Kenko Yoshida

If you carefully observe all kinds of birds, animals, and even tiny insects, you will find that they care for their offspring, they are attached to their parents, they form pairs and feel jealousy, anger, and passionate love, gratify their fleshly desires, and cling to life. And in all of that they are far superior than human beings for the simple reason of being completely foolish.

Kenko Yoshida, Essays in Idleness, fourteenth century CE