Quotes from Holy Cow

224 pages

Rating: (5.4K votes)


“You humans drink our milk and eat the eggs of the chickens and the ducks. Isn't that enough for you? Isn't it enough that we give you our children and what's meant for our children? And if not, when is it enough? All you humans do is take, take, take from the earth and its beautiful creatures, and what do you give back? Nothing. I know humans consider it a grave insult to be called an animal. Well, I would never give a human the fine distinction of being called an animal, because an animal may kill to live but an animal never lives to kill. Humans have to earn the right to be called animals again.”
― quote from Holy Cow


“Feelings come and go, unless you don't feel them. Then they stay, and hurt, and grow pear-shaped and weird.”
― quote from Holy Cow


“This is my religion—we’re all animals, perfect animals created in the infinite image and imagination of nature. It’s a life not without pain and competition and suffering, but it can be a life of dignity and mutual respect.”
― quote from Holy Cow


“Then they just get it with their minds, intellectually, because if they got it with their hearts and souls, they would change, they would change and rejoin the animal kingdom and once again be proud to be called animals.”
― quote from Holy Cow


“It's hard to leave anywhere. Even if the place sucked. It's hard to leave anywhere at all.”
― quote from Holy Cow



“You can't just wear the food chain around your neck like a bauble or necklace. You're part of it and if you keep treating it with disdain, that chain will strangle you.”
― quote from Holy Cow


“Dogs are the broccaflower of the animal kingdom.”
― quote from Holy Cow


“Hate is like a poison you make for your enemy that you end up swallowing yourself.”
― quote from Holy Cow


“Humans have to earn the right to be called animals again.”
― quote from Holy Cow


“I’ve never seen a wild almond or a soy galloping about in its natural habitat, but cow milk is the best.”
― quote from Holy Cow



“There is something in man that loves a wall, but what wall menders and fence builders do not get is that when they fence something out, they are also fencing themselves in. Not one but two prisons are made by one wall.”
― quote from Holy Cow


“You think plants don’t have feelings? Maybe not the type of feelings you and I have, but they do have planty feelings, really slow feelings that unfold or blossom over years rather than seconds.”
― quote from Holy Cow


“What a strange god that instead of bringing people together, divides them.”
― quote from Holy Cow


“I was confused at how people could mistreat and eat us on the one hand and then celebrate us on the other for qualities they admired. It was then I realized that humans were very complicated and confused and I could spend the rest of my life puzzling them out. I decided I didn’t have time to do that.”
― quote from Holy Cow


“The difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, certainly is one of degree and not of kind. —CHARLES DARWIN”
― quote from Holy Cow



“I told you already that Mother Earth is our god, and the only thing that offends our god is waste and pollution, not words and pictures and jokes. I have nothing but sympathy for reverence of God in the abstract. Love of God and life is as natural as the force that holds the planets in their dance.”
― quote from Holy Cow


“You want some of this?” The dog now angled his backside close to Shalom’s nose. This was not going to end well. “Can you tell they feed me steak? Go on, have a whiff. I would share with you, meine kleine bitch.”
― quote from Holy Cow


“What a strange god that instead of bringing people together, divides them. So”
― quote from Holy Cow


“You, me, the animals in the wild, the animal at your feet, the animal on your plate, the person next to you— We are all one We are all holy cows Moo”
― quote from Holy Cow


“Maybe you should go back down to the house.' I said, 'I'm never going down there again, I hate people.' And she said, 'Don't hate. Hate is like a poison you make for your enemy that you end up swallowing yourself.' And I said, 'Nice one, Obovine-Wan Kenobi.”
― quote from Holy Cow



“in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, certainly is one of degree and not of kind. —CHARLES DARWIN”
― quote from Holy Cow


“Not one but two prisons are made by one wall.”
― quote from Holy Cow


“Digression and digestion. It’s what we do.”
― quote from Holy Cow


“Of course I’m biased, what else could I be? Bias makes the world go round, sometimes a little too fast.”
― quote from Holy Cow


“Haat is een vergif dat je bereidt voor je vijand, maar uiteindelijk zelf inslikt”
― quote from Holy Cow



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Popular quotes

“Je puis me persuader d'avoir été fait tel par la nature que je puisse aisément me tromper même dans les choses que je crois comprendre avec le plus d'évidence et de certitude.”
― René Descartes, quote from Meditations on First Philosophy


“When we left, the sun was taking its evening dip, slipping down into the ocean inch by inch like a fat woman afraid of the water.”
― Budd Schulberg, quote from What Makes Sammy Run?


“But he also knew that, as much as he wanted to aid and console the soldier, he wanted to be alone in his room with the night coming down and a book close by and pen and paper and the knowledge that the door would remain shut until the morning came and he would ne be disturbed. The gap between these two desires filled him with sadness and awe at the mystery of the self, the mystery of having a single consciousness, knowing merely its own bare feelings and experiencing singly and alone it own pain or fear or pleasure or complacency.”
― Colm Tóibín, quote from The Master


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“The radio has a CD player and a few CDs, but they’re country-western. “I’m not dying to—” I look at one of the CDs, “Shania Twain. Sorry. I could do Patsy Cline or Johnny Cash, but not Shania.”
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BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

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