{ "type": "topic", "site": { "name": "Leafy Quotes", "language": "en", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com" }, "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.", "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty", "heading": "Quotes about cruelty", "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty.json", "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty.md", "quotes_count": 108, "authors_count": 81, "parent": { "name": "evil", "slug": "evil", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil", "heading": "Quotes about evil" }, "children": [], "quotes": [ { "id": "bc0dde62-312f-4283-9d3d-53ab9d93ff0c", "slug": "they-were-his", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-london/white-fang/they-were-his", "text": "They were his environment, these men, and they were moulding the clay of him into a more ferocious thing than had been intended by Nature. Nevertheless, Nature had given him plasticity. Where many another animal would have died or had its spirit broken, he adjusted himself and lived, and at no expense of the spirit.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jack London", "slug": "jack-london", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-london" }, "book": { "title": "White Fang", "slug": "white-fang", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-london/white-fang" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "animals", "slug": "animals", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/animals" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/White_Fang#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:30" }, { "id": "7e20e546-6fff-460d-9492-8ca21fcaa8be", "slug": "the-hand-descended", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-london/white-fang/the-hand-descended", "text": "The hand descended. Nearer and nearer it came. It touched the ends of his upstanding hair. He shrank down under it. It followed down after him, pressing more closely against him. Shrinking, almost shivering. He still managed to hold himself together. It was a torment, this hand that touched him and violated his instinct. He could not forget in a day all the evil that had been wrought him at the hands of men.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jack London", "slug": "jack-london", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-london" }, "book": { "title": "White Fang", "slug": "white-fang", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-london/white-fang" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "animals", "slug": "animals", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/animals" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/White_Fang#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:30" }, { "id": "caa72eab-4801-4db9-b1ee-0da2e3614e39", "slug": "fierce-and-beautiful", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-g-finney/the-circus-of-dr-lao/fierce-and-beautiful", "text": "Fierce and beautiful hunters who, when they ease up on their vigilance find themselves converted into coats and collars.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles G. Finney", "slug": "charles-g-finney", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-g-finney" }, "book": { "title": "The Circus of Dr Lao", "slug": "the-circus-of-dr-lao", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-g-finney/the-circus-of-dr-lao" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 148, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "animals", "slug": "animals", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/animals" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_G._Finney#The_Circus_of_Dr._Lao_(1935)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:46" }, { "id": "63f6a554-824e-4bbb-a9ed-168bdf07c920", "slug": "one-who-can", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edgar-pangborn/good-neighbors-and-other-strangers/one-who-can", "text": "One who can define kindness only as the absence of cruelty has surely not begun to understand the nature of either.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edgar Pangborn", "slug": "edgar-pangborn", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edgar-pangborn" }, "book": { "title": "Good Neighbors and Other Strangers", "slug": "good-neighbors-and-other-strangers", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edgar-pangborn/good-neighbors-and-other-strangers" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 154, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "kindness", "slug": "kindness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/kindness" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edgar_Pangborn#Good_Neighbors_and_Other_Strangers_(1972)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:40" }, { "id": "06a273c9-f40d-44a7-8ea7-e78fdf7e05b0", "slug": "after-three-and", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edgar-pangborn/a-mirror-for-observers/after-three-and", "text": "After three and a half centuries I have found, for an empirical ethics, no better starting axiom than this: cruelty and evil are virtually synonyms. Human ethical teachers have insisted over the ages that a cruel act is an evil act, and men on the whole endorse the doctrine no matter how repeatedly they violate it. There is inevitable revulsion against any blatant attempt to make cruelty a law of behavior.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edgar Pangborn", "slug": "edgar-pangborn", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edgar-pangborn" }, "book": { "title": "A Mirror for Observers", "slug": "a-mirror-for-observers", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edgar-pangborn/a-mirror-for-observers" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 148, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "morality", "slug": "morality", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality" }, { "name": "evil", "slug": "evil", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edgar_Pangborn#A_Mirror_for_Observers_(1954)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:39" }, { "id": "7a4d2a92-d2ad-4f7f-9248-9a46e1aa7fb5", "slug": "something-is-broken", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass/something-is-broken", "text": "Something is broken when the food comes on a Styrofoam tray wrapped in slippery plastic, a carcass of a being whose only chance at life was a cramped cage. That is not a gift of life; it is a theft.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robin Wall Kimmerer", "slug": "robin-wall-kimmerer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer" }, "book": { "title": "Braiding Sweetgrass", "slug": "braiding-sweetgrass", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 31, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "animals", "slug": "animals", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/animals" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" }, { "name": "veganism", "slug": "veganism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/veganism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robin_Wall_Kimmerer#Braiding_Sweetgrass_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:30" }, { "id": "60e074d6-6a04-43bd-9742-3b60eca48df7", "slug": "if-ever-a-society", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/graham-hancock/magicians-of-the-gods/if-ever-a-society", "text": "If ever a society could be said to meet all the mythological criteria of the next lost civilization—a society that ticks all the boxes—is it not obvious that it is our own? Our pollution and neglect of the majestic garden of the earth, our rape of its resources, our abuse of the oceans and the rainforests, our fear, hatred and suspicion of one another multiplied by a hundred bitter regional and sectarian conflicts, our consistent track record of standing by and doing nothing while millions suffer, our ignorant, narrow-minded racism, our exclusivist religions, our forgetfulness that we are all brothers and sisters, our bellicose chauvinism, the dreadful cruelties that we indulge in, in the name of nation, or faith, or simple greed, our obsessive, competitive, ego-driven production and consumption of material goods and the growing conviction of many, fuelled by the triumphs of materialist science, that matter is all there is—that there is no such thing as spirit, that we are just accidents of chemistry and biology—all these things, and many more, in mythological terms at least, do not look good for us.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Graham Hancock", "slug": "graham-hancock", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/graham-hancock" }, "book": { "title": "Magicians of the Gods", "slug": "magicians-of-the-gods", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/graham-hancock/magicians-of-the-gods" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "ecology", "slug": "ecology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology" }, { "name": "civilization", "slug": "civilization", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/civilization" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Graham_Hancock#Magicians_of_the_Gods:_The_Forgotten_Wisdom_of_Earth's_Lost_Civilization_(2015)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:27" }, { "id": "81ae9da4-0a1a-4be1-99c5-1aec46e75a54", "slug": "i-suppose-its", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jon-ronson/so-youve-been-publicly-shamed/i-suppose-its", "text": "I suppose it's no surprise that we feel the need to dehumanize the people we hurt—before, during, or after the hurting occurs. But it always comes as a surprise. In psychology it's known as cognitive dissonance. It's the idea that it feels stressful and painful for us to hold two contradictory ideas at the same time (like the idea that we're kind people and the idea that we've just destroyed someone). And so to ease the pain we create illusory ways to justify our contradictory behavior.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jon Ronson", "slug": "jon-ronson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jon-ronson" }, "book": { "title": "So You've Been Publicly Shamed", "slug": "so-youve-been-publicly-shamed", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jon-ronson/so-youve-been-publicly-shamed" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 81, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" }, { "name": "self-deception", "slug": "self-deception-2", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/self-deception-2" }, { "name": "psychology", "slug": "psychology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/psychology" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jon_Ronson#So_You've_Been_Publicly_Shamed_(2015)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:38" }, { "id": "1d3bf52f-80cd-483b-9b69-f2cb16c6d034", "slug": "we-see-our", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/irwin-shaw/the-young-lions/we-see-our", "text": "We see our cities crumble under the enemy’s bombs, and we mourn for our children struck at their early tasks by the enemy’s bullets, and we strike back, cruelly and wildly, from the seabed of our hatred, at his cities and his children. The enemy is more savage than the tiger, hungrier than the shark, crueler than the wolf; in honor and in defense of our moderate way of life, we stand up to him and combat him, but in doing so we out-tiger him, out-shark the shark, over-wolf the wolf. Will we at the end of all this then pretend to ourselves that the victory is ours? The thing we defend perishes from our victory as it would never perish from our defeat.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Irwin Shaw", "slug": "irwin-shaw", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/irwin-shaw" }, "book": { "title": "The Young Lions", "slug": "the-young-lions", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/irwin-shaw/the-young-lions" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "hatred", "slug": "hatred", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hatred" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Irwin_Shaw#The_Young_Lions_(1948)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:26" }, { "id": "c331c770-956d-462d-b66b-0069b7d3e273", "slug": "i-am-a-pragmatist", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-tregillis/the-liberation/i-am-a-pragmatist", "text": "I am a pragmatist, said Mab. I do what must be done to make a better world. “Oh, I’m sure you tell yourself that. But so does the woman who tortured Lilith. You sound exactly like her, in fact. The difference is that Berenice actually means it. She doesn’t use the pretense to justify her cruelty.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ian Tregillis", "slug": "ian-tregillis", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-tregillis" }, "book": { "title": "The Liberation", "slug": "the-liberation", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-tregillis/the-liberation" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "hypocrisy", "slug": "hypocrisy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hypocrisy" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ian_Tregillis#The_Liberation_(2016)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:19" }, { "id": "b9bc0fea-f47c-4c18-b52a-3f5870d7a881", "slug": "heartlessness-wasnt-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-tregillis/the-mechanical/heartlessness-wasnt-the", "text": "Heartlessness wasn’t the sole province of the rich.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ian Tregillis", "slug": "ian-tregillis", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-tregillis" }, "book": { "title": "The Mechanical", "slug": "the-mechanical", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-tregillis/the-mechanical" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "wealth", "slug": "wealth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/wealth" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ian_Tregillis#The_Mechanical_(2015)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:18" }, { "id": "baada5aa-8ada-44b1-a52c-6b595acda2d1", "slug": "its-all-pretty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/plan-for-chaos/its-all-pretty", "text": "It's all pretty simple if you don't give a damn who gets hurt in the rush.