Brian Lawrence

“Finally, we can congratulate ourselves on the unprecedented accomplishments of modern Sapiens only if we completely ignore the fate of all other animals. Much of the vaunted material wealth that shields us from disease and famine was accumulated at the expense of laboratory monkeys, dairy cows and conveyor-belt chickens. Over the last two centuries tens of billions of them have been subjected to a regime of industrial exploitation whose cruelty has no precedent in the annals of planet Earth. If we accept a mere tenth of what animal-rights activists are claiming, then modern industrial agriculture might well be the greatest crime in history. When evaluating global happiness, it is wrong to count the happiness only of the upper classes, of Europeans or of men. Perhaps it is also wrong to consider only the happiness of humans.”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

“Around the time that Homo sapiens was elevated to divine status by humanist religions, farm animals stopped being viewed as living creatures that could feel pain and distress, and instead came to be treated as machines. Today these animals are often mass-produced in factory-like facilities, their bodies shaped in accordance with industrial needs. They pass their entire lives as cogs in a giant production line, and the length and quality of their existence is determined by the profits and losses of business corporations. Even when the industry takes care to keep them alive, reasonably healthy and well fed, it has no intrinsic interest in the animals’ social and psychological needs (except when these have a direct impact on production).”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

“leadership isn’t a role or a position. Instead it’s really a way of being with others that makes them want to follow you.”
― Ann Deaton, Being Coached: Group and Team Coaching From the Inside

“The tragedy of industrial agriculture is that it takes great care of the objective needs of animals, while neglecting their subjective needs.”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind