I think I could turn and live with animals  they are so placid and self-contain'd  I stand and look at them long and long  They do not sweat and whine about their condition  They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins  They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God  Not one is dissatisfied  not one is demented with the mania of owning things. Not one kneels to another  nor to his kind that liveth thousands of years ago  Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth.
Walt Whitman
animals