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Wyndham", "slug": "john-wyndham", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham" }, "book": { "title": "Plan for Chaos", "slug": "plan-for-chaos", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/plan-for-chaos" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 11, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "selfishness", "slug": "selfishness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/selfishness" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Wyndham#Plan_for_Chaos_(2009)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:06" }, { "id": "ea10d0b9-63ac-4f22-8d7d-eadd0d55ca6c", "slug": "cruelty-is-as-old", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/the-midwich-cuckoos/cruelty-is-as-old", "text": "'Cruelty is as old as life itself.'", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Wyndham", "slug": "john-wyndham", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham" }, "book": { "title": "The Midwich Cuckoos", "slug": "the-midwich-cuckoos", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/the-midwich-cuckoos" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 200, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Wyndham#The_Midwich_Cuckoos_(1957)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:04" }, { "id": "9b1244ec-29da-48a8-83ac-afa8915f525b", "slug": "i-wonder-if-a-sillier", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/the-midwich-cuckoos/i-wonder-if-a-sillier", "text": "'I wonder if a sillier and more ignorant catachresis than \"Mother Nature\" was ever perpetrated? It is because Nature is ruthless, hideous, and cruel beyond belief that it was necessary to invent civilisation. One thinks of wild animals as savage, but the fiercest of them begins to look almost domesticated when one considers the viciousness required of a survivor in the sea; as for the insects, their lives are sustained only by intricate processes of fantastic horror. There is no conception more fallacious than the sense of cosiness implied by \"Mother Nature\". Each species must strive to survive, and that it will do, by every means in its power, however foul — unless the instinct to survive is weakened by conflict with another instinct.'", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Wyndham", "slug": "john-wyndham", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham" }, "book": { "title": "The Midwich Cuckoos", "slug": "the-midwich-cuckoos", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/the-midwich-cuckoos" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 112, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "nature", "slug": "nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature" }, { "name": "civilization", "slug": "civilization", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/civilization" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Wyndham#The_Midwich_Cuckoos_(1957)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:04" }, { "id": "e044f1fa-05f9-481c-993e-c7f27f847c09", "slug": "nnaife-did-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/buchi-emecheta/the-joys-of-motherhood/nnaife-did-not", "text": "Nnaife did not realise that Dr Meers's laughter was inspired by that type of wickedness that reduces any man, white or black, intelligent or not, to a new low; lower than the basest of animals, for animals at least respected each other's feelings, each other's dignity.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Buchi Emecheta", "slug": "buchi-emecheta", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/buchi-emecheta" }, "book": { "title": "The Joys of Motherhood", "slug": "the-joys-of-motherhood", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/buchi-emecheta/the-joys-of-motherhood" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "animals", "slug": "animals", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/animals" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" }, { "name": "dignity", "slug": "dignity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dignity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Buchi_Emecheta#The_Joys_of_Motherhood_(1979)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:52" }, { "id": "b89ba052-3b24-46c1-856b-48c0f0effe2b", "slug": "it-was-night", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-prince/the-history-of-mary-prince/it-was-night", "text": "It was night when I reached my new home. The house was large and built at the bottom of a very high hill; but I could not see much of it that night. I saw too much of it afterward. The stones and the timber were the best things in it; they were not so hard as the hearts of the owners.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Mary Prince", "slug": "mary-prince", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-prince" }, "book": { "title": "The History of Mary Prince", "slug": "the-history-of-mary-prince", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-prince/the-history-of-mary-prince" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 5, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "slavery", "slug": "slavery", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/slavery" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mary_Prince#The_History_of_Mary_Prince_(1831)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:36" }, { "id": "49da597c-5fbb-4c97-8000-19d6cd8fe961", "slug": "cruelty-walked-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/brent-weeks/the-way-of-shadows/cruelty-walked-the", "text": "Cruelty walked the Warrens holding hands with poverty and rage.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Brent Weeks", "slug": "brent-weeks", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/brent-weeks" }, "book": { "title": "The Way Of Shadows", "slug": "the-way-of-shadows", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/brent-weeks/the-way-of-shadows" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 30, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "poverty", "slug": "poverty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/poverty" }, { "name": "anger", "slug": "anger", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/anger" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brent_Weeks#The_Way_of_Shadows_(2008)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:27" }, { "id": "aae42857-5704-40e3-a041-84517fc66c95", "slug": "my-doctrine-is-this", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anna-sewell/black-beauty/my-doctrine-is-this", "text": "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.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Anna Sewell", "slug": "anna-sewell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anna-sewell" }, "book": { "title": "Black Beauty", "slug": "black-beauty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anna-sewell/black-beauty" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 192, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "responsibility", "slug": "responsibility", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/responsibility" }, { "name": "guilt", "slug": "guilt", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/guilt" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" }, { "name": "indifference", "slug": "indifference", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/indifference" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anna_Sewell#Black_Beauty_(1877)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:13" }, { "id": "0e506fa9-d093-40ee-ad81-a66c3cbf1f7e", "slug": "cruelty-to-animals", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/victoria-moran/main-street-vegan/cruelty-to-animals", "text": "Cruelty to animals is an enormous injustice; so is expecting those on the lowest rung of the economic ladder to do the dangerous, soul-numbing work of slaughtering sentient beings on our behalf.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Victoria Moran", "slug": "victoria-moran", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/victoria-moran" }, "book": { "title": "Main Street Vegan", "slug": "main-street-vegan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/victoria-moran/main-street-vegan" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "animals", "slug": "animals", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/animals" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" }, { "name": "veganism", "slug": "veganism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/veganism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Victoria_Moran#Main_Street_Vegan_(2012)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:42" }, { "id": "16ceaab1-016a-4421-8e94-96b4ffe362d3", "slug": "humanity-is-best", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/pat-conroy/south-of-broad/humanity-is-best", "text": "Humanity is best described as inhumanity.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Pat Conroy", "slug": "pat-conroy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/pat-conroy" }, "book": { "title": "South of Broad", "slug": "south-of-broad", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/pat-conroy/south-of-broad" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 486, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "human nature", "slug": "human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pat_Conroy#South_of_Broad_(2009)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:34" }, { "id": "4159746d-c3c9-40bf-b0c5-2b540559c549", "slug": "i-dont-know", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-cormier/the-chocolate-war/i-dont-know", "text": "\"I don't know how you do it, Archie,\" Carter was forced to admit. \"Simple, Carter, simple.\" Archie reveled in the moment, basking in Carter's admiration, Carter who had humiliated him at The Vigils meeting. Someday he'd get even with Carter but at the moment it was satisfying enough to have Carter regarding him with awe and envy. \"You see, Carter, people are two things: greedy and cruel. So we have a perfect setup here. The greed part- a kid pays a buck for a chance to win a hundred. Plus fifty bucks of chocolates. The cruel part- watching two guys hitting each other, while they're safe in the bleachers. That's why it works, Carter, because we're all bastards.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert Cormier", "slug": "robert-cormier", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-cormier" }, "book": { "title": "The Chocolate War", "slug": "the-chocolate-war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-cormier/the-chocolate-war" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 241, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "greed", "slug": "greed", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/greed" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Cormier#The_Chocolate_War_(1974)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:23" }, { "id": "a78abc3e-7d5d-4f06-8014-c265e90dc5a6", "slug": "he-could-hear", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/leigh-brackett/the-long-tomorrow/he-could-hear", "text": "He could hear Pa’s voice saying, “A man’s religion, his sect, is his own affair. But those people have no religion or sect. They’re a mob, with a mob’s fear and cruelty, and with half-crazy, cunning men stirring them up against others.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Leigh Brackett", "slug": "leigh-brackett", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/leigh-brackett" }, "book": { "title": "The Long Tomorrow", "slug": "the-long-tomorrow", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/leigh-brackett/the-long-tomorrow" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" }, { "name": "crowd", "slug": "crowd", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/crowd" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Leigh_Brackett#The_Long_Tomorrow_(1955)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:21" }, { "id": "6bd93859-08f8-42f2-87ee-24bb343adfe8", "slug": "i-think-as-with", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/pierce-brown/dark-age/i-think-as-with", "text": "I think, as with all things, honor is best appreciated in moderation. As is cruelty.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Pierce Brown", "slug": "pierce-brown", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/pierce-brown" }, "book": { "title": "Dark Age", "slug": "dark-age", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/pierce-brown/dark-age" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" }, { "name": "honour", "slug": "honour", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/honour" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pierce_Brown#Dark_Age_(2019)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:00" }, { "id": "3104c1b3-b842-433c-bfd6-e7bfa993e0d5", "slug": "barbaritys-everywhere-thats", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-howatch/the-wheel-of-fortune/barbaritys-everywhere-thats", "text": "'Barbarity's everywhere, that's the truth of it. Absolutely anyone is capable of absolutely anything.' 'My dear Papa, I had no idea you were such a cynic!' 'That's not cynicism, that's honesty — as you well know, dealing with criminals as you do, seeing the human race continually at its worst.'", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Susan Howatch", "slug": "susan-howatch", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-howatch" }, "book": { "title": "The Wheel Of Fortune", "slug": "the-wheel-of-fortune", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-howatch/the-wheel-of-fortune" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "human nature", "slug": "human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature" }, { "name": "honesty", "slug": "honesty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/honesty" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Susan_Howatch#Part_1:_Robert", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:45" }, { "id": "f5f803a3-3a04-40fa-9c35-5421d0cdea26", "slug": "and-even-if-what", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/redemption-ark/and-even-if-what", "text": "And even if what they showed you is true, that doesn’t begin to make it right. The cause might be just, Felka, but history’s littered with atrocities committed in the name of righteousness.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Alastair Reynolds", "slug": "alastair-reynolds", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds" }, "book": { "title": "Redemption Ark", "slug": "redemption-ark", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/redemption-ark" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 662, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "justice", "slug": "justice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/justice" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alastair_Reynolds#Redemption_Ark_(2002)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:38" }, { "id": "94f4fe1c-c15e-4d55-b887-c9dca64aa458", "slug": "men-are-excessively", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-johnson/modern-times/men-are-excessively", "text": "Men are excessively ruthless and cruel not as a rule out of malice but from outraged righteousness. How much more is this true of legally constituted states, invested with all this seeming moral authority of parliaments and congresses and courts of justice! The destructive capacity of an individual, however vicious, is small; of the state, however well-intentioned, almost limitless. Expand the state and the destructive capacity necessarily expands too. Collective righteousness is far more ungovernable than any individual pursuit of revenge. That was a point well understood by Woodrow Wilson, who warned: 'Once lead this people into war and they'll forget there ever was such a thing as tolerance.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Paul Johnson", "slug": "paul-johnson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-johnson" }, "book": { "title": "Modern Times", "slug": "modern-times", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-johnson/modern-times" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "power", "slug": "power", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paul_Johnson#Modern_Times:_A_History_of_the_World_from_the_1920s_to_the_1980s_(1983)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:28" }, { "id": "a8b27764-a391-4a43-bfeb-0c6b7efd7032", "slug": "a-man-hunted", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tanith-lee/the-storm-lord/a-man-hunted", "text": "A man hunted only for food or clothing or in self-defense. It was another mark of the effete and the sadistic to take life as a sport.