Powerful vegan/vegetarian statements

[Campbell]

Enough of mangoes already! You're all making me hungry... :)

"I did not become a vegetarian for my health, I did it for the health of the chickens." - Isaac Bashevis Singer

I think it was George Bernard Shaw who said "animals are my friends, and I don't eat my friends..."

Melanie Safka: "I don't eat animals, 'cos they don't eat me"
(though I'm not sure this is always true. The crocs up north don't say no to a bite of human rump) ;)

[Yaksongs]

Hi Campbell - yes I think that was GBS sho said that.

Another of Singers I liked was "when you slaughter a creature, you slaughter God"

I keep meaning to mention this to the Vicar at the harvest supper barbeque (which I don't go to) at our local church as they all tuck in to an array of murdered animals & pray to their God

Like you, I'm not sure the Malanie Safka quote holds a lot of water !!! - but the animals that would eat her if given the chance are at least designed to do so !

[Poppy]

http://www.all-creatures.org/murti/tsnhod-13.html

This is a brilliant read, do have a look if you get the chance, here's just a sample.
According to Porphyry, animals have rights. Animals are our brothers and sisters. Animals have been endowed with life, feelings, ideas, memory, and industry. The only thing animals may be said to lack which sets humans apart from them is the gift of speech. "If they had it," asked Porphyry, "should we dare to kill and eat them? Should we dare to commit these fratricides?"

I've asked some of my meat-eating friends this question and they really can't answer. At least it gets them thinking.
x

[VenomousX]

Here's a large list of my favorite quotes, whenever I come across another one I like I add it to the list ^^;

"You put a toddler in a crib with an apple and a rabbit. If it eats the rabbit and plays with the apple, I'll buy you a new car." -- Harvey Diamond


“The ones I pity are the ones who never stick out their neck for something they believe, never know the taste of moral struggle, and never have the thrill of victory.”
- Jonathan Kozol

“If you don’t stand for SOMETHING, you’ll fall for ANYTHING”

"I am not interested to know whether vivisection produces results that are profitable to the human race. The pain which it inflicts upon un-consenting animals is the basis of my enmity toward it, and it is to me sufficient justification of the enmity without looking further."
-Mark Twain

"My furs are not in storage, nor lying on the bed,
they're dancing 'round my feet, waiting to be fed."

'All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated and well supported in logic and argument than others.' - Douglas Adams

"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little." ~Edmund Burke

"Wow. Way to blindly pander to the unsustainable practices of the masses and mindlessly go along with the lame jokes that merely bolster weak ego which actually do nothing more than illustrate your fear of that which is unfamiliar. Yeah. You might want to think about the impacts that your decisions have on society and my environment before you go around trying to hurt peoples feelings who are just trying to do their part. It's called disassociation, and I'm just not down with it."

"Those who say it can't be done, should get out of the way of those who are doing it."

"The animal rights movement needs to STOP acting like it’s in a conversation, instead of a war"
--Unknown

"For the sake of some little mouthful of flesh, we deprive a soul of the sun and light and of that proportion of life and time it had been born into the world to enjoy."
--Plutarch

"The fate of animals is of greater importance to me than the fear of appearing ridiculous; it is indissolubly connected to the fate of men"
--Emile Zola

"Some will take refuge in the old cliché that humans are different from other animals. But when did a difference justify a moral prejudice? When did those with black hair have a right to mistreat those with red hair...or even those with blue or purple hair...Surely the crucial similarity that men share with other animals is the capacity to suffer? Regardless of the number of legs or the woolliness of our fur, we can all suffer..."
--Richard Ryder

"Not having known anything better does not alleviate the suffering of the animal. Its fundamental desires remain and it is the frustration of those desires that is a great part of its suffering. There are so many examples: the dairy cow who is never allowed to raise her young, the battery hen who can never walk or stretch her wings, the sow who can never build a nest or root for food in the forest litter, etc. Eventually we frustrate the animal's most fundamental desire of all - to live."
--David Cowles-Hamar.

