But no doubt the first man that ever murdered an ox was regarded as a murderer; perhaps he was hung; and if he had been put on trial by oxen, he certainly would have been; and he certainly deserved it if any murderer does. Go to the meatmarket of a Saturday night and see the crowds of live bipeds staring up the long rows of dead quadrupeds. Does not that sight take a tooth out of the cannibal’s jaw? Cannibals? Who is not a cannibal? I tell you it will be more tolerable for the Fejee (Fiji) that salted down a lean missionary in his cellar against a coming famine; it will be more tolerable for that provident Fejee, I say, in the day of judgment, than for thee, civilized and enlightened gourmand, who naileth geese to the ground and feasteth on their bloated livers in thy paté-de-foie-gras. – Herman Melville, 1819-1891, Moby Dick
My idea of heaven is, eating pâtés de foie gras to the sound of trumpets. – Sydney Smith, 1771-1845