distant ridge of earth interesting to our eyes by the azure tint it imparts to it.
Henry David ThoreauRead
Until the courts put a stop to it, public debate over same-sex marriage displayed American democracy at its best. Individuals on both sides of the issue passionately, but respectfully, attempted to persuade their fellow citizens to accept their views.
Antonin ScaliaRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.