Edward Searl has put together a wonderful collection of passages about animals. He establishes the connections which link us to two-legged, four-legged, winged and finned creatures and sees us all together on the same evolutionary adventure of diversity.

Edwin Way Teal challenges us to empathize with the animals around us like John Burroughs who said:

" 'My thoughts go out and scratch with the hens, they nip the new grass with the geese, they follow the wild ducks northward.' And so did John Keats when he said: 'If a sparrow comes before my window, I take part in its existence and pick about in the gravel.' "

Here are a few other memorable quotations:

"Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened."
— Anatole France

"I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul."
— Jean Cocteau

"To go to the animals is to go home."
— Johannes Jensen