Quotes on vegetarianism

Today is International meatless day. This campaign started in India on 25th November 1986 by a great Philosopher, Saint & Spiritualist, named J.P. Vaswani.

He said “Meat gives strength to the body, many people say, but the elephant - one of the biggest & strongest animals in the world - is a pure vegetarian.”

On this day I’ve shared below some quotes on abstaining from meat by some famous people.

"For fear of causing terror to living beings, let the Bodhisatva who is disciplining himself to attain compassion refrain from eating flesh!" - Gautama Buddha

"He who, seeking his own happiness, punishes or kills beings who also long for happiness, will not find happiness after death." -  Buddhist Dhammapada

"It is more important to prevent animal suffering, rather than sit to contemplate the evils of the universe praying in the company of priests." -  Gautam Buddha

“One act of pure love in saving life is greater than spending the whole of one's time in religious offerings to the GODS.” - Dhammapada (Buddhist)

"To avoid causing terror to living beings, let the disciple refrain from eating meat. The food of the wise is that which is consumed by the sadhus [holymen]; it does not consist of meat. There may be some foolish people in the future who will say that I permitted meat-eating & that I partook of meat myself, but meat-eating I have not permitted to anyone, I do not permit, I will not permit meat-eating in any form, in any manner & in any place; it is unconditionally prohibited for all." - The Buddha in Dhammapada

“All beings hate pains; therefore one should not kill them. This is the quintessence of wisdom: not to kill anything.” - Sutrakritanga (Jainism)

“And the flesh of slain beasts in his body will become his own tomb. For I tell you truly, he who kills, kills himself, & who so eats the flesh of slain beasts, eats the body of death." - Jesus Christ

"God doesn't like the flesh & blood that you offer as sacrifice. He expects nothing but your absolute faith."- Quran

“The Utopians feel that slaughtering our fellow creatures gradually destroys the sense of compassion, which is the finest sentiment of which our human nature is capable.” - Thomas Moore (Irish entertainer, poet, singer, songwriter)

“I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals.” - Henry David Thoreau (author, poet, philosopher)

“No humane being, past the thoughtless age of boyhood, will wantonly murder any creature which holds its life by the same tenure that he does.” - Henry David Thoreau (American author, poet, philosopher)

“One farmer says to me, ‘You cannot live on vegetable food solely, for it furnishes nothing to make the bones with;’ & so he religiously devotes a part of his day to supplying himself with the raw material of bones; walking all the while he talks behind his oxen, which, with vegetable-made bones, jerk him & his lumbering plough along in spite of every obstacle.” - Henry David Thoreau (American author, poet, philosopher)

“A human can be healthy without killing animals for food. Therefore if he eats the meat he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite.” - Leo Tolstoy (Russian novelist)

"A man can live & 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 (Russian novelist)

"As long as there are slaughter houses, there will be battle fields. A vegetarian diet is the acid test of humanitarianism " - Leo Tolstoy (Russian novelist)

“If he be really & seriously seeking to live a good life, the first thing from which he will abstain will always be the use of animal food, because, its use is simply immoral, as it involves the performance of an act which is contrary to the moral feeling -- killing.” - Leo Tolstoy (Russian novelist)

“Vegetarianism serves as a criterion by which we know that the pursuit of moral perfection on the part of man is genuine & sincere.” - Leo Tolstoy (Russian novelist)

"I believe I am not interested to know whether Vivisection produces results that are profitable to the human race or doesn't. To know that the results are profitable to the race would not remove my hostility to it. The pains which it inflicts upon unconsenting animals is the basis of my enmity towards it, & it is to me sufficient justification of the enmity without looking further." - Mark Twain (Russian novelist)

"Of all the creatures, man is the most detestable. Of the entire brood, he's the one that possesses malice. He is the only creature that inflicts pain for sport, knowing it to be pain. The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot." - Mark Twain (Russian novelist)

"Non violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all living beings, we are all savages." - Thomas Alva Edison (American inventor & businessman)

"People who eat meat are responsible for all the pain that grows out of meat-eating, & which is necessitated by the use of sentient animals as food." - Annie Besant (British women's rights activist)

"We consume the carcasses of creatures of like appetites, passions & organs with our own, & fill the slaughterhouses daily with screams of pain & fear." - Robert Louis Stevenson (Scottish novelist & poet)

