Philip K. Dick Quotes

Killing a stag is like killing a child.

When I was twelve, I went hunting with my father and we shot a bird. He was laying there and something struck me. Why do we call this fun to kill this creature who was as happy as I was when I woke up this morning.

Learning the edges or limits or sources of friction in empathy was one of the big issues for me.

Along time ago I asked myself do I want to be right or do I want to be kind; I opted for kind.

Ich glaube sogar, durch Leidensk a« mpfe k o« nnten dieTiere zu Menschen werden. I believe that by suffering even animals could be made human.

People, in general, would rather die than forgive. It's that hard.

It's the difference between hunting a lion and hunting a deer. If someone hunts a lion, it's like: "Wow, they're brave!" But if they're hunting a deer it's like: "That poor deer!" I know that. I know that guys getting killed is horrible but people have seen it before. You've seen The Evil Dead. With girls, it's like: "I don't want to see that happening..." I know that.

It's true: Every time you kill an elk, you're saving some cow's life.

The weak are meat the strong do eat.

I am a very bad scientist. I will do anything to make a human being feel better, even if it's unscientific. No scientist worthy of the name could say such a thing.

The lesson I was learning involved the idea that I could feel compassion for people without acting on it.

I say, if you're going to eat a creature alive, you have to expect some screaming. That is the carnivore's burden.

Meat is not agreeable to the wise: it has a nauseating odor, it causes a bad reputation, it is food for the carnivorous; I say this, Mahamati, it is not to be eaten.

What is it that should trace the insuperable line? ...The question is not, Can they reason? nor Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?

To consider this desirable would be to delight in the slaughter of men; and he who delights in the slaughter of men cannot get his will in the kingdom.

Understanding is often a prelude to forgiveness, but they are not the same, and we often forgive what we cannot understand (seeing nothing else to do) and understand what we cannot pardon.

No one really understands the grief or joy of another.

This is true even in organizations that are very focused on analysis and quantitative measurement, even among people who think of themselves as smart in an MBA sense. In highly successful change efforts, people find ways to help others see the problems or solutions in ways that influence emotions, not just thought.

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.

We're all human beings and we all have feelings. And we all live in this industrial meat grinder where we don't really understand love anymore.

Animals are nicer than humans and they're conscious beings. If you stick your grandmother in an oven, she will probably be tasty. But is that any reason to eat your grandmother?

It's possible that the priest and the Levite looked over that man on the ground and wondered if the robbers were still around. Or it's possible that they felt that the man on the ground was merely faking. And he was acting like he had been robbed and hurt, in order to seize them over there, lure them there for quick and easy seizure. And so the first question that the Levite asked was, "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?

Often people who are wonderful with animals aren't always terribly good with human beings.

Okay, here is the uplifting part: Your life isn't and has never been about you....about what you accomplish, how successful you are or are not, how much money you make, what sort of position you ascend to,...or how much good you do for others or the world at large. Your life, like mine, and like everyone else's has always been about one thing: love.