“He believed with complete conviction that no animal was permanently ruined. Every horse could be improved. He lived by a single maxim: ‘Learn your horse. Each one is an individual, and once you penetrate his mind and heart, you can often work wonders with an otherwise intractable beast.‘”
“The Earth received the wild beasts, and the yielding air the birds. But an animated being, more holy than these, more fitted to receive higher faculties, and which could rule over the rest, was still wanting. Then Man was formed.”
“Master Lan approached the dragon timidly. He held the lamp in one hand and a bamboo stick in the other, ready to defend himself. His work silk slipper squelched in the dragon droppings. The beast roared again, a sound that made the girl want to curl up in a ball and weep.”
″ ‘Who are you?’ I whispered. He shrugged again. ‘Something,’ he said. ‘Something like you, something like a beast, something like a bird, something like an angel.’ He laughed. ‘Something like that.’ ”
“Most beasts are quite friendly, but still, in some lands, some beasts are too dangerous to catch with bare hands. For those that are ugly and vicious and mean I’ll build a Bad-Animal-Catching-Machine. It’s rather expensive to build such a kit, but with it a hunger can never get bit.”
“A crow saw the rabbit running for her life. He flew into the forest crying kaa, kaa, kaa! It was his duty to spread the alarm in case of danger. A monkey heard the crow. He was sure that some dangerous beast was prowling near.”
“But mind maidens, he must not see you, or know that you are here. He is but a savage now, and like the beasts which perish; and from the beasts which perish he must learn. So you must not play with him, or speak to him, or let him see you: but only keep him from being harmed.”
“Whenever the tiny bear was feeling frisky and ready for fun he flipped pebbles around as if they were boulders just to scare the wits out of the grasshoppers, the beetles and caterpillars. From a bug’s-eye view Bruce was a great big hairy-scary horrible brute of a beast.”