Black Beauty

“It is good people who make good places.”

“If they strain me up tight, why, let 'em look out! I can't bear it, and I won't.”

“We call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words.”

“There is no religion without love, and people may talk as much as they like about their religion, but if it does not teach them to be good and kind to man and beast, it is all a sham - all a sham, James, and it won't stand when things come to be turned inside out and put down for what they”

“Do you know why this world is as bad as it is?... It is because people think only about their own business, and won't trouble themselves to stand up for the oppressed, nor bring the wrong-doers to light... My doctrine is this, that if we see cruelty or wrong that we have the power to stop, and do nothing, we make ourselves sharers in the guilt.”

“My troubles are all over, and I am at home; and often before I am quite awake, I fancy I am still in the orchard at Birtwick, standing with my old friends under the apple trees.”

“My doctrine is this, that if we see cruelty or wrong that we have the power to stop, and do nothing, we make ourselves sharers in the guilt.”

“Only ignorance! only ignorance! how can you talk about only ignorance? Don't you know that it is the worst thing in the world, next to wickedness? -- and which does the most mischief heaven only knows. If people can say, 'Oh! I did not know, I did not mean any harm,' they think it is all right.”

“If a thing is right it can be done, and if it is wrong it can be done without; and a good man will find a way.”

“If you in the morningThrow minutes away,You can't pick them upIn the course of a day.You may hurry and scurry,And flurry and worry,You've lost them forever,Forever and aye.”

“Why don't they cut their own children's ears into points to make them look sharp? Why don't they cut off their noses to make them look plucky? One would be just as sensible as the other. What right have they to torment and disfigure God's creatures?”

“We shall all have to be judged according to our works, whether they be towards man or towards beast.”

“I hope you will grow up gentle and good, and never learn bad ways; do your work with a good will, lift your feet up well when you trot, and never bite or kick even in play.”

“He said cruelty was the devil's own trade-mark, and if we saw any one who took pleasure in cruelty we might know who he belonged to, for the devil was a murderer from the beginning, and a tormentor to the end. On the other hand, where we saw people who loved their neighbors, and were kind to man and beast, we might know that was God's mark.”

“I said, 'I have heard people talk about war as if it was a very fine thing.' Ah!' said [Captain], 'I should think they never saw it. No doubt it is very fine when there is no enemy, when it is just exercise and parade, and sham-fight. Yes, it is very fine then; but when thousands of good brave men and horses are killed, or crippled for life, it has a very different look.' Do you know what they fought about?' said I. No,' he said, 'that is more than a horse can understand, but the enemy must have been awfully wicked people, if it was right to go all that way over the sea on purpose to kill them.”

“Now I say, that with cruelty and oppression it is everybody's business to interfere when they see it; you did right my boy.”

“if we could act a little more according to common sense, and a good deal less according to fashion, we should find many things work easier;”

“Oh! if people knew what a comfort to a horse a light hand is, and how it keeps a good mouth and a good temper, they would surely not chuck, and drag, and pull at the rein as they often do.”

“What right had they to make me suffer like that?”

“Good Luck is rather particular who she drives with, and mostly prefers those who have got common sense and a good heart; at least that is my experience.”

“You did right my boy, whether the fellow gets a summons or not. Many folks would have ridden by and said ‘twas not their business to interfere. Now, I say, that with cruelty and oppression it is everybody’s business to interfere when they see it.”

“Now look, for instance, at the way they serve dogs, cutting off their tails to make them look plucky, and shearing up their pretty little ears to a point to make them look sharp”

“Master said, God had given men reason, by which they could find things out for themselves; but he had given animals knowledge which did not depend on reason, and which was more prompt and perfect in it's way, and by which they had often saved the lives of men.”

“The first place that I can well remember, was a large pleasant meadow with a pond of clear water in it. Some shady trees leaned over it, and rushes and water-lilies grew at the deep end. Over the hedge on one side we looked into a plowed field, and on the other we looked over a gate at our master's house, which stood by the roadside;”

“do your best wherever it is, and keep up your good name.”

“This horse has got a good master, and he deserves it.”

“Hark ye,'said the father, 'a bad-tempered man will never make a good-tempered horse. You've not learned your trade yet, Samson.”

“but he had given animals knowledge which did not depend on reason, and which was much more prompt and perfect in its way, and by which they had often saved the lives of men.”

“men were both brutes and blockheads.”

“I had never heard that before; and so poor Rob Roy who was killed at that hunt was my brother! I did not wonder that my mother was so troubled. It seems that horses have no relations; at least, they never know each other after they are sold.”