“A carnivorous diet is fatal to real development, & produces the most undesirable results on both astral & mental bodies!” - C.W. Leadbeater 

"I don't want to make my stomach the burial ground of dead animals" - George Bernard Shaw (Irish playwright)

"I look my age. It is the other people who look older than they are. What can you expect from people who eat corpses?" - George Bernard Shaw (Irish playwright)

"When a man wants to murder a tiger, he calls it sport; when a tiger wants to murder him, he calls it ferocity." - George Bernard Shaw (Irish playwright)

"While we ourselves are the living graves of murdered beasts, how can we expect any ideal conditions on this earth?" - George Bernard Shaw (Irish playwright)

“To a man whose mind is free there is something even more intolerable in the sufferings of animals than in the sufferings of man? For with the latter it is at least admitted that suffering is evil & that the man who causes it is a criminal. But thousands of animals are uselessly butchered every day without a shadow of remorse. If any man were to refer to it, he would be thought ridiculous. And that is the unpardonable crime.” - Romain Rolland (French novelist)

"The greatness of a nation & its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." - Mahatma Gandhi (Father of India)

"It is both auspicious & peaceful for people to choose vegetarianism." - Albert Einstein (German Physicist)

"It is my view that the vegetarian manner of living, by its purely physical effect on the human temperament, would most beneficially influence the lot of mankind." - Albert Einstein (German Physicist)

"Nothing will benefit human health & increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet." - Albert Einstein (German Physicist)

“Food affects the mind.  For the practice of any kind of yoga vegetarianism is absolutely necessary, since is makes the mind more satvic, pure & harmonious”. - Ramana Maharshi (Indian Guru)

"To feed on death is to become food for death. To live by other's pain is to become a prey for pain. So has decreed the omni-will. Know that & choose your course " - Mikhail Naimy (Lebanese author)

“As long as people will shed the blood of innocent creatures there can be no peace, no liberty, no harmony between people. Slaughter & justice cannot dwell together.” - Isaac Bashevis (Polish singer, writer & Nobel laureate)

“People often say that humans have always eaten animals, as if this is a justification for continuing to the practice. According to this logic, we should not try to prevent people from murdering other people, since this has also been done since the earliest of times" - Isaac Bashevis (Polish singer, writer & Nobel laureate)

“We cannot have peace among men whose hearts find delight in killing any living creature.” - Rachel Carson (American Biologist)

“By eating meat we share the responsibility of climate change, destruction of forests, & the poisoning of air & water. The simple act of becoming a vegetarian will make a difference to the health of our planet.” - Thich Nhat Hanh (Vietnamese Buddhist monk & peace activist) 

“Animals are brothers & sisters, because man has come from them.  They are our family.  To kill a man is only to kill an evolved animal.  To kill an animal is just to kill somebody who is not yet evolved”.” - Rajneesh Osho (Indian Philosopher)

“People eat meat & think they will become as strong as an ox, forgetting that the ox eats grass." -  Pino Caruso (Italian actor)

"I do not see any reason why animals should be slaughtered to serve as human diet when there are so many substitutes. After all, man can live without meat." - His holiness the 14^th Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso, a Buddhist monk)

“The very emphasis of the commandment: Thou shall not kill, makes it certain that we are descended from an endlessly long chain of generations of murderers, whose love of murder was in their blood as it is perhaps also in ours.” - Sigmund Freud (Austrian Psychiatrist & neurologist)

“All living beings desire to live & are afraid to die. We don’t want to be eaten by a tiger, so why should animals be eaten by humans?” - Ching Hai (Vietnamese Spiritualist)

References: -

1. R. Vegan (2012, July 8). ‘The Top 100 Vegan Quotes’, Pledge Vegan. Available online http://www.pledgevegan.com/vegan-spotlight/top-100-vegan-quotes (accessed November 25, 2013).

2. ‘What eminent person say.’ VegEdge. Available online http://www.vegedge.in/WhatEminentpersonsays.php (accessed November 25, 2013).

3. ‘Vegetarianism.’ Pyramid Spiritual Societies Movement, India. Available online  http://pssmovement.org/english/mvmnt/vegetarianism (accessed November 25, 2013).