"In point of fact, I am the very opposite of an anthropomorphiser. I don't hold animals superior or even equal to humans. The whole case for behaving decently to animals rests on the fact that we are the superior species. We are the species uniquely capable of imagination, rationality and moral choice - and that is precisely why we are under an obligation to recognize and respect the rights of animals."
--Brigid Brophy

"Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages."
--Thomas Edison

"There will be no justice as long as man will stand with a knife or with a gun and destroy those who are weaker than he is."
--Isaac Bashevis Singer

"The cruel experimenter cannot be allowed to have it both ways. He cannot, in the same breath, defend the scientific validity of vivisection on the grounds of the physical similarities between man and the other animals, and then defend the morality of vivisection on the grounds that men and animals are physically different. The only logical alternatives for him are to admit he is either pre-Darwinian or immoral."
--Richard Ryder

"Suppose that tomorrow a group of beings from another planet were to land on earth, beings who considered themselves as superior to you as you feel yourself to be to other animals. Would they have the right to treat you as you treat the animals you breed, keep and kill for food?"
--John Harris

"Awareness is bad for the meat business.
Conscience is bad for the meat business.
Sensitivity to life is bad for the meat business.
DENIAL, however, the meat business finds indispensable."
--John Robbins, Diet for a New America

"If an animal does something we call it instinct; if we do the same thing for the same reason we call it intelligence"
-- Will Cuppie

"Nothing more strongly arouses our disgust than cannibalism; yet we make the same impression on Buddhists and vegetarians, for we feed on babies, though not our own."
-- Robert Louis Stephenson

"Of all the creatures ever made, Man is the most detestable. He is the only creature that inflicts pain for sport, knowing it to be pain."
-- Mark Twain


"For fidelity, devotion, love, many a two-legged animal (man) is below the dog and the horse. Happy would it be for thousands of people if they could stand at last before the Judgment Seat and say "I have loved as truly and I have lived as decently as my dog." And yet we call them "only animals"!"
--Henry Ward Beecher (abolitionist)

"I despise and abhor the pleas on behalf of that infamous practice, vivisection... I would rather submit to the worst of deaths, so far as pain goes, than have a single dog or cat tortured to death on the pretense of sparing me a twinge or two."
--Robert Browning (poet)

"The squirrel that you kill in jest, dies in earnest."
--Henry David Thoreau (essayist and poet)

"Imagine that you are creating a fabric of human destiny with the object of making men happy in the end, giving them peace and rest at last, but that it was essential and inevitable to torture to death only one tiny creature, and to found that edifice on its unavenged tears. Would you consent to be the architect on those conditions? Tell me, and tell the truth."
--Fyodor Dostoyevsky (novelist)

"In studying the traits and dispositions of the so-called lower animals, and contrasting them with man's, I find the result humiliating to me."
--Mark Twain (author)

"As we become increasingly aware of the finite limits to the carrying capacity of the planet, the inefficiency of converting eight or nine kilograms of grain protein into one kilogram of animal protein for human consumption would by itself be sufficient argument against continuation of our present dietary habits. When one adds in the abuse of animals inherent to factory farming methods, the depletion and contamination of aquifers, the intense use of grain crops and grazing areas, and the release of methane and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the case against our meat-eating behavior becomes overwhelming. And that is before we factor in the effects of animal fats - an inescapable component of meat and poultry - on human health."
-- Robert S. Lawrence, M.D. Associate Dean Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health

“The optimum human population of earth is zero.” -Dave Foreman, Earth First!

“The wild, cruel animal is not behind the bars of a cage. He is in front of it.” -Axel Munthe

“When a man wants to murder a tiger it is called a sport, when the tiger wants to murder him it is called ferocity.” - Geroge Bernard Shaw

“I feel very sorry for women who continue to purchase real fur coats. They are lacking in a woman's most important requisites, heart and sensitivity.” -Jayne Meadows

“I never thought much of the courage of a lion-tamer. Inside the cage he is at least safe from people.” - George Bernard Shaw

“Why should man expect his prayer for mercy to be heard by What is above him when he shows no mercy to what is under him?”
~ Pierre Troubetzkoy

“Hunting is not a sport. In a sport, both sides should know they're in the game.”
~ Paul Rodriguez

“Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals.”
~ George Orwell, Animal Farm

“I ask people why they have deer heads on their walls. They always say because it's such a beautiful animal. There you go. I think my mother is attractive, but I have photographs of her.”
~ Ellen DeGeneres

“Those who wish to pet and baby wild animals "love" them. But those who respect their natures and wish to let them live normal lives, love them more.”
~ Edwin Way Teale, Circle of the Seasons, 1953

“If a ferret bites you it is nearly always your own fault.”
~ Phil Drabble

When it comes to having a central nervous system, and the ability to feel pain, hunger, and thirst, a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy.
~ Ingrid Newkirk

"The beef industry has contributed to more American deaths than all the wars of this century, all natural disasters, and all automobile accidents combined. If beef is your idea of "real food for real people" you'd better live real close to a real good hospital."
~Neal Barnard, M.D.

"I find that low protein diets often contribute to improvement in patients with immune system problems ... In fact, it would be hard to become deficient in protein in our country even if you tried." ~Andrew Weil, M.D.

"Americans have been mislead by the beef and dairy industries for long enough. The dairy industry designed the original food pyramid, not health minded nutritionists or doctors. Red meat should contain the following warning on the label: "Red meat contributes to heart disease and some forms of cancer." It is absolutely healthier to replace red meat in the diet with organic fruits and vegetables - Period!"
~Steven Ferrel C.N.

"If you step back and look at the data, the optimum amount of red meat you eat should be zero."
~Dr. Walter Willet

[Yaksongs]

http://www.all-creatures.org/murti/tsnhod-13.html

This is a brilliant read, do have a look if you get the chance, here's just a sample.
According to Porphyry, animals have rights. Animals are our brothers and sisters. Animals have been endowed with life, feelings, ideas, memory, and industry. The only thing animals may be said to lack which sets humans apart from them is the gift of speech. "If they had it," asked Porphyry, "should we dare to kill and eat them? Should we dare to commit these fratricides?"

I've asked some of my meat-eating friends this question and they really can't answer. At least it gets them thinking.
x

Like it Poppy - that's a good one - I guess the summarised phrase would be to ask that "if they could talk to you, would you still eat them?" the likely rebuff is that "they can't talk can they". To which I would say well if a voice is the only thing between life & death for you - how awful is it that you choose to kill something that cannot plead for its life in language that you would understand? .. then you get into the "well I don't care" territory - a la below....

Fiona was accosted in a supermarket this week by someone who got more than he bargained for. She was doing some shopping wearing as always her "Meat is Murder" badge when she noticed a wisened old crone and her even more wisened partner staring at her. He was saying in an overloud voice "Have you seen what it says on her badge" If he said it once he said it 10 times. After she could stand it no more, she walked up to them & asked "Have you got something to say to me?" - The slightly more cadaverous of the pair pointed at her badge with a shrivelled digit & said "whats all that about?" - She said "Can't you read then?" he then said, "you're F***ing barmy you are". Fiona said - "Look, do you imagine that the animals all line up waiting to be slaughtered so you can eat them?" - he said "Well I don't F***ing care" - Fiona said, "No you don't & that's because you are a pair of F***ing C**ts - This had the desired effect of leaving the old harbingers speechless. A 'happy to help' assistant appeared to ask if there was a problem & Fiona said "Yes there is a problem - it's him" & walked off.

Classic !! well IMHO anyway

[Darky_]

I would like people to post powerful pro-vegan statements or literature here. Something you deeply relate to or have found particularly moving (possibly even turned you vegan) etc.

