For the great difference between an animal and man is that an animal can have its desires satisfied but man cannot. All that any animal wants is to have its immediate needs granted; this is never the case with man. Man is animated by an urge, an unquenchable desire to enlarge his vision and to know the ultimate meaning of things. If he were only an animal, he would never use symbols, for what are these but attempts to transcend the visible? No, he is a “metaphysical animal”, a being ever longing for answers to the last question.
--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, Peace of Soul, 1949