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Tanith Lee", "slug": "tanith-lee", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tanith-lee" }, "book": { "title": "The Storm Lord", "slug": "the-storm-lord", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tanith-lee/the-storm-lord" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 155, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "animals", "slug": "animals", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/animals" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" }, { "name": "veganism", "slug": "veganism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/veganism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tanith_Lee#The_Storm_Lord_(1976)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:18" }, { "id": "b9a333d9-f59d-45a2-a6e3-ab83949a4346", "slug": "children-who-have", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens/god-is-not-great/children-who-have", "text": "Children who have felt cruelty know very well how to inflict it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Christopher Hitchens", "slug": "christopher-hitchens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens" }, "book": { "title": "God Is Not Great", "slug": "god-is-not-great", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens/god-is-not-great" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 188, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "children", "slug": "children", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/children" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/God_Is_Not_Great#Chapter_Thirteen:_Does_Religion_Make_People_Behave_Better%3F", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:44" }, { "id": "66187ec1-1135-48ef-9bba-dda867ef69e8", "slug": "war-has-its", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/margaret-macmillan/war-how-conflict-shaped-us/war-has-its", "text": "War has its own laws and one of the oldest and most persistent is that those who have surrendered and civilians, where possible, should be spared. Yet we all know the stories or have seen pictures of the sacking of cities, the execution of prisoners of war, the shelling of churches filled with refugees, or the farm buildings deliberately set on fire, and we remember names such as Oradour or Wounded Knee or Nanjing. For any American who lived through the Vietnam War the incident at My Lai, when a representative group of ordinary American soldiers rampaged through a village, has come to represent the barbarism of much of that war. (The Vietnamese forces committed their own atrocities, but Vietnam has been slow to come to terms with them.) In 1968 American reporters in the country started to hear stories about the murder in cold blood of some 500 villagers, of all ages, by an American patrol. One courageous helicopter pilot who was there did his best to save the Vietnamese and later filed a report with his superiors, who did nothing.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Margaret MacMillan", "slug": "margaret-macmillan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/margaret-macmillan" }, "book": { "title": "War: How Conflict Shaped Us", "slug": "war-how-conflict-shaped-us", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/margaret-macmillan/war-how-conflict-shaped-us" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Margaret_MacMillan#War:_How_Conflict_Shaped_Us_(2020)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:59" }, { "id": "cba9deb7-8e68-409e-917a-4e8a5548949a", "slug": "justice-i-remember", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-feast-for-crows/justice-i-remember", "text": "Justice. I remember justice. It had a pleasant taste. Justice was what we were about when Beric led us, or so we told ourselves. We were king’s men, knights, and heroes... but some knights are dark and full of terrors, my lady. War makes monsters of us all.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George RR Martin", "slug": "george-rr-martin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin" }, "book": { "title": "A Feast for Crows", "slug": "a-feast-for-crows", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-feast-for-crows" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "justice", "slug": "justice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/justice" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire#A_Feast_for_Crows_(2005)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:53" }, { "id": "88aa365e-6e1f-4a4a-8eff-a2fb7994d3d7", "slug": "it-is-better", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-clash-of-kings/it-is-better", "text": "It is better to be seen as cruel than foolish.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George RR Martin", "slug": "george-rr-martin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin" }, "book": { "title": "A Clash of Kings", "slug": "a-clash-of-kings", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-clash-of-kings" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "power", "slug": "power", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power" }, { "name": "stupidity", "slug": "stupidity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stupidity" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire#A_Clash_of_Kings_(1999)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:48" }, { "id": "48e507fe-e815-4717-9be9-16e42d59298d", "slug": "cruel-lands-breed", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-clash-of-kings/cruel-lands-breed", "text": "Cruel lands breed cruel peoples.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George RR Martin", "slug": "george-rr-martin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin" }, "book": { "title": "A Clash of Kings", "slug": "a-clash-of-kings", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-clash-of-kings" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire#A_Clash_of_Kings_(1999)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:48" }, { "id": "23615cf6-1ccb-4d55-ad23-47bf02f1da78", "slug": "only-the-creatures", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cooper/the-grey-king/only-the-creatures", "text": "Only the creatures of the earth take from one another, boy. All creatures, but men more than any. Life they take, and liberty, and all that another man may have—sometimes through greed, sometimes through stupidity, but never by any volition but their own. Beware your own race, Bran Davies—they are the only ones who will ever harm you, in the end.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Susan Cooper", "slug": "susan-cooper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cooper" }, "book": { "title": "The Grey King", "slug": "the-grey-king", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cooper/the-grey-king" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 71, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "human nature", "slug": "human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature" }, { "name": "greed", "slug": "greed", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/greed" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Susan_Cooper#The_Grey_King_(1975)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:42" }, { "id": "36329c0f-db5d-4455-8e77-d52632a6b73b", "slug": "no-one-would", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shaun-ellis/the-man-who-lives-with-wolves/no-one-would", "text": "No one would listen to me when I tried to protest that foxhunting was cruel. And as a young boy it was hard to argue with my elders about being disrespectful, but it seemed to me that if you didn't want foxes to get into your henhouse, then you needed to build an enclosure that was foxproof. It seemed totally unjust to set foxhounds to kill foxes because human beings were too lazy to take proper care of their chickens. Whenever I tried to speak to anyone about it, I was told to mind my manners, what did I know? I was just a child. It was years before I was vindicated and foxhunting was banned in England and Wales. During the debate that raged beforehand, I was involved in researching the effect hunting had on the fox. The prohunting lobby said that they only caught old and sick animals, but that was simply not true. I examined foxes that had been caught and among them were carcasses of eighteen-month-old foxes - animals in the prime of life - too young to know how to save themselves. Another myth was that the lead dog brought down the fox and it was all over in seconds with a single bite. The truth was they ran the fox to exhaustion until its brain boiled and swelled, its lungs bled, and the fox drowned in its own blood. They were often dead before the hounds even touched them. It was the most horrific death.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Shaun Ellis", "slug": "shaun-ellis", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shaun-ellis" }, "book": { "title": "The Man Who Lives with Wolves", "slug": "the-man-who-lives-with-wolves", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shaun-ellis/the-man-who-lives-with-wolves" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "animals", "slug": "animals", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/animals" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" }, { "name": "veganism", "slug": "veganism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/veganism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Shaun_Ellis#The_Man_who_lives_with_Wolves_(2010)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:39" }, { "id": "17d36f3c-735d-451a-8422-0d79ec31b51b", "slug": "is-it-he-quoth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-taylor-coleridge/the-rime-of-the-ancient-mariner/is-it-he-quoth", "text": "'Is it he?' quoth one, 'Is this the man?' By him who died on the cross, With his cruel bow he laid full low The harmless Albatross", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Samuel Taylor Coleridge", "slug": "samuel-taylor-coleridge", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-taylor-coleridge" }, "book": { "title": "The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner", "slug": "the-rime-of-the-ancient-mariner", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-taylor-coleridge/the-rime-of-the-ancient-mariner" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "animals", "slug": "animals", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/animals" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" }, { "name": "veganism", "slug": "veganism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/veganism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Rime_of_the_Ancient_Mariner#Part_V", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:34" }, { "id": "f10ba4c4-8e46-41af-8915-b15af91305ef", "slug": "i-remember-a-tutor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-gemmell/the-king-beyond-the-gate/i-remember-a-tutor", "text": "I remember a tutor who told me that all the world's hunters have eyes that faced front: lions, hawks, wolves, men ... He said man was no different from the tiger. We are nature's killers, and we have great appetites for it ... Listen, Rayvan, the beast is in all of us. We do our best in life, but often we are mean, or petty, or needlessly cruel. We don't mean to be, but that's the way we are.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "David Gemmell", "slug": "david-gemmell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-gemmell" }, "book": { "title": "The King Beyond the Gate", "slug": "the-king-beyond-the-gate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-gemmell/the-king-beyond-the-gate" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "human nature", "slug": "human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Gemmell#The_King_Beyond_the_Gate", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:54" }, { "id": "94d9bf35-b349-46c1-b3ad-be93440f014a", "slug": "i-dont-know", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-ames/going-postal/i-dont-know", "text": "I don't know a single useful lesson that I or anyone else ever learned from getting bullied- it only brought shame and debilitating memories. Getting bullied always leads you to wrong decisions and wrong conclusions. You compensate in all the wrong ways. You wind up looking for someone weaker to bully yourself, you lose confidence and hate your weakness, and you fear and distrust the wrong people, all of which are reasons why bullied kids overwhelmingly wind up as failures in the real world, according to recent studies. You have to have never been bullied to think that it teaches something valuable and necessary and makes you a stronger person. Dr. Tonja Nansel, who worked on a 1998 World Health Organization survey on Health Behavior in School-Aged Children, showed that both bullies and the bullied develop far greater problems later on in life- bullied kids particularly have difficulties making friends, and suffer from lifelong loneliness.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Mark Ames", "slug": "mark-ames", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-ames" }, "book": { "title": "Going Postal", "slug": "going-postal", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-ames/going-postal" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 192, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "children", "slug": "children", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/children" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mark_Ames#Going_Postal:_Rage,_Murder,_and_Rebellion,_From_Reagan's_Workplaces_to_Clinton's_Columbine_and_Beyond_(2005)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:36" }, { "id": "cda23458-da79-4dfc-9611-e16210ea8d5e", "slug": "as-my-mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joanna-russ/the-female-man/as-my-mother", "text": "As my mother once said: The boys throw stones at the frogs in jest. But the frogs die in earnest.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Joanna Russ", "slug": "joanna-russ", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joanna-russ" }, "book": { "title": "The Female Man", "slug": "the-female-man", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joanna-russ/the-female-man" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 196, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joanna_Russ#The_Female_Man_(1975)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:33" }, { "id": "452bc599-e04a-4c53-baab-c5d5e1c69b56", "slug": "cruelty-never-helped", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/patrick-rothfuss/the-slow-regard-of-silent-things/cruelty-never-helped", "text": "Cruelty never helped the turning of the world.