One of my favourites is apparently what Plutarch (Greek Historian 60AD - 120AD) said in defence of Pythagoras (mathematician and philosopher 580-572BC - 500-490BC) and his own vegetarian diet;


"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 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? It is certainly not lions and wolves that we eat out of self-defence; on the contrary, we ignore these and slaughter harmless, tame creatures without stings or teeth to harm us, creatures that, I swear, Nature appears to have produced for the sake of their beauty and grace. But nothing abashed us, not the flower-like like tinting of the flesh, not the persuasiveness of the harmonious voice, not the cleanliness of their habits or the unusual intelligence that may be found in the poor wretches. No, for the sake of a little flesh we deprive them of sun, of light, of the duration of life to which they are entitled by birth and being." - Plutarch



I find it reassuring that people have been able to see the facts for thousands of years:). Not so reassuring that lots of people still don't though!:mad:



Thank you for this and all the other quotes. I love them and, me, being a new(ish) Vegan, its very encouraging and I couldn't agree more with all of them! :cool:

Heres one tha Peter Singer said and its one of my favorites.....

"All the arguments to prove human superiority cannot shatter this hard fact: in suffering, the animals are our equals."
Peter Singer -
Australian philosopher author of animal liberation

...love it love it :p

[eve]

When someone made fun of Emile Zola's humanitarianism, Zola said:
"The fate of animals is of greater importance to me, than the fear of appearing ridiculous."

[Mollymw]

One of my favourite quotes is:
"And if your heart is straight with God, the every creature shall be to you a mirror of life and a book of holy doctrine, for there is no creature so little or so vile, that he does not represent the goodness of God" -Thomas Kempis

You can substitute any word for 'God' and it still makes sense
Molly W

[Roxy]

When someone made fun of Emile Zola's humanitarianism, Zola said:
"The fate of animals is of greater importance to me, than the fear of appearing ridiculous."

I really like that one. I'm going to remember it for the next time I am ridiculed for my veganism.

[Cheezcake Spice]

I just started reading The Food Revolution and I actually burst out laughing when I read this quote.

"The beef industry has contributed to more deaths than all the wars of this century, all natural disasters, ad all automobile accidents combined. If beef is your idea of 'real food for real people,' you'd better live real close to a real good hospital."

Neal Barnard, MD., President, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

I really appreciate this quote because, although animal rights is a massively important part of vegetarianism/veganism, this quote right here is telling you why you should stop consuming meat for selfish reasons that will utimatley benefit you in the end, and how can someone argue with that?

[Hemlock]

I have to admit Yaksongs that Fionas approach appeals to me, and is one I have often taken too. Sadly I have no tolerance and am a crap vegan ambassador:)

[fooldramaqueen]

I only recently discovered that Leonardo Da Vinci was a vegetarian...it's sad that his most famous "quote" is not really attributable to him (it's from a fictional work about Da Vinci) because it's quite a good one....but nonetheless there are some interesting points & quotes about his vegetarianism here:

http://www.ivu.org/history/davinci/hurwitz.html

The paper ends with a quote that, whilst not mentioning vegetarianism directly, seems like good general advice :)

"If you would keep healthy, follow this regimen: do not eat unless you feel inclined, and sup lightly: chew well, and let what you take be well cooked and simple. He who takes medicine does himself harm; do not give way to anger and avoid close air; hold yourself upright when you rise from table and do not let yourself sleep at midday. Be temperate with wine, take a little frequently, but not at other than the proper meal-times, nor on an empty stomach; neither protract not delay the [visit to] the privy. When you take exercise let it be moderate. Do not remain with the belly recumbent and the head lowered, and see that you are well covered at night. Rest your head and keep your mind cheerful; shun wantonness, and pay attention to diet." –– Codex Atlantico 78 v.b.

[pennyfeedsfoxes]

This is my first post on this forum....
Just wanted to say that this thread is fabulous, emotional rollercoaster!

[Von Starrdust]

"Animals are sentient creatures. I love them very much. I do not feel that we have the right to torture, murder, and abuse them for our own disgusting dietary and fashion wants and needs."- Davey Havok

Maybe not incredibly powerful, but basically says it all.

