Peter Singer Quotes

If you go back in time you'll find tribes that were essentially only concerned with their own tribal members. If you were a member of another tribe, you could be killed with impunity.

If we all think only of our own interests, we are headed for collective disaster - just look at what we are doing to our planet's climate.

Torturing a human being is almost always wrong, but it is not absolutely wrong.

Science does not stand still, and neither does philosophy, although the latter has a tendency to walk in circles.

So why don't we make ourselves the last generation on earth? If we would all agree to have ourselves sterilized then no sacrifices would be required - we could party our way into extinction!

Grain that is used to feed animals that end up on our tables as turkeys and hams could have gone to feed starving people.

If we are prepared to take the life of another being merely in order to satisfy our taste for a particular type of food, then that being is no more than a means to our end.

We wait until Pandora's box is opened before we say, "Wow, maybe we should understand what's in that box." This is the story of humans on every problem.

Pain is pain, and the importance of preventing unnecessary pain and suffering does not diminish because the being that suffers is not a member of our own species.

Human social institutions can effect the course of human evolution. Just as climate, food supply, predators, and other natural forces of selection have molded our nature, so too can our culture.

Looking back on my career, I think I've been extremely fortunate to be in the right place at the right time in order to have the influence that I did.

Cheats prosper until there are enough who bear grudges against them to make sure they do not prosper.

To give preference to the life of a being simply because that being is a member of our species would put us in the same position as racists who give preference to those who are members of their race.

Every profession will have its rogues, of course, no matter what oaths are sworn, but many health care professionals have a real commitment to serving the best interests of their clients.

What one generation finds ridiculous, the next accepts; and the third shudders when it looks back on what the first did.

According to the Dominant Western tradition, the natural world exists for the benefit of human beings.

Knowing that we can control our own behaviour makes it more likely that we will.

Ethics is inescapable.

Scholars have long dreamed of a universal library containing everything that has ever been written.

If we're going to live an ethical life, it's not enough just to follow the thou-shalt-nots. … If we have enough, we have to share some of that with people who have so little.

If you earn a lot of money, you can give away a lot of money.

When fish experience something that would cause other animals physical pain, they behave in ways suggestive of pain, and the change in behaviour may last several hours.

In appropriate circumstances we are justified in using humans to achieve goals (or the goal of assisting animals).

If they [animals] were really to get the equal consideration that I believe they should, we wouldn't have commercial animal production in this country.

There is no humane slaughter requirement for wild fish caught and killed at sea, nor, in most places, for farmed fish.

We may feel the pain of falling back from a level of affluence to which we have grown accustomed, but most people in developed countries are still, by historical standards, extraordinarily well off.

We need to learn how to capture and kill wild fish humanely - or, if that is not possible, to find less cruel and more sustainable alternatives to eating them.

Human decision-making is complex. On our own, our tendency to yield to short-term temptations, and even to addictions, may be too strong for our rational, long-term planning.

Ancient recipients of instant news probably couldn't do very much about it, for instance. Xerxes would still need three months to get his army together, and he might not get home for years.

Putting the AR movement directly in opposition to the environmental movement, which should be our natural allies in fighting human arrogance and domination of the planet.

We have a new generation of very rich people who want to do more with their money than buy a lot of expensive toys. They want to live meaningful lives.

If we ever do find a better system, I'll be happy to call myself an anti-capitalist.

Probability is the guide of life, and of death, too.

Business ethics has always had problems that are distinct from those of other professions, such as medicine, law, engineering, dentistry, or nursing.

That's a central part of philosophy, of ethics. What do I owe to strangers? What do I owe to my family? What is it to live a good life? Those are questions which we face as individuals.

But I think the majority of cows, and even more so chickens and pigs, are leading pretty miserable lives.

The principles of ethics come from our own nature as social, reasoning beings.

There can be no brotherhood when some nations indulge in previously unheard of luxuries, while others struggle to stave off famine.

Herbert Spencer is little read now. Philosophers do not regard him as a major thinker. Social Darwinism has long been in disrepute.

If evolution is a struggle for survival, why hasn't it ruthlessly eliminated altruists, who seem to increase another's prospects of survival at the cost of their own?

Human beings are social animals. We were social before we were human.

The goal of maximizing the welfare of all may be better achieved by an ethic that accepts our inclinations and harnesses them so that, taken as a whole, the system works to everyone's advantage.

Ethics seems a morass which we have to cross, but get hopelessly bogged in when we make the attempt.

Sci-fi is often a metaphor. I think it's more the themes and questions that science fiction raises rather than the exact predictions that should guide us.

If we shrug our shoulders at the avoidable suffering of the weak and the poor, of those who are getting exploited and ripped off, we are not the left.

If 10 percent of the population were to take a consciously ethical outlook on life and act accordingly, the resulting change would be more significant than any change of government,

To say that life is meaningless is to express an attitude, not to state a fact

Reason is inherently expansionist. It seeks universal application.

It is easy for us to criticize the prejudices of our grandfathers, from which our fathers freed themselves. It is more difficult to search for prejudices among the beliefs and values we hold.

A society that decides its controversial issues by ballots does better than one that uses bullets – which, after all, is no more likely to lead to the right conclusion than voting.