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Patrick Rothfuss", "slug": "patrick-rothfuss", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/patrick-rothfuss" }, "book": { "title": "The Slow Regard of Silent Things", "slug": "the-slow-regard-of-silent-things", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/patrick-rothfuss/the-slow-regard-of-silent-things" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 94, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Patrick_Rothfuss#The_Slow_Regard_of_Silent_Things_(2014)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:09" }, { "id": "64cd10ef-dbf6-4792-98ff-54657994a95e", "slug": "i-am-sick", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/imre-kertesz/detective-story/i-am-sick", "text": "I am sick of atrocities, though these are now the natural order of our world. And I would still like to act!", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Imre Kertész", "slug": "imre-kertesz", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/imre-kertesz" }, "book": { "title": "Detective Story", "slug": "detective-story", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/imre-kertesz/detective-story" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 37, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "taking action", "slug": "taking-action", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/taking-action" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Imre_Kert%C3%A9sz#Detective_Story_(2008)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:30" }, { "id": "cb4d35df-4a59-4b55-998d-60a652393d27", "slug": "tis-only-man", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bernard-mandeville/the-fable-of-the-bees/tis-only-man", "text": "'Tis only Man, mischievous Man, that can make Death a Sport. Nature taught your Stomach to crave nothing but Vegetables; but your violent Fondness to change, and greater Eagerness after Novelties, have prompted you to the Destruction of Animals without Justice or Necessity, perverted your Nature and warp'd your Appetites which way soever your Pride or Luxury have call'd them.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Bernard Mandeville", "slug": "bernard-mandeville", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bernard-mandeville" }, "book": { "title": "The Fable of the Bees", "slug": "the-fable-of-the-bees", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bernard-mandeville/the-fable-of-the-bees" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 193, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "animals", "slug": "animals", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/animals" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" }, { "name": "veganism", "slug": "veganism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/veganism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bernard_Mandeville#The_Fable_of_the_Bees_(1714)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:27" }, { "id": "9bc1ef12-eb80-4ad7-ad4f-f803db491fa7", "slug": "but-in-such", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bernard-mandeville/the-fable-of-the-bees/but-in-such", "text": "But in such perfect Animals as Sheep and Oxen, in whom the Heart, the Brain and Nerves differ so little from ours, and in whom the Separation of the Spirits from the Blood, the Organs of Sense, and consequently Feeling it self, are the same as they are in Human Creatures; I can't imagine how a Man not hardened in Blood and Massacre, is able to see a violent Death, and the Pangs of it, without Concern. In answer to this, most People will think it sufficient to say, that all Things being allow'd to be made for the Service of Man, there can be no Cruelty in putting Creatures to the use they were design'd for; but I have heard Men make this Reply, whilst their Nature within them has reproach'd them with the Falshood of the Assertion.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Bernard Mandeville", "slug": "bernard-mandeville", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bernard-mandeville" }, "book": { "title": "The Fable of the Bees", "slug": "the-fable-of-the-bees", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bernard-mandeville/the-fable-of-the-bees" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 187, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "animals", "slug": "animals", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/animals" }, { "name": "empathy", "slug": "empathy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/empathy" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" }, { "name": "veganism", "slug": "veganism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/veganism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bernard_Mandeville#The_Fable_of_the_Bees_(1714)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:27" }, { "id": "02d9b23e-2099-49bf-a996-a8d635d9040b", "slug": "we-cannot-trample", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chinua-achebe/the-education-of-a-british-protected-child/we-cannot-trample", "text": "We cannot trample upon the humanity of others without devaluing our own. The Igbo, always practical, put it concretely in their proverb Onye ji onye n'ani ji onwe ya: \"He who will hold another down in the mud must stay in the mud to keep him down.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Chinua Achebe", "slug": "chinua-achebe", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chinua-achebe" }, "book": { "title": "The Education of a British-Protected Child", "slug": "the-education-of-a-british-protected-child", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chinua-achebe/the-education-of-a-british-protected-child" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" }, { "name": "dignity", "slug": "dignity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dignity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Chinua_Achebe#The_Education_of_a_British-Protected_Child_(2009)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:57" }, { "id": "bc7693de-4744-42ae-ac16-f8b4c75a569f", "slug": "when-men-unnaturally", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-childs-history-of-england/when-men-unnaturally", "text": "When men unnaturally fight against their own countrymen, they are always observed to be more unnaturally cruel and filled with rage than they are against any other enemy.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Dickens", "slug": "charles-dickens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens" }, "book": { "title": "A Child's History of England", "slug": "a-childs-history-of-england", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-childs-history-of-england" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Child's_History_of_England#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:53" }, { "id": "91b7e404-9713-42e7-a391-b63295a81afb", "slug": "one-thing-underpins", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-singer/animal-liberation/one-thing-underpins", "text": "[One thing] underpins, makes consistent, and gives meaning to all our other activities on behalf of animals. This one thing is that we take responsibility for our own lives, and make them as free of cruelty as we can. The first step is that we cease to eat animals. Many people who are opposed to cruelty to animals draw the line at becoming a vegetarian. It was of such people that Oliver Goldsmith, the eighteenth-century humanitarian essayist, wrote: \"They pity, and they eat the objects of their compassion.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Peter Singer", "slug": "peter-singer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-singer" }, "book": { "title": "Animal Liberation", "slug": "animal-liberation", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-singer/animal-liberation" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "animals", "slug": "animals", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/animals" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" }, { "name": "vegetarianism", "slug": "vegetarianism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/vegetarianism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Peter_Singer#Animal_Liberation:_A_New_Ethics_for_our_Treatment_of_Animals_(1975)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:14" }, { "id": "c7058062-96f9-456f-8e4c-0a063b60642b", "slug": "tarzan-of-the-apes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edgar-rice-burroughs/tarzan-of-the-apes/tarzan-of-the-apes", "text": "Tarzan of the Apes was no sentimentalist. He knew nothing of the brotherhood of man. All things outside his own tribe were his deadly enemies, with the few exceptions of which Tantor, the elephant, was a marked example. And he realized all this without malice or hatred. To kill was the law of the wild world he knew. Few were his primitive pleasures, but the greatest of these was to hunt and kill, and so he accorded to others the right to cherish the same desires as he, even though he himself might be the object of their hunt. His strange life had left him neither morose nor bloodthirsty. That he joyed in killing, and that he killed with a joyous laugh upon his handsome lips betokened no innate cruelty. He killed for food most often, but, being a man, he sometimes killed for pleasure, a thing which no other animal does; for it has remained for man alone among all creatures to kill senselessly and wantonly for the mere pleasure of inflicting suffering and death. And when he killed for revenge, or in self-defense, he did that also without hysteria, for it was a very businesslike proceeding which admitted of no levity.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edgar Rice Burroughs", "slug": "edgar-rice-burroughs", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edgar-rice-burroughs" }, "book": { "title": "Tarzan of the Apes", "slug": "tarzan-of-the-apes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edgar-rice-burroughs/tarzan-of-the-apes" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "human nature", "slug": "human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature" }, { "name": "nature", "slug": "nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edgar_Rice_Burroughs#Tarzan_of_the_Apes_(1912)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:40" }, { "id": "24e23516-8058-4816-88c3-482da21a577b", "slug": "tarzan-of-the-apes-young", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edgar-rice-burroughs/tarzan-of-the-apes/tarzan-of-the-apes-young", "text": "Tarzan of the Apes, young and savage beast of the jungle, wondered at the cruel brutality of his own kind. Sheeta, the leopard, alone of all the jungle folk, tortured his prey. The ethics of all the others meted a quick and merciful death to their victims. Tarzan had learned from his books but scattered fragments of the ways of human beings.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edgar Rice Burroughs", "slug": "edgar-rice-burroughs", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edgar-rice-burroughs" }, "book": { "title": "Tarzan of the Apes", "slug": "tarzan-of-the-apes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edgar-rice-burroughs/tarzan-of-the-apes" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "human nature", "slug": "human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edgar_Rice_Burroughs#Tarzan_of_the_Apes_(1912)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:40" }, { "id": "005823b8-9840-4d37-8d9d-397ae89cf8d1", "slug": "people-geralt-turned", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/andrzej-sapkowski/the-last-wish/people-geralt-turned", "text": "“People,\" Geralt turned his head, \"like to invent monsters and monstrosities. Then they seem less monstrous themselves. When they get blind-drunk, cheat, steal, beat their wives, starve an old woman, when they kill a trapped fox with an axe or riddle the last existing unicorn with arrows, they like to think that the Bane entering cottages at daybreak is more monstrous than they are. They feel better then. They find it easier to live.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Andrzej Sapkowski", "slug": "andrzej-sapkowski", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/andrzej-sapkowski" }, "book": { "title": "The Last Wish", "slug": "the-last-wish", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/andrzej-sapkowski/the-last-wish" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "evil", "slug": "evil", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil" }, { "name": "hypocrisy", "slug": "hypocrisy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hypocrisy" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Andrzej_Sapkowski#The_Last_Wish_(1993)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:38" }, { "id": "63e185a3-a3ae-4e2e-b3fc-e7d684e963fd", "slug": "if-your-wife", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anne-bronte/the-tenant-of-wildfell-hall/if-your-wife", "text": "If your wife gives you her heart, you must take it, thankfully, and use it well, and not pull it in pieces, and laugh in her face, because she cannot snatch it away.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Anne Brontë", "slug": "anne-bronte", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anne-bronte" }, "book": { "title": "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall", "slug": "the-tenant-of-wildfell-hall", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anne-bronte/the-tenant-of-wildfell-hall" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "love", "slug": "love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love" }, { "name": "marriage", "slug": "marriage", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/marriage" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anne_Bront%C3%AB#The_Tenant_of_Wildfell_Hall_(1848)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:28" }, { "id": "b7061d06-0e8a-43bb-a146-a84f31bd5574", "slug": "cruelty-is-a-kind", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts/shantaram/cruelty-is-a-kind", "text": "Cruelty is a kind of cowardice. Cruel laughter is the way cowards cry they are not alone, and causing pain is how they grieve.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Gregory David Roberts", "slug": "gregory-david-roberts", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts" }, "book": { "title": "Shantaram", "slug": "shantaram", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts/shantaram" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" }, { "name": "cowardice", "slug": "cowardice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cowardice" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Shantaram#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:21" }, { "id": "0aa5463d-6a60-42eb-9125-074275fb1d85", "slug": "theres-no-meanness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts/shantaram/theres-no-meanness", "text": "There’s no meanness too spiteful or too cruel, when we hate someone for all the wrong reasons.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Gregory David Roberts", "slug": "gregory-david-roberts", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts" }, "book": { "title": "Shantaram", "slug": "shantaram", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts/shantaram" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "hatred", "slug": "hatred", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hatred" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Shantaram#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:20" }, { "id": "a4f7d6cb-2f04-449e-8a7f-647bd0a58a39", "slug": "people-dont-get", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king/carrie/people-dont-get", "text": "People don't get better, they just get smarter. When you get smarter you don't stop pulling the wings off flies, you just think of better reasons for doing it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Stephen King", "slug": "stephen-king", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king" }, "book": { "title": "Carrie", "slug": "carrie", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king/carrie" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "intelligence", "slug": "intelligence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/intelligence" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carrie_(novel)#Part_2:_Prom_Night", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:51" }, { "id": "7d1de2e9-9880-4a5d-9d8c-238acfdeb211", "slug": "did-any-of-you", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king/carrie/did-any-of-you", "text": "Did any of you stop to think that Carrie White has feelings? Do any of you ever stop to think? Sue? Fern? Helen? Jessica? Any of you? You think she's ugly. Well, you're all ugly.