On 2/15/07, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Thu, Feb 15, 2007 at 09:26:27AM -0600, Janice McDonald wrote: > > it reminds me of that Mark twain quote where he says "they throw rocks > > at frogs in jest but the frogs are not in jest they are in earnest." > > or something like that. > > *grin* that's a few thousand years off -- that's the greek classic poet > bion: "little boys throw stones at the frogs in jest, but the frogs die > not in jest but in earnest." mark twain does have great things to say > about frogs, though :) >
Actually it seems to be one of those quotes where its hard to pin down who really said it: the renowned Middle East military expert Anthony Cordesman cited the Roman writer Pliny the Elder: "Small boys throw stones at frogs in jest. But, the frogs do not die in jest. The frogs die in earnest." Small boys throw stones at frogs in jest. The frogs do not die in jest; they die in earnest. -- Aristotle Though boys throw stones at frogs in sport, the frogs do not die in sport, but in earnest. ~Bion, "Water and Land Animals," Plutarch But I like this one: The squirrel that you kill in jest, dies in earnest. ~Henry David Thoreau But you are right vicka, it wasn't mark twain who said it, altho he did say some really inspirational things re: animals, such as: The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creatures that cannot. ~Mark Twain, What Is Man, 1906 It is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions. ~Mark Twain Heaven is by favor; if it were by merit your dog would go in and you would stay out. Of all the creatures ever made [man] is the most detestable. Of the entire brood, he is the only one... that possesses malice. He is the only creature that inflicts pain for sport, knowing it to be pain. ~Mark Twain I am not interested to know whether vivisection produces results that are profitable to the human race or doesn't.... The pain which it inflicts upon unconsenting animals is the basis of my enmity toward it, and it is to me sufficient justification of the enmity without looking further. ~Mark Twain janice -- yipie tie yie yo
