I have found that to love and be loved is the most empowering and exhilarating of all human emotions.

Some people actually do not like animals - hard for me to understand, but true.

Every individual matters. Every individual has a role to play. Every individual makes a difference.

Certainly it's very often true that women tend to be a bit quieter and more prepared to sit there and let the animal tell you things.

It's been proven by quite a few studies that plants are good for our psychological development. If you green an area, the rate of crime goes down. Torture victims begin to recover when they spend time outside in a garden with flowers. So we need them, in some deep psychological sense, which I don't suppose anybody really understands yet.

It's not that humans and non-humans are identical... but the lack of understanding that led to the slave trade is the same lack of understanding many people have about animals today. When slaves were brought over from Africa, many people believed they were not humans, that they didn't have feelings. Many people believe that primates and other animals don't have feelings, too, but they do.

If only we can overcome cruelty, to human and animal, with love and compassion we shall stand at the threshold of a new era in human moral and spiritual evolution - and realize, at last, our most unique quality: humanity.