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Stephen King", "slug": "stephen-king", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king" }, "book": { "title": "Carrie", "slug": "carrie", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king/carrie" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 77, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" }, { "name": "appearance", "slug": "appearance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/appearance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carrie_(novel)#Part_1:_Blood_Sport", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:51" }, { "id": "f30b14df-e8ca-49ff-bdc2-b9898f0f66bd", "slug": "parents-are-indeed", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alice-miller/breaking-down-the-wall-of-silence/parents-are-indeed", "text": "Parents are indeed capable of routinely torturing their children without anyone interceding.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Alice Miller", "slug": "alice-miller", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alice-miller" }, "book": { "title": "Breaking Down The Wall Of Silence", "slug": "breaking-down-the-wall-of-silence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alice-miller/breaking-down-the-wall-of-silence" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "children", "slug": "children", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/children" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alice_Miller_(psychologist)#Breaking_Down_the_Wall_of_Silence_(1991)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:46" }, { "id": "151c337f-9ea2-4430-bdeb-1b90640182fd", "slug": "i-cannot-conceive", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alice-miller/breaking-down-the-wall-of-silence/i-cannot-conceive", "text": "I cannot conceive of a society in which children are not mistreated, but respected and lovingly cared for, that would develop an ideology of forgiveness for incomprehensible cruelties. This ideology is indivisible with the command \"Thou shalt not be aware\" [of the cruelty your parents inflicted to you] and with the repetition of that cruelty on the next generation.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Alice Miller", "slug": "alice-miller", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alice-miller" }, "book": { "title": "Breaking Down The Wall Of Silence", "slug": "breaking-down-the-wall-of-silence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alice-miller/breaking-down-the-wall-of-silence" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "children", "slug": "children", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/children" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" }, { "name": "forgiveness", "slug": "forgiveness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/forgiveness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alice_Miller_(psychologist)#Breaking_Down_the_Wall_of_Silence_(1991)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:46" }, { "id": "831984ca-b16c-48de-a5d2-365be7497e2d", "slug": "never-said-my-aunt", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/david-copperfield/never-said-my-aunt", "text": "\"Never,\" said my aunt, \"be mean in anything; never be false; never be cruel. Avoid those three vices, Trot, and I can always be hopeful of you.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Dickens", "slug": "charles-dickens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens" }, "book": { "title": "David Copperfield", "slug": "david-copperfield", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/david-copperfield" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "morality", "slug": "morality", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality" }, { "name": "lies", "slug": "lies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/lies" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Copperfield#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:45" }, { "id": "8d592289-05bd-4afa-a40c-122d888d221c", "slug": "seems-to-me-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-pullman/the-subtle-knife-his-dark-materials-2/seems-to-me-the", "text": "Seems to me the place you fight cruelty is where you find it, and the place you give help is where you see it needed.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Philip Pullman", "slug": "philip-pullman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-pullman" }, "book": { "title": "The Subtle Knife: His Dark Materials 2", "slug": "the-subtle-knife-his-dark-materials-2", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-pullman/the-subtle-knife-his-dark-materials-2" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" }, { "name": "helping others", "slug": "helping-others", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/helping-others" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_Pullman#The_Subtle_Knife_(1997)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:37" }, { "id": "cadb88bc-5b7e-4b09-ab01-ffe4aae29a86", "slug": "there-is-a-saying", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/transition/there-is-a-saying", "text": "There is a saying that some foolish people believe: what does not kill you makes you stronger. I know for a fact, having seen the evidence – indeed, often enough having been the cause of it – that what does not kill you can leave you maimed. Or crippled, or begging for death or in one of those ghastly twilights experienced – and one has to hope that that is entirely not the right word – by those in a locked-in or persistent vegetative state. In my experience the same people also believe that everything happens for a reason. Given the unalleviatedly barbarous history of every world we have ever encountered with anything resembling Man in it, this is a statement of quite breathtakingly casual retrospective and ongoing cruelty, tantamount to the condonation of the most severe and unforgivable sadism.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Iain M. Banks", "slug": "iain-m-banks", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks" }, "book": { "title": "Transition", "slug": "transition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/transition" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 274, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "suffering", "slug": "suffering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Iain_Banks#Transition_(2009)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:23" }, { "id": "d753e6ef-cd0d-4eff-a9f2-c233a3a0bf95", "slug": "we-only-become", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/inversions/we-only-become", "text": "We only become beasts—we become worse than beasts—when we torment others.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Iain M. Banks", "slug": "iain-m-banks", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks" }, "book": { "title": "Inversions", "slug": "inversions", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/inversions" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 197, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Iain_Banks#Inversions_(1998)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:18" }, { "id": "780435d6-f226-423e-bb86-f7483b8a62cf", "slug": "i-came-out", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/the-state-of-the-art/i-came-out", "text": "I came out stunned. I was angry at them, then. Angry at them for surprising me, touching me like that. Of course I was angry at their stupidity, their manic barbarity, their unthinking, animal obedience, their appalling cruelty; everything that the memorial evoked... but what really hit me was that these people could create something that spoke so eloquently of their own ghastly actions; that they could fashion a work so humanly redolent of their own inhumanity.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Iain M. Banks", "slug": "iain-m-banks", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks" }, "book": { "title": "The State Of The Art", "slug": "the-state-of-the-art", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/the-state-of-the-art" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 94, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "art", "slug": "art", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Iain_Banks#The_State_of_the_Art_(1991)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:15" }, { "id": "987b0737-9342-458e-951e-c76b005bbb21", "slug": "although-the-villagers", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shirley-jackson/the-lottery/although-the-villagers", "text": "Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Shirley Jackson", "slug": "shirley-jackson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shirley-jackson" }, "book": { "title": "The Lottery", "slug": "the-lottery", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shirley-jackson/the-lottery" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Shirley_Jackson#The_Lottery_(1948)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:12" }, { "id": "b04b7b93-8bb9-48af-b83b-23843b64e801", "slug": "the-religion-of-christianity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stevie-smith/selected-poems/the-religion-of-christianity", "text": "The religion of Christianity Is mixed of sweetness and cruelty Reject this Sweetness, for she wears A smoky dress out of hell fires.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Stevie Smith", "slug": "stevie-smith", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stevie-smith" }, "book": { "title": "Selected Poems", "slug": "selected-poems", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stevie-smith/selected-poems" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stevie_Smith#Selected_Poems_(1962)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:54" }, { "id": "c742ac26-f873-43e4-9145-ff7bcf39769f", "slug": "if-people-were", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charlotte-bronte/jane-eyre/if-people-were", "text": "If people were always kind and obedient to those who are cruel and unjust; the wicked people would have it all their own way: they would never feel afraid, and so they would never alter, but would grow worse and worse. When we are struck at without a reason, we should strike back again very hard; I am sure we should — so hard as to teach the person who struck us never to do it again.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charlotte Brontë", "slug": "charlotte-bronte", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charlotte-bronte" }, "book": { "title": "Jane Eyre", "slug": "jane-eyre", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charlotte-bronte/jane-eyre" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "justice", "slug": "justice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/justice" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charlotte_Bront%C3%AB#Jane_Eyre_(1847)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:41" }, { "id": "726b5200-0359-4a28-adbe-e843dbc53483", "slug": "it-is-often", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jeffrey-moussaieff-masson/when-elephants-weep/it-is-often", "text": "It is often said that if slaughterhouses were made of glass, most people would be vegetarians. If the general public knew what went on inside animal experimentation laboratories, they would be abolished. However, the parallel is not exact. Slaughterhouses are invisible because the public wants them that way. Everyone knows what goes on inside them; they simply do not want to be confronted with it. Most people do not know what goes on with animal experimentation. Slaughterhouses allow visits. Laboratories where animal experiments are performed are secretive. Perhaps those who conduct the experiments know they would be stopped if what they do were known even by other scientists. Perhaps they are ashamed.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson", "slug": "jeffrey-moussaieff-masson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jeffrey-moussaieff-masson" }, "book": { "title": "When Elephants Weep", "slug": "when-elephants-weep", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jeffrey-moussaieff-masson/when-elephants-weep" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 216, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "science", "slug": "science", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science" }, { "name": "animals", "slug": "animals", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/animals" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Moussaieff_Masson#When_Elephants_Weep_(1994)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:37" }, { "id": "1d0b055c-b3eb-42a1-a4eb-e16e035c1cb6", "slug": "rats-and-mice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jeffrey-moussaieff-masson/when-elephants-weep/rats-and-mice", "text": "Rats and mice are not generally regarded as pets, but as pests; they have few defenders. Yet the pain a rat or a mouse feels is every bit as real as that of any pet. In laboratories, they suffer, as anybody who has heard them moan, cry, whimper and even scream knows. The experimenters dissimulate about this by insisting that they are merely vocalising. Descartes lives on.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson", "slug": "jeffrey-moussaieff-masson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jeffrey-moussaieff-masson" }, "book": { "title": "When Elephants Weep", "slug": "when-elephants-weep", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jeffrey-moussaieff-masson/when-elephants-weep" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 217, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "suffering", "slug": "suffering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering" }, { "name": "animals", "slug": "animals", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/animals" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Moussaieff_Masson#When_Elephants_Weep_(1994)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:37" }, { "id": "03bb25a3-29df-4cf5-a8c1-d23eeeed51ba", "slug": "we-have-already", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond/the-third-chimpanzee/we-have-already", "text": "We have already discovered two species that are very intelligent but technically less advanced than us — the common chimpanzee and pygmy chimpanzee. Has our response been to sit down and try to communicate with them? Of course not. Instead we shoot them, stuff them, dissect them, cut off their hands for trophies, put them on exhibit in cages, inject them with AIDS virus as a medical experiment, and destroy or take over their habitat. That response was predictable, because human explorers who discovered technically less advanced humans also regularly responded by shooting them, decimating their populations with new diseases, and destroying or taking over their habitat. Any advanced extraterrestrials who discovered us would surely treat us in the same way...If there really are any radio civilizations within listening distance of us, then for heaven's sake let's turn off our own transmitters and try to escape detection, or we are doomed.