Vegetarianism Quotes
More Vegetarianism Quotes
"My mother was convinced, and on this head I have retained her firm belief, that to kill animals for the purpose of feeding on their flesh is one of the most deplorable and shameful infirmities of the human state; that it is one of those curses cast upon man either by his fall, or by the obduracy of his own perversity."
alphonse de lamartine— On Les confidences
"I am a vegetarian for health reasons - the health of the chicken."
Isaac Bashevis Singer— In Judaism and Vegetarianism
"Vegans and vegetarians are commonly baited by nonvegetarians with “what if” scenarios that typically have no relevance to or bearing on most people’s real-life situations."
— Joanne Stepaniak, M.S. Ed., Being Vegan
"Perhaps a man hitched to the cart of a Martian or roasted on the spit by inhabitants of the Milky Way will recall the veal cutlet he used to slice on his dinner plate and apologize (belatedly) to the cow."
Milan Kundera— From The Unbearable Lightness of Being
"A dead cow or sheep lying in a pasture is recognized as carrion. The same sort of carcass dressed and hung up in a butchers stall passes as food."
— John Harvey Kellogg, quoted by Gail Davis in Vegetarian Food for Thought
"I'd rather see you drink a glass of wine than a glass of milk."
jack la lanne— Interview by Dennis Hughes, Share Guide[ ]
"My best performances were when I was 30 years old, and I was a vegan."
carl lewis— Retired American track and field olympic athlete YouTube video
"If we each had to butcher our own meat, there would be a great increase in the number of vegetarians."
— Ernest Howard Crosby, Tolstoy and his message, 1904, p. 53.
"There is not a single argument nor a single fact that can be offered in favour of flesh eating that cannot be offered, with equal strength, in favour of cannibalism."
— Herbert Shelton, Superior Nutrition
"People of the future will say, “meat-eaters!” in disgust and regard us in the same way that we regard cannibals and cannibalism."
— Dennis Weaver, quoted by Gail Davis in Vegetarian Food for Thought
"Just as, in our days, exposure of children, combats of gladiators, torture of prisioners, and other atrocities are held to be scandalous and shameful, while in earlier times they were thought quite justifiable and right, so in the future will be the murder of animals, to feed upon their corpses, be pronounced to be immoral and indefensible."
— Wilhelm Zimmermann(1819-1885), The Way to Paradise
"As I cannot kill, I cannot authorize others to kill. Do you see? If you are buying from a butcher you are authorizing him to kill – to kill helpless, dumb creatures which neither you nor I could kill ourselves."
— Paul Troubetzkoy, quoted in Vegetarian Food for Thought[ ]
"It is strange to hear people talk on humanitarianism, who are members of societies for prevention of cruelty to children and animals, and who claim to be God-loving men and women, but who, nevertheless, encourage by their patronage the killing of animals merely to gratify the cravings of appetite."
— Ha'nish Otoman Zar-Adusht Ha'nish, Mazdaznan Dietetics and Cookery Book, 1913, p. 196
"Even if man were created a carnivorous animal, is there no way for him to outgrow it as he becomes more intelligent?"
— Ha'nish Otoman Zar-Adusht Ha'nish, Mazdaznan Dietetics and Cookery Book, 1913, p. 197
"Cruelty stares at me from the butcher’s face. I tread amidst carcasses. I am in the presence of the slain. The death-set eyes of beasts peer at me and accuse me of belonging to the race of murderers. "
Amos Bronson Alcott— The Journals of Bronson Alcott
"Only by discarding a diet based on rotting corpses could men become sane. ."
— Jack Lindsay, Fanfrolico and After, 1962
"It is frightful wrong that other species are tortured, worried, flayed, and devored by us, in spite of the fact that we are not obliged to this by necessity; while in sinning against the defenceless and helpless, just claimants as they are upon our reasonable conscience and upon our compassion, we succeed only in brutalising ourselves."
— Georg Friedrich Daumer, quoted by Howard Williams in The Ethics of Diet
"I was in a sushi bar and it dawned on me – how could I discriminate between a cow and a fish?"
— Carré Otis, Animal Times, Summer, 2007, p. 4
"We manage to swallow flesh, only because we do not think of the cruel and sinful thing we do."
rabindranath tagore— Glimpses of Bengal Letters, 1894
"A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food, therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite. And to act so is immoral."
Henry David Thoreau— Henry David Thoreau, On Civil Disobedience
"How can one, who eats the flesh of others to swell his flesh, show compassion?"
— Tiruvalluvar, Tirukkural: 251
"I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals, as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating each other when they came in contact with the more civilized."
Henry David Thoreau— (On Walden)
"Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace."
Albert Schweitzer— (The Philosophy of Civilisation)
"And before we judge of them too harshly we must remember what ruthless and utter destruction our own species has wrought, not only upon animals, such as the vanished bison and the dodo, but upon its inferior races. The Tasmanians, in spite of their human likeness, were entirely swept out of existence in a war of extermination waged by European immigrants, in the space of fifty years. Are we such apostles of mercy as to complain if the Martians warred in the same spirit?."
H.G. Wells— On The War of the Worlds, Chapter I
"I became a vegetarian because I was persuaded that life is as valid for other creatures as it is for humans. I do not need dead animal bodies to keep me alive, strong and healthy. Therefore, I will not kill for food."
— Scott Nearing, On The Making of a Radical
"Everything of persecution and revenge between man and man, and everything of cruelty to animals is a violation of moral duty."
thomas paine— Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason
"Many refined people will not kill a fly, but eat an ox."
isaac leib peretz— Isaac Leib Peretz, Taanis Gedanken, 1896. Alle Verk, xii. 77.
