Anna Sewell Quotes (16 Quotes)

He said cruelty was the devil's own trade-mark, and if we saw any one who took pleasure in cruelty we might know who he belonged to, for the devil was a murderer from the beginning, and a tormentor to the end. On the other hand, where we saw people who loved their neighbors, and were kind to man and beast, we might know that was God's mark.

I was quite happy in my new place, and if there was one thing that I missed, it must not be thought I was discontented; all who had to do with me were good, and I had a light airy stable and the best of food. What more could I want? Why, liberty!

If a thing is right it can be done, and if it is wrong it can be done without; and a good man will find a way.

It is good people who make good places

My troubles are all over, and I am at home; and often before I am quite awake, I fancy I am still in the orchard at Birtwick, standing with my friends under the apple trees.

Now look, for instance, at the way they serve dogs, cutting off their tails to make them look plucky, and shearing up their pretty little ears to a point to make them look sharp

Oh! if people knew what a comfort to a horse a light hand is...

What right had they to make me suffer like that?

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?

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.

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.

Master said, God had given men reason, by which they could find out things for themselves but He gave animals knowledge . . . which was much more prompt and perfect in its way, and by which they had often saved the lives of men.

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.

I am never afraid of what I know.

Though I am an old horse, and have seen and heard a great deal, I never yet could make out why men are so fond of this sport they often hurt themselves, often spoil good horses, and tear up the fields, and all for a hare, or a fox, or a stag, that they could get more easily some other way but we are only horses, and don't know.

Now I say that with cruelty and oppression it is everybody's business to interfere when they see it.