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jared Diamond", "slug": "jared-diamond", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond" }, "book": { "title": "The Third Chimpanzee", "slug": "the-third-chimpanzee", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond/the-third-chimpanzee" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "animals", "slug": "animals", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/animals" }, { "name": "the universe", "slug": "the-universe", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jared_Diamond#The_Third_Chimpanzee:_The_Evolution_and_Future_of_the_Human_Animal_(1991)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:06" }, { "id": "1f51457a-e277-4566-95ec-047e1db39859", "slug": "war-is-cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/how-few-remain/war-is-cruelty", "text": "War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it. Its glory is all moonshine.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Harry Turtledove", "slug": "harry-turtledove", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove" }, "book": { "title": "How Few Remain", "slug": "how-few-remain", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/how-few-remain" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 239, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harry_Turtledove#How_Few_Remain_(1997)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:47" }, { "id": "ca4f8b59-e62b-4bd9-9e4f-bb37443cec84", "slug": "the-horrid-cruelties", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harriet-beecher-stowe/uncle-toms-cabin/the-horrid-cruelties", "text": "The horrid cruelties and outrages that once and a while find their way into the papers — such cases as Prue's, for example — what do they come from? In many cases, it is a gradual hardening process on both sides — the owner growing more and more cruel, as the servant more and more callous. Whipping and abuse are like laudanum; you have to double the dose as the sensibilities decline.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Harriet Beecher-Stowe", "slug": "harriet-beecher-stowe", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harriet-beecher-stowe" }, "book": { "title": "Uncle Tom's Cabin", "slug": "uncle-toms-cabin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harriet-beecher-stowe/uncle-toms-cabin" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "slavery", "slug": "slavery", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/slavery" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harriet_Beecher_Stowe#Uncle_Tom's_Cabin_(1852)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:44" }, { "id": "c2ae0323-7686-44e4-876a-763101efddec", "slug": "if-a-person", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-fresco/if-a-person", "text": "If a person torturing and killing people is evil, why are gods who torture and kill people called good?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sheri S. Tepper", "slug": "sheri-s-tepper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper" }, "book": { "title": "The Fresco", "slug": "the-fresco", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-fresco" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 102, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "god", "slug": "god", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god" }, { "name": "evil", "slug": "evil", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper#The_Fresco_(2000)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:26" }, { "id": "765f8113-b41c-4d85-aa77-a7fb1fea4144", "slug": "when-i-was", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-fresco/when-i-was", "text": "When I was a kid, Mami told me the Mexican gods weren’t the only bloody ones, and we should never serve gods that had been invented to take the blame for everything bloody, painful, primitive and unenlightened that people wanted to do. Why did we Israelites kill every man, woman, child and beast in that city? Why, the Lord Jehovah commanded it. Why do we Spaniards steal food from these Indian people, and mutilated them, and use them as slaves? Why, we do it so they will love Christ! Why do we Aztecs torture and sacrifice people? Huitzilopotchli demands it! Whether it was the Israelites invading Canaan or the Spanish invading the Southwest, or one Mexican tribe warring against another, the answer was always the same. We enslave and torture and mutilate and kill in the name of our god.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sheri S. Tepper", "slug": "sheri-s-tepper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper" }, "book": { "title": "The Fresco", "slug": "the-fresco", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-fresco" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 390, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper#The_Fresco_(2000)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:26" }, { "id": "8229c0f1-30f4-4f3a-a3f5-3114d084538e", "slug": "you-think-staying", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/six-moon-dance/you-think-staying", "text": "“You think staying in power is why they do it?” “That’s usually the reason for arbitrary cruelty.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sheri S. Tepper", "slug": "sheri-s-tepper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper" }, "book": { "title": "Six Moon Dance", "slug": "six-moon-dance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/six-moon-dance" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 513, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "power", "slug": "power", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper#Six_Moon_Dance_(1998)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:25" }, { "id": "7f6c3adc-0598-4ace-8e97-9fb4d66181ec", "slug": "they-parade-their", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/sideshow/they-parade-their", "text": "They parade their cruelty openly, calling it diplomacy, calling it expediency, as governments always have.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sheri S. Tepper", "slug": "sheri-s-tepper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper" }, "book": { "title": "Sideshow", "slug": "sideshow", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/sideshow" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 224, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "politics", "slug": "politics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper#Sideshow_(1992)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:23" }, { "id": "26b78482-ff8a-4445-90fd-9634b443745a", "slug": "man-has-always", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/sideshow/man-has-always", "text": "Man has always tortured in the name of his gods and committed atrocities in the name of his culture.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sheri S. Tepper", "slug": "sheri-s-tepper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper" }, "book": { "title": "Sideshow", "slug": "sideshow", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/sideshow" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 438, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper#Sideshow_(1992)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:23" }, { "id": "f3592fca-7dc8-46b4-83d1-7672946e9294", "slug": "it-seems-to-me-said", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/raising-the-stones/it-seems-to-me-said", "text": "“It seems to me,” said Spiggy softly, “that when a race of man becomes so anthropocentric it regards other living beings as lesser consumables, it could get to be a habit. It might become easy to include other living creatures with the Gharm. Animals. Children. Women. Entire planet. Perhaps they, too, become consumables, to be used up and thrown away.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sheri S. Tepper", "slug": "sheri-s-tepper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper" }, "book": { "title": "Raising The Stones", "slug": "raising-the-stones", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/raising-the-stones" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 284, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "ecology", "slug": "ecology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology" }, { "name": "animals", "slug": "animals", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/animals" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper#Raising_the_Stones_(1990)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:22" }, { "id": "17461ae7-8792-441a-92a9-a0e73954b31a", "slug": "we-were-snatched", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-talents/we-were-snatched", "text": "We were snatched away and given alone into the hands of people who believed that it was their duty to break us and remake us in the Christian American image. And, of course, breaking people is much easier than putting them together again. So much agony caused, so much evil done in God’s name.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Octavia E. Butler", "slug": "octavia-e-butler", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler" }, "book": { "title": "Parable of the Talents", "slug": "parable-of-the-talents", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-talents" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 288, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "fanaticism", "slug": "fanaticism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fanaticism" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Octavia_Butler#Parable_of_the_Talents_(1998)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:11" }, { "id": "c734c70a-460c-4880-b679-b65edb1c4664", "slug": "if-everyone-could", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-sower/if-everyone-could", "text": "If everyone could feel everyone else’s pain, who would torture?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Octavia E. Butler", "slug": "octavia-e-butler", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler" }, "book": { "title": "Parable of the Sower", "slug": "parable-of-the-sower", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-sower" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 115, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "empathy", "slug": "empathy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/empathy" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Octavia_Butler#Parable_of_the_Sower_(1993)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:10" }, { "id": "113454ba-62a7-41c9-90de-7416833b683c", "slug": "people-who-treat", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-baldwin/no-name-in-the-street/people-who-treat", "text": "People who treat other people as less than human must not be surprised when the bread they have cast on the waters comes floating back to them, poisoned.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "James Baldwin", "slug": "james-baldwin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-baldwin" }, "book": { "title": "No Name in the Street", "slug": "no-name-in-the-street", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-baldwin/no-name-in-the-street" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Baldwin#No_Name_in_the_Street_(1972)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:59" }, { "id": "7e9f7c3d-e68a-4d19-b2b3-57aaedd7f6b9", "slug": "what-stuck-in-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hannah-arendt/eichmann-in-jerusalem/what-stuck-in-the", "text": "What stuck in the minds of these men who had become murderers was simply the notion of being involved in something historic, grandiose, unique (\"a great task that occurs once in two thousand years\"), which must therefore be difficult to bear. This was important, because the murderers were not sadists or killers by nature; on the contrary, a systematic effort was made to weed out all those who derived physical pleasure from what they did. The troops of the Einsatzgruppen had been drafted from the Armed S.S., a military unit with hardly more crimes in its record than any ordinary unit of the German Army, and their commanders had been chosen by Heydrich from the S.S. élite with academic degrees. Hence the problem was how to overcome not so much their conscience as the animal pity by which all normal men are affected in the presence of physical suffering. The trick used by Himmler — who apparently was rather strongly afflicted by these instinctive reactions himself — was very simple and probably very effective; it consisted in turning these instincts around, as it were, in directing them toward the self. So that instead of saying: What horrible things I did to people!, the murderers would be able to say: What horrible things I had to watch in the pursuance of my duties, how heavily the task weighed upon my shoulders!", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Hannah Arendt", "slug": "hannah-arendt", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hannah-arendt" }, "book": { "title": "Eichmann in Jerusalem", "slug": "eichmann-in-jerusalem", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hannah-arendt/eichmann-in-jerusalem" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hannah_Arendt#Eichmann_in_Jerusalem_:_A_Report_on_the_Banality_of_Evil_(1963)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:23" }, { "id": "71af19b9-8047-4465-8b29-0025171eea82", "slug": "school-never-teaches", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dbc-pierre/vernon-god-little/school-never-teaches", "text": "School never teaches you about this mangled human slime, it slays me. You spend all your time learning the capital of Surinam while these retards carve their initials in your back.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "DBC Pierre", "slug": "dbc-pierre", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dbc-pierre" }, "book": { "title": "Vernon God Little", "slug": "vernon-god-little", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dbc-pierre/vernon-god-little" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "education", "slug": "education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/education" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Vernon_God_Little#Act_IV._How_my_summer_vacation_spent_me", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:15" }, { "id": "7a4d13ac-e469-441f-9469-bc66af443ad7", "slug": "cruelty-is-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-hardy/jude-the-obscure/cruelty-is-the", "text": "Cruelty is the law pervading all nature and society; and we can’t get out of it if we would!", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Thomas Hardy", "slug": "thomas-hardy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-hardy" }, "book": { "title": "Jude the Obscure", "slug": "jude-the-obscure", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-hardy/jude-the-obscure" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "nature", "slug": "nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Hardy#Jude_the_Obscure_(1895)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:03" }, { "id": "42ea08f7-d88e-4284-bf47-77fe70413113", "slug": "he-felt-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/guards-guards/he-felt-the", "text": "He felt the sensation of the dragon rummaging around in his mind, trying to find a clue to understanding. He half-saw, half-sensed the flicker of random images, of dragons, of the mythical age of reptiles and—and here he felt the dragon's genuine astonishment—of some of the less commendable areas of human history, which were most of it. And after the astonishment came the baffled anger. There was practically nothing the dragon could do to people that they had not, sooner or later, tried on one another, often with enthusiasm.