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To what absurdities of presumption the anthropocentric conception has paved the way is evident from the belief, once universally entertained, that the sun, moon, and stars were placed in the firmament with express reference to man, and exerted a benign or baleful influence upon his destiny from the cradle to the grave.

— Edward Payson Evans Evolutional Ethics and Animal Psychology (1898)

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More quotes by Edward Payson Evans

To the Hebrew decalogue and the Christian beatitudes must be added the first of Buddha's ten commandments:
Kill not for Pity's sake, nor dare to slay
The meanest creature on its upward way.

Evolutional Ethics and Animal Psychology (1898)

[I]f animals may be rendered liable to judicial punishment for injuries done to man, one would naturally infer that they should also enjoy legal protection against human cruelty.

Evolutional Ethics and Animal Psychology (1898)

"Do unto others as ye would that others should do unto you" is the golden rule; but far purer and more precious than gold is the injunction to do good without any reference to self, and to cultivate a morality that does not reflect the faintest tint, nor involve the slightest implication of self-love.

Evolutional Ethics and Animal Psychology (1898)

In the higher organisms the higher faculties predominate, and in the lower organisms the lower faculties: but in all of them, from the highest to the lowest, the action is the resultant of impulses of sensation, perception, conception, and thought variously combined and inextricably blended.

Evolutional Ethics and Animal Psychology (1898)

It is through the portal of spiritual kinship, erected by modern evolutional science, that beasts and birds [...] enter into the temple of justice and enjoy the privilege of sanctuary against the wanton or unwitting cruelty hitherto authorized by the assumptions and usurpations of man.

Evolutional Ethics and Animal Psychology (1898)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Edward Payson Evans (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.