Quote

By nature, I'm an optimistic person. No one believes it, but I am.

Optimism is not inherently a superior way of viewing the world. Certainly doctors will say it might be better for one's physical health to be an optimist. But, morally speaking it may not be appropriate in certain circumstances.

I wish people would realize that animals are totally dependent on us, helpless, like children, a trust that is put upon us.

We assume in our daily lives that the world is both safe and sane. Otherwise, we could not carry on.

What we are doing to the future of our children, and the other species on the planet, is a clear moral issue.

Besides, wouldn't it be wonderful if no one ever had to worry about the random cruelty of fatal illness or the woes of old age attacking them or their loved ones?

I'm optimistic about people and about the planet and about nature. I think it's resilient, like people are.

My father so appropriately put it that we are certainly the only animal that makes conscious choices that are bad for our survival as a species.

We live in a time when science is validating what humans have known throughout the ages: that compassion is not a luxury; it is a necessity for our well-being, resilience, and survival.

As attractive as it is, the idea that nature can exist beyond our dangerous 'instinct for happiness' is never the whole story.