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Terry Pratchett", "slug": "terry-pratchett", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett" }, "book": { "title": "Guards! Guards!", "slug": "guards-guards", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/guards-guards" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 253, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Guards!_Guards!#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:55" }, { "id": "46741c6b-bccd-48ce-b85c-0d97b4d435d4", "slug": "it-was-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/slaughterhouse-five/it-was-the", "text": "It was The Gospel From Outer Space, by Kilgore Trout. It was about a visitor from outer space... [who] made a serious study of Christianity, to learn, if he could, why Christians found it so easy to be cruel. He concluded that at least part of the trouble was slipshod storytelling in the New Testament. He supposed that the intent of the Gospels was to teach people, among other things, to be merciful, even to the lowest of the low. But the Gospels actually taught this: Before you kill somebody, make absolutely sure he isn't well connected. So it goes. The flaw in the Christ stories, said the visitor from outer space, was that Christ, who didn't look like much, was actually the Son of the Most Powerful Being in the Universe. Readers understood that, so, when they came to the crucifixion, they naturally thought...: Oh, boy — they sure picked the wrong guy to lynch that time! And that thought had a brother: \"There are right people to lynch.\" Who? People not well connected. So it goes. The visitor from outer space made a gift to Earth of a new Gospel. In it, Jesus really was a nobody, and a pain in the neck to a lot of people with better connections than he had. He still got to say all the lovely and puzzling things he said in the other Gospels. So the people amused themselves one day by nailing him to a cross and planting the cross in the ground. There couldn't possibly be any repercussions, the lynchers thought. The reader would have to think that too, since the Gospel hammered home again and again what a nobody Jesus was. And then, just before the nobody died, the heavens opened up, and there was thunder and lightning. The voice of God came crashing down. He told the people that he was adopting the bum as his son, giving him the full powers and privileges of the Son of the Creator of the Universe throughout all eternity. God said this: From this moment on, He will punish horribly anybody who torments a bum who has no connections! (pp. 108-110)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kurt Vonnegut", "slug": "kurt-vonnegut", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut" }, "book": { "title": "Slaughterhouse-Five", "slug": "slaughterhouse-five", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/slaughterhouse-five" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Slaughterhouse-Five#Chapter_5", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:45" }, { "id": "219daab4-587e-4bf9-b7c6-e51f19998bc7", "slug": "cruel-she-asked", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-s-beagle/the-last-unicorn/cruel-she-asked", "text": "\"Cruel?\" she asked. \"How can I be cruel? That is for mortals.\" But then she did raise her eyes, and they were great with sorrow, and with something very near to mockery. She said, \"So is kindness.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Peter S. Beagle", "slug": "peter-s-beagle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-s-beagle" }, "book": { "title": "The Last Unicorn", "slug": "the-last-unicorn", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-s-beagle/the-last-unicorn" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "kindness", "slug": "kindness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/kindness" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Last_Unicorn#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:28" }, { "id": "43ff4fe4-5a18-4873-a409-ef50810ff36a", "slug": "this-leads-me-of-course", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-roberts/the-way-toward-health/this-leads-me-of-course", "text": "This leads me of course to at least mention here the cruel methods used in the slaughtering of animals and fowls for human consumption. The creatures are treated as if they possessed no feeling or consciousness of their own - and such attitudes show a most unfortunate misreading of natural events. As a direct result, at least as many diseases develop through such procedures as would exist in a highly primitive society with unsanitary conditions.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jane Roberts", "slug": "jane-roberts", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-roberts" }, "book": { "title": "The Way Toward Health", "slug": "the-way-toward-health", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-roberts/the-way-toward-health" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 197, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "animals", "slug": "animals", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/animals" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jane_Roberts#The_Way_Toward_Health_(1997)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:15" }, { "id": "4c98dfe4-2151-49c5-bb3d-0bb35ee87638", "slug": "for-this-was", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock/the-sword-of-the-dawn/for-this-was", "text": "For this was the great power of the Lords of the Dark Empire, that they valued nothing on all the Earth, no human quality, nothing within or without themselves. The spreading of conquest and desolation, of terror and torment, was their staple entertainment, a means of employing their hours until their spans of life were ended. For them, warfare was merely the most satisfactory way of easing their ennui...", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Michael Moorcock", "slug": "michael-moorcock", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock" }, "book": { "title": "The Sword of the Dawn", "slug": "the-sword-of-the-dawn", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock/the-sword-of-the-dawn" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 259, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" }, { "name": "boredom", "slug": "boredom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/boredom" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michael_Moorcock#The_Sword_of_the_Dawn_(1968)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:35" }, { "id": "db657387-2f11-45d4-bca4-c44bedf5b83b", "slug": "surely-mankind-has", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-styron/the-confessions-of-nat-turner/surely-mankind-has", "text": "“Surely mankind has yet to be born. Surely this is true! For only something blind and uncomprehending could exist in such a mean conjunction with its own flesh, its own kind. How else account for such faltering, clumsy, hateful cruelty? Even the possums and the skunks know better! Even the weasels and the meadow mice have a natural regard for their own blood and kin. Only the insects are low enough to do the low things that people do — like those ants that swarm on poplars in the summertime, greedily husbanding little green aphids for the honeydew they secrete. Yes, it could be that mankind has yet to be born. Ah, what bitter tears God must weep at the sight of the things that men do to other men!” He broke off then and I saw him shake his head convulsively, his voice a sudden cry: “In the name of money! Money! ”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Styron", "slug": "william-styron", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-styron" }, "book": { "title": "The Confessions of Nat Turner", "slug": "the-confessions-of-nat-turner", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-styron/the-confessions-of-nat-turner" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "human nature", "slug": "human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature" }, { "name": "money", "slug": "money", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/money" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Styron#The_Confessions_of_Nat_Turner_(1967)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:26" }, { "id": "84bf88b2-8516-4576-a815-9e7e657639e8", "slug": "ignorance-is-a-kind", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/akira-kurosawa/something-like-an-autobiography/ignorance-is-a-kind", "text": "Ignorance is a kind of insanity in the human animal. People who delight in torturing defenseless children or tiny creatures are in reality insane. The terrible thing is that people who are madmen in private may wear a totally bland and innocent expression in public.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Akira Kurosawa", "slug": "akira-kurosawa", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/akira-kurosawa" }, "book": { "title": "Something Like An Autobiography", "slug": "something-like-an-autobiography", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/akira-kurosawa/something-like-an-autobiography" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "stupidity", "slug": "stupidity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stupidity" }, { "name": "appearances", "slug": "appearances", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/appearances" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Akira_Kurosawa#Something_Like_an_Autobiography_(1981)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:34" }, { "id": "64610f77-16e8-4cf5-8205-ddc574764da2", "slug": "the-cruelties-of-property", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/c-l-r-james/the-black-jacobins/the-cruelties-of-property", "text": "The cruelties of property and privilege are always more ferocious than the revenges of poverty and oppression. For the one aims at perpetuating resented injustice, the other is merely a momentary passion soon appeased.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "C L R James", "slug": "c-l-r-james", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/c-l-r-james" }, "book": { "title": "The Black Jacobins", "slug": "the-black-jacobins", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/c-l-r-james/the-black-jacobins" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 88, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "poverty", "slug": "poverty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/poverty" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/C._L._R._James#The_Black_Jacobins_(1938)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:25" }, { "id": "f27e700a-682b-4ba1-b146-e82e1be55dfe", "slug": "no-granite-is-so-hard", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin/the-winds-twelve-quarters/no-granite-is-so-hard", "text": "No granite is so hard as hatred and no clay so cold as cruelty.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ursula K. Le Guin", "slug": "ursula-k-le-guin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin" }, "book": { "title": "The Wind’s Twelve Quarters", "slug": "the-winds-twelve-quarters", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin/the-winds-twelve-quarters" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 204, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "hatred", "slug": "hatred", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hatred" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ursula_K._Le_Guin#The_Wind%E2%80%99s_Twelve_Quarters_(1975)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:46:50" }, { "id": "b676760c-ecba-4fc1-82df-dc31f516d06a", "slug": "the-organizations-of-men", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-cheever/the-journals-of-john-cheever/the-organizations-of-men", "text": "The organizations of men, like men themselves, seem subject to deafness, nearsightedness, lameness, and involuntary cruelty. We seem tragically unable to help one another, to understand one another.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Cheever", "slug": "john-cheever", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-cheever" }, "book": { "title": "The Journals of John Cheever", "slug": "the-journals-of-john-cheever", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-cheever/the-journals-of-john-cheever" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "human nature", "slug": "human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Cheever#The_Journals_of_John_Cheever_(1991)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:17" }, { "id": "1974d19c-c9a6-4393-93ae-c00139c55282", "slug": "it-seems-to-me-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/derrick-jensen/the-culture-of-make-believe/it-seems-to-me-that", "text": "It seems to me that entitlement is the key to nearly all atrocities, and that any threat to perceived entitlement will provoke hatred. The man who flayed the cat presumably felt that his employers were entitled to the cat's skin. Europeans felt that they were (and are) entitled to the land of North and South America. Slave owners clearly felt they were entitled to the labor (and the lives) of their slaves, not only in partial payment for protecting slaves from their own idleness, but also simply as a return on their capital investment. Owners of nonhuman capital today feel they, too, are entitled to the \"surplus return on labor,\" as economists put it, as part of their reward for furnishing jobs, and to provide a return on their investment in capital. Rapists act on the belief that they are entitled to their victims' bodies, and entitled to inflict cruelty upon them. Americans act as though we are entitled to consume the majority of the world's resources, and the change the world's climate. All industrialized humans act like they're entitled to anything they want on this planet.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Derrick Jensen", "slug": "derrick-jensen", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/derrick-jensen" }, "book": { "title": "The Culture of Make Believe", "slug": "the-culture-of-make-believe", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/derrick-jensen/the-culture-of-make-believe" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 105, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "hatred", "slug": "hatred", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hatred" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Derrick_Jensen#The_Culture_of_Make_Believe_(2003)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:51" }, { "id": "caa60791-748c-45a6-87db-7c3f9c22ee84", "slug": "when-you-treat", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-silverberg/downward-to-the-earth/when-you-treat", "text": "When you treat a rational autonomous creature as though he’s a mere beast, what does that make you?