Petrică Nițoaia

“Our evolutionary history ensures that we think in stories. Stories are so central to our thinking that it is hard to think about them. An old fish said to a couple of young fish, "Morning, boys! The water's fine today!" and swam off. One young fish turned to the other young fish and asked, "What's water?”
― Sarah Perry, Every Cradle is a Grave: Rethinking the Ethics of Birth and Suicide

“Y: How can man do without the aid of horses?
Z: That is his business to find out.
Y: Do you not think that mankind would be very miserable without their assistance?
Z: Not much more so than with it: in some cases less.”
― Lewis Gompertz, Moral Inquiries on the Situation of Man and of Brutes

“Our condition is rather like walking up a steep staircase, in that there are many more ways to fall down than there are to move upward, and most falls we can make are much easier to perform, and are much longer, than any step upward. And even if we refuse to take any steps, and instead choose to make no effort whatsoever, we will still gradually move down toward misery. We are not just on a staircase, but on a steep escalator moving downward.”
― Magnus Vinding, Suffering-Focused Ethics: Defense and Implications

“It is strange that persons who would shudder at the idea of even seeing a human being flogged, think nothing of witnessing or even inflicting themselves the like punishment on dumb animals. They seem to think it of no importance, because they are used to it; and truly do they suffer every day and continually, what we should think a severe trial for half an hour.”
― Lewis Gompertz, Moral Inquiries on the Situation of Man and of Brutes