I, for my part, wonder what sort of feeling, mind or reason that man was possessed who was first to pollute his mouth with gore, and allow his lips to touch the flesh of a murdered being; who spread his table with the mangled form of dead bodies, and claimed as daily food and dainty dishes what but know were beings endowed with with movement, with perception and with voice.
—Plutarch (c.46–c.120 CE) Greek Biographer, Philosopher
A mind of the calibre of mine cannot derive its nutriment from cows.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian.
—Paul McCartney (b.1942) English Pop Singer, Songwriter
I am not a vegetarian because I love animals; I am a vegetarian because I hate plants.
—A. Whitney Brown (b.1952) American Comedian, TV Personality
We all love animals. Why do we call some pets and others dinner?
—k.d. lang (b.1961) Canadian Singer, Lesbian Icon
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.
—Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian Novelist
Then God said, I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
Most vegetarians I ever see looked enough like their food to be classed as cannibals.
—Finley Peter Dunne (1867–1936) American Humorist, Journalist, Creator of “Mr. Dooley”
Recognize meat for what it really is: the antibiotic- and pesticide-laden corpse of a tortured animal.
—Ingrid Newkirk (b.1949) British-American Animal Rights Activist
To my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being. I should be unwilling to take the life of a lamb for the sake of the human body.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
Think of the fierce energy concentrated in an acorn! You bury it in the ground, and it explodes into an oak! Bury a sheep, and nothing happens but decay.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Animals are my friends… and I do not eat my friends.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them.
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902) British Victorian Novelist, Essayist, Critic
You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favor of vegetarianism, while the wolf remains of a different opinion.
—William Motter Inge (1913–73) American Playwright, Novelist
Thousands of people who say they ‘love’ animals sit down once or twice a day to enjoy the flesh of creatures who have been treated so with little respect and kindness just to make more meat.
—Jane Goodall (b.1934) British Primatologist, Conservationist
I eat everything that nature voluntarily gives: fruits, vegetables, and the products of plants. But I ask you to spare me what animals are forced to surrender: meat, milk, and cheese.
—Anonymous
There is no substitute for mother’s milk.
—Martin H. Fischer
It is impossible that had Buonaparte descended from a race of vegetable feeders that he could have had either the inclination or the power to ascend the throne of the Bourbons.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Poet, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist
It is only by softening and disguising dead flesh by culinary preparation that it is rendered susceptible of mastication or digestion, and that the sight of its bloody juices and raw horror does not excite intolerable loathing and disgust.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Poet, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist
Be kind to all that lives.
—Fo-sho-hing-tsan-king
While we ourselves are the living graves of murdered beasts, how can we expect any ideal conditions on this earth?
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Vegetarianism preserves live, health, peace, the ecology, creates a more equitable distribution of resources, helps to feed the hungry, encourages nonviolence for the animal and human members of the planet, and is a powerful aid for the spiritual transformation of the body, emotions, mind, and spirit.
—Gabriel Cousens (b.1943) American Physician, Homeopath
I am not a complete vegetarian. I eat only animals that have died in their sleep.
—George Carlin (1937–2008) American Stand-Up Comedian
Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
Vegetarian: A person who eats only side dishes.
—Gerald F. Lieberman
Can you really ask what reason Pythagoras had for abstaining from flesh? For my part I rather wonder both by what accident and in what state of soul or mind the first man did so, touched his mouth to gore and brought his lips to the flesh of a dead creature, he who set forth tables of dead, stale bodies and ventured to call food and nourishment the parts that had a little before bellowed and cried, moved and lived. How could his eyes endure the slaughter when throats were slit and hides flayed and limbs torn from limb? How could his nose endure the stench? How was it that the pollution did not turn away his taste, which made contact with the sores of others and sucked juices and serums from mortal wounds?
—Plutarch (c.46–c.120 CE) Greek Biographer, Philosopher
A man of my spiritual intensity does not eat corpses.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
How can one, who eats the flesh of others to swell his flesh, show compassion?
—The Thirukkural (c.5th cent. CE) Tamil Sacred Couplets
If you knew how meat was made, you would probably lose your lunch.
—k.d. lang (b.1961) Canadian Singer, Lesbian Icon
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