When a human being kills an animal for food, he is neglecting his own hunger for justice.
Isaac Bashevis SingerRead
When a human kills an animal for food, he is neglecting his own hunger for justice. Man prays for mercy, but is unwilling to extend it to others. Why should man then expect mercy from God? It's unfair to expect something that you are not willing to give.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the hypocrisy in human behavior regarding justice and mercy towards animals and God.
Isaac Bashevis Singer's quote critiques the contradiction in human nature where individuals often seek mercy while failing to extend it to others, particularly in the context of killing animals for food. It emphasizes the moral responsibility of humans to show compassion and justice in their actions, suggesting that expecting mercy from a higher power is unjust if one is unwilling to practice it themselves.
Themes
MercyJusticeCompassionHypocrisyFood Ethics
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech on animal rights, one could use this quote to provoke thought about our dietary choices.
More from Isaac Bashevis Singer
All quotes →There will be no justice as long as man will stand with a knife or with a gun and destroy those who are weaker than he is.
Isaac Bashevis SingerRead
Our knowledge is a little island in a great ocean of nonknowledge.
Isaac Bashevis SingerRead
As long as people will shed the blood of innocent creatures there can be no peace, no liberty, no harmony between people. Slaughter and justice cannot dwell together.
Isaac Bashevis SingerRead
Sometimes love is stronger than a man's convictions.
Isaac Bashevis SingerRead
I did not become a vegetarian for my health, I did it for the health of the chickens.
Isaac Bashevis SingerRead
Similar quotes
I think it is a problem of our society that we don't enjoy (ourselves.) We have these values, like, you have to be rich, you have to get a diploma, you have to work hard, otherwise you are useless, you are nothing but a pariah. And the book asks, 'Is it true? This is what my mom told me, but is it true?
Paulo CoelhoRead
And so you're afraid of the emptiness of your friend's life. But there's no emptiness in the life of a man of knowledge, I tell you. Everything is filled to the brim and everything is equal.
Carlos CastanedaRead
The Church is a terrible engine of oppression, especially as concerns woman
Elizabeth Cady StantonRead
I believe that communism is another sad, bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages even now are being written. I believe this because the source of our strength in the quest for human freedom is not material, but spiritual. And because it knows no limitation, it must terrify and ultimately triumph over those who would enslave their fellow men.
Ronald ReaganRead
An act cannot be defined by the end sought by the actor, for an identical system of behaviour may be adjustable to too many different ends without altering its nature.
Emile DurkheimRead
Willingly no one chooses the yoke of slavery.
AeschylusRead