It's crazy to get angry at things that can't think. It's just as crazy to get angry at animals. Animals can't do us wrong because they can't make plans to hurt us. We can only call something "wrong" when someone does it on purpose. Animals can hurt us, sure — just like a sword or stone can hurt us. But they can't actually wrong us. Yet some people feel insulted when a horse that's calm with one rider acts up with another. They think the horse chose to be difficult, instead of understanding that some riders are just better at handling horses than others. It's foolish to be angry with animals. It's just as foolish to be angry with children, or with adults who think like children. Before any fair judge, ignorance would excuse these people just as much as innocence would.
Yet as it is the act of a madman to be angry with inanimate objects, so also is it to be angry with dumb animals, which can do us no wrong because they are not able to form a purpose; and we cannot call anything a wrong unless it be done intentionally. They are, therefore, able to hurt us, just as a sword or a stone may do so, but they are not able to do us a wrong. Yet some men think themselves insulted when the same horses which are docile with one rider are restive with another, as though it were through their deliberate choice, and not through habit and cleverness of handling that some horses are more easily managed by some men than by others. And as it is foolish to be angry with them, so it is to be angry with children, and with men who have little more sense than children: for all these sins, before a just judge, ignorance would be as effective an excuse as innocence.