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert Silverberg", "slug": "robert-silverberg", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-silverberg" }, "book": { "title": "Downward To The Earth", "slug": "downward-to-the-earth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-silverberg/downward-to-the-earth" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 231, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" }, { "name": "dignity", "slug": "dignity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dignity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Silverberg#Downward_to_the_Earth_(1970)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:40" }, { "id": "ab6fe026-0d8d-49f6-8a0d-6f5fcb50b91e", "slug": "who-wants-to-fish", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/rabbit-at-rest/who-wants-to-fish", "text": "\"Who wants to fish, if you're halfway civilised? Dangling some dead meat in front of some poor brainless thing and then pulling him up by a hook in the roof of his mouth? Cruellest thing people do is fish.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Hoyer Updike", "slug": "john-hoyer-updike", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike" }, "book": { "title": "Rabbit at Rest", "slug": "rabbit-at-rest", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/rabbit-at-rest" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "animals", "slug": "animals", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/animals" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Updike#Rabbit_at_Rest_(1990)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:30" }, { "id": "d0deb652-10ce-4d0f-81f7-49268dd52195", "slug": "it-is-a-widespread", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-deptford-trilogy/it-is-a-widespread", "text": "It is a widespread idea that people who are unusually cruel must be insane, though the corollary of that would be that anybody who is unusually compassionate must be insane.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robertson Davies", "slug": "robertson-davies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies" }, "book": { "title": "The Deptford Trilogy", "slug": "the-deptford-trilogy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-deptford-trilogy" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Deptford_Trilogy#(1972)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:14" }, { "id": "151d76f6-4356-4675-8086-1c87107281df", "slug": "the-most-important", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/hocus-pocus/the-most-important", "text": "The most important message of a crucifix, to me anyway, was how unspeakably cruel supposedly sane human beings can be when under orders from a superior authority.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kurt Vonnegut", "slug": "kurt-vonnegut", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut" }, "book": { "title": "Hocus Pocus", "slug": "hocus-pocus", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/hocus-pocus" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" }, { "name": "obedience", "slug": "obedience", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/obedience" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut#Hocus_Pocus_(1990)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:43" }, { "id": "4b50a373-8343-4524-99fb-63aec95140df", "slug": "that-in-my-opinion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/galapagos/that-in-my-opinion", "text": "That, in my opinion, was the most diabolical aspect of those old-time brains: They would tell their owners, in effect, \"Here's a crazy thing we could actually do, probably, but would never do it, of course. It's just fun to think about.\" And then, as though in trances, the people would really do it — have slaves fight each other to death in the Colosseum, or burn people alive in the public square for holding opinions which were locally unpopular, or build factories whose only purpose was to kill people in industrial quantities, or to blow up whole cities, and on and on.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kurt Vonnegut", "slug": "kurt-vonnegut", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut" }, "book": { "title": "Galapagos", "slug": "galapagos", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/galapagos" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "thinking", "slug": "thinking", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut#Gal%C3%A1pagos_(1985)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:42" }, { "id": "c56c4389-dbbd-47a9-8f6e-7371be419c24", "slug": "it-is-painful", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/antifragile/it-is-painful", "text": "It is painful to think about ruthlessness as an engine of improvement.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nassim Nicholas Taleb", "slug": "nassim-nicholas-taleb", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb" }, "book": { "title": "Antifragile", "slug": "antifragile", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/antifragile" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 75, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "change", "slug": "change", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb#Antifragile:_Things_That_Gain_from_Disorder_(2012)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:33" }, { "id": "096d6bad-5c6d-446d-9188-67648c237eef", "slug": "you-were-born", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/lost-boys/you-were-born", "text": "You were born with compassion, only that also means that when people are cruel to you it cuts you deep. You won't understand that you have to walk right up to the ones who are being hateful and laugh in their faces and earn their respect. Instead you'll try to figure out what you did to make them mad at you.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Orson Scott Card", "slug": "orson-scott-card", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card" }, "book": { "title": "Lost Boys", "slug": "lost-boys", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/lost-boys" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "empathy", "slug": "empathy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/empathy" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Orson_Scott_Card#Lost_Boys_(1992)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:07" }, { "id": "a4194c04-edd7-459f-9210-e2e0d5753c5c", "slug": "the-people-had", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/colin-powell/my-american-journey/the-people-had", "text": "The people had fled at our approach, except for an old woman too feeble to move... We burned down the thatched huts, starting the blaze with Ronson and Zippo cigarette lighters... [because] Ho Chi Minh had said the people were like the sea in which his guerrillas swam... We tried to solve the problem by making the whole sea uninhabitable.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Colin Powell", "slug": "colin-powell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/colin-powell" }, "book": { "title": "My American Journey", "slug": "my-american-journey", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/colin-powell/my-american-journey" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Colin_Powell#My_American_Journey_(1996)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:01" }, { "id": "85206f90-0436-49e5-a84d-7d041dd4e4b6", "slug": "the-jehovah-or-yahweh", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/job-a-comedy-of-justice/the-jehovah-or-yahweh", "text": "The Jehovah or Yahweh of the Old Testament seems to me to be a sadistic, bloodthirsty, genocidal villain.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert A. Heinlein", "slug": "robert-a-heinlein", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein" }, "book": { "title": "Job: A Comedy of Justice", "slug": "job-a-comedy-of-justice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/job-a-comedy-of-justice" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 140, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "god", "slug": "god", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Job:_A_Comedy_of_Justice#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:20" }, { "id": "0dfbcf5a-1499-4525-91a0-ae8ae121ec9b", "slug": "alec-do-you", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/job-a-comedy-of-justice/alec-do-you", "text": "Alec, do you believe in your heart that your God caused bears to tear up little children merely because they made fun of an old man's bald head?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert A. Heinlein", "slug": "robert-a-heinlein", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein" }, "book": { "title": "Job: A Comedy of Justice", "slug": "job-a-comedy-of-justice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/job-a-comedy-of-justice" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 139, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "god", "slug": "god", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Job:_A_Comedy_of_Justice#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:20" }, { "id": "774db734-4166-4454-85f1-bfeb2d1e60f9", "slug": "despite-all-evidence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal/julian/despite-all-evidence", "text": "Despite all evidence to the contrary I do not believe humans innately cruel, but they fear change of any kind.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Gore Vidal", "slug": "gore-vidal", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal" }, "book": { "title": "Julian", "slug": "julian", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal/julian" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fear", "slug": "fear", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear" }, { "name": "change", "slug": "change", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gore_Vidal#Julian_(1964)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:18" }, { "id": "670cfd59-6bc7-4a31-b9b1-d43a2032897e", "slug": "its-not-religious", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/the-three-stigmata-of-palmer-eldritch/its-not-religious", "text": "It’s not religious fervor; it’s just a mean, very cruel streak.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Philip K. Dick", "slug": "philip-k-dick", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick" }, "book": { "title": "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch", "slug": "the-three-stigmata-of-palmer-eldritch", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/the-three-stigmata-of-palmer-eldritch" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 142, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick#The_Three_Stigmata_of_Palmer_Eldritch_(1965)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:05" }, { "id": "0c0f6bbd-adf0-4d12-acc5-25caeea9a171", "slug": "atrocity-is-recognized", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/children-of-dune/atrocity-is-recognized", "text": "Atrocity is recognized as such by victim and perpetrator alike, by all who learn about it at whatever remove. Atrocity has no excuses, no mitigating argument. Atrocity never balances or rectifies the past. Atrocity merely arms the future for more atrocity. It is self-perpetuating upon itself — a barbarous form of incest. Whoever commits atrocity also commits those future atrocities thus bred.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Frank Herbert", "slug": "frank-herbert", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert" }, "book": { "title": "Children Of Dune", "slug": "children-of-dune", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/children-of-dune" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "violence", "slug": "violence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/violence" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dune#Children_of_Dune_(1976)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:52" }, { "id": "1d443366-94f1-4105-9069-2177416a722b", "slug": "brutality-breeds-brutality", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/dune/brutality-breeds-brutality", "text": "Brutality breeds brutality. Love breeds love.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Frank Herbert", "slug": "frank-herbert", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert" }, "book": { "title": "Dune", "slug": "dune", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/dune" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "love", "slug": "love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dune#Dune:_House_Corrino_(2001)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:50" }, { "id": "277f2cd1-8683-44c9-bd93-aac937cb8564", "slug": "people-talk-sometimes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/fyodor-dostoyevsky/the-brothers-karamazov/people-talk-sometimes", "text": "People talk sometimes of a bestial cruelty, but that's a great injustice and insult to the beasts; a beast can never be so cruel as a man, so artistically cruel. The tiger only tears and gnaws, that's all he can do. He would never think of nailing people by the ears, even if he were able to do it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Fyodor Dostoyevsky", "slug": "fyodor-dostoyevsky", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/fyodor-dostoyevsky" }, "book": { "title": "The Brothers Karamazov", "slug": "the-brothers-karamazov", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/fyodor-dostoyevsky/the-brothers-karamazov" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "human nature", "slug": "human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature" }, { "name": "animals", "slug": "animals", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/animals" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fyodor_Dostoyevsky#The_Brothers_Karamazov_(1879%E2%80%931880)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:24" }, { "id": "ab90e6c4-f281-41bd-82c6-5922d6450330", "slug": "what-mean-and", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/a-writers-notebook/what-mean-and", "text": "What mean and cruel things men can do for the love of God.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Somerset Maugham", "slug": "william-somerset-maugham", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham" }, "book": { "title": "A Writer's Notebook", "slug": "a-writers-notebook", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/a-writers-notebook" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 67, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/W._Somerset_Maugham#A_Writer's_Notebook_(1946)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:29" }, { "id": "8e5bb352-7a2b-4c1b-ad87-865db86422c8", "slug": "men-are-always", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/the-moon-and-sixpence/men-are-always", "text": "Men are always the same. Fear makes them cruel.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Somerset Maugham", "slug": "william-somerset-maugham", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham" }, "book": { "title": "The Moon And Sixpence", "slug": "the-moon-and-sixpence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/the-moon-and-sixpence" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 204, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fear", "slug": "fear", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/W._Somerset_Maugham#The_Moon_and_Sixpence_(1919)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:27" } ] }