Animal kingdom Quote by Joseph de Maistre
““In the whole vast dome of living nature there reigns an open violence. A kind of prescriptive fury which arms all the creatures to their common doom: as soon as you leave the inanimate kingdom you find the decree of violent death inscribed on the very frontiers of life. You feel it already in the vegetable kingdom: from the great catalpa to the humblest herb, how many plants die and how many are killed; but, from the moment you enter the animal kingdom, this law is suddenly in the most dreadful evidence. A Power, a violence, at once hidden and palpable. . . has in each species appointed a certain number of animals to devour the others. . . And who [in this general carnage] exterminates him who will exterminate all others? Himself. It is man who is charged with the slaughter of man. . . The whole earth, perpetually steeped in blood, is nothing but a vast altar upon which all that is living must be sacrificed without end, without measure, without pause, until the consummation of things, until evil is extinct, until the death of death.””
About This Quote
Source Treatise: Philosophical Reflections on the Nature of Man, 1795
Human existence is marked by inherent violence, a cyclical predation that culminates in humanity’s own self‑destruction.
In simple terms: Life is a relentless cycle of violence ending in self‑annihilation.
Key Takeaway
Recognize and mitigate destructive impulses.
Themes
violence
mortality
human nature
Mood
somber
reflective
serious
Type
philosophical
critical
When to use this quote
- war
- environmental crisis
- personal conflict
- societal collapse
Key Concepts
philosophy
existentialism
ethics
Questions to Reflect On
- How can we break the cycle of violence?
- What role does empathy play?
A Different Perspective
The view may overlook cooperation and altruism.
![“[Materialism] seeks the primary and most simple state of matter, and then tries to develop all the others from it; ascending from mere mechanism, to chemism, to polarity, to the vegetable and to the animal kingdom. And if we suppose this to have been done, the last link in the chain would be…” quote by Arthur Schopenhauer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/88c/arthur-schopenhauer-226_animal-kingdom_materialism-seeks-the-primary-and-most-s_50402.jpg)
