If we can put a man on the moon and sequence the human genome, we should be able to devise something close to a universal digital public library.

Philosophy ought to question the basic assumptions of the age. Thinking through, critically and carefully, what most of us take for granted is, I believe, the chief task of philosophy, and the task that makes philosophy a worthwhile activity.

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

By ceasing to rear and kill animals for food, we can make so much extra food available for humans that, properly distributed, it would eliminate starvation and malnutrition from this planet. Animal Liberation is Human Liberation too.

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

It may be thought justifiable to require tests on animals of potentially life-saving drugs, but the same kinds of tests are used for products like cosmetics, food coloring, and floor polishes. Should thousands of animals suffer so that a new kind of lipstick or floor wax can be put on the market? Don't we already have an excess of most of these products? Who benefits from their introduction, except the companies that hope to profit from them?

An animal experiment cannot be justifiable unless the experiment is so important that the use of a brain-damaged human would be justifiable.