“Humans, herself included, held nointerest for her except as living machines, mind-bogglingly intricate, beautiful systems thatsomehow housed individuals not quite worthy of the miracle of their physical bodies.”

“The most beautiful lives, to my mind,are those that conform to the common human pattern, with order, but without miracle, and without eccentricity.”

“Many animals experience pain, anxiety and suffering, physically and psychologically, when they are held in captivity or subjected to starvation, social isolation, physical restraint, or painful situations from which they cannot escape. Even if it is not the same experience of pain, anxiety, or suffering undergone by humans- or even other animals, including members of the same species- an individual's pain, suffering, and anxiety matter.”

“The mind boggles, in other words, but the brain toggles- sometimes quite rapidly, from one task to the next.”

“We’re a bundle of incompatible parts, and we make up stories about ourselves to disguise the fact. The mental unity of the individual is a fiction. There is simply, in the human machine, a multitude of loosely linked behaviour systems which take control of the body and participate in a common delusion of being one single self”

“The very idea of making shoes by hand boggled her mind.”