It gets harder all the time, Bev Shaw once said. Harder, yet easier. One gets used to things getting harder; one ceases to be surprised that what used to be hard as hard can be grows harder yet.

I say that I represent this movement because my intellectual allegiances are clearly European, not African.

The end of confession is to tell the truth to and for oneself.

To me, a philosopher who says that the distinction between human and nonhuman depends on whether you have a white or a black skin, and a philosopher who says that the distinction between human and nonhuman depends on whether or not you know the difference between a subject and a predicate, are more alike than they are unlike.

So it has come, the day of testing. Without warning, without fanfare, it is here, and he is in the middle of it. In his chest his heart hammers so hard that it too, in its dumb way, must know. How will they stand up to the testing, he and his heart?

(I)f we are going to be kind, let it be out of simple generosity, not because we fear guilt or retribution.

The most important of all rights is the right to life, and I cannot foresee a day when domesticated animals will be granted that right in law.