[pearlgirl00]

this is one of my favorites:

"Isn't man an amazing animal? He kills wildlife - birds, kangaroos, deer, all kinds of cats, coyotes, beavers, groundhogs, mice, foxes and dingoes - by the million in order to protect his domestic animals and their feed. Then he kills domestic animals by the billion and eats them. This in turn kills man by the millions, because eating all those animals leads to degenerative - and fatal - health conditions like heart disease, kidney disease, and cancer. So then man tortures and kills millions more animals to look for cures for these diseases. Elsewhere, millions of other human beings are being killed by hunger and malnutrition because food they could eat is being used to fatten domestic animals. Meanwhile, some people are dying of sad laughter at the absurdity of man, who kills so easily and so violently, and once a year, sends out cards praying for Peace on Earth.
"
— David Coats (http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/1230459.David_Coats)

[ShariBlackVelvet]

A couple of my faves are:

'We won't lose our lives if we speak out against animal wrongs wherever we see them. But the animals do lose theirs if we don't. So we must.' - Ingrid Newkirk, PETA

'The question is not, "Can they reason?" nor, "Can they talk?" but rather, "Can they suffer?"' - Jeremy Betham

"Why do we call this fun to kill this creature who was as happy as I was when I woke up this morning?" - Marv Levy

'I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will NOT refuse to do the something that I can do.' - Helen Keller


'I sometimes think, would I drink the milk from the breast of a woman I don't know? No. So I think, why would I drink it from a cow.' - Devon Aoki


This one I think is more inspiring in an activist kind of way (shooting being a metaphor for standing up and speaking out or taking action):

'I don't care if I fall as long as someone else picks up my gun and keeps on shooting.' - Ernesto 'Che' Guevara

Also got this one written in my list of quotes:

'In order to satisfy one human stomach, so many lives are taken away. We must promote vegetarianism. It is extremely important.' - The Dalai Lama, Live In A Better Way, 2001


EDIT - Just realised there's a separate 'famous quotes' thread. Maybe I should have posted these in there (although I blindly was only looking at this thread!). I did wonder whether quotes were classed as 'statements'. Oh well...

[Korn]

Maybe we should just merge these two threads?

[VeganLu]

"If you love animals called pets, why do you eat animals called dinner?"

"Human beings are the only mammals that drink milk their entire lives, and the milk they drink is from another species."

[Sarabi]

My personal favorite...


When the darkness of the world seems overwhelming, unstoppable, crushing, when beings like Celeste, who love life and sing about love are being turned into meat and handbags by the millions every day, when the pain of loving them seems unbearable, the answer is NOT to stop loving, NOT to stop caring, NOT to add to the darkness. The answer is to love more, deeper, wider. To love despite the darkness and the pain. Indeed, to love because of it. To love those who need it most desperately, not only those we happen to like, to love because your love is profoundly, vitally needed, not because it is self-gratifying. To love as though life depended on it. It does.

[VeganLu]

Sarabi: Who is Celeste? I am embarrrassed for having to ask, but I just don't know.

[Prawnil]

Absolutely nothing to do with vegetarianism, unless you want it to be (considering resistance in many to taking an ethical attitude 'too far,' to its sensible conclusion):

"While it is the constant tendency of the Old Adam to rebel against so universal and automatic a thing as civilization, to preach departure and rebellion, the romance of police activity keeps in some sense before the mind the fact that civilization itself is the most sensational of departures and the most romantic of rebellions. ... When the detective in a police romance stands alone, and somewhat fatuously fearless amid the knives and fists of a thieves' kitchen, it does certainly serve to make us remember that it is the agent of social justice who is the original and poetic figure; while the burglars and footpads are merely placid old cosmic conservatives, happy in the immemorial respectability of apes and wolves. The romance of the police force is thus the whole romance of man. It is based on the fact that morality is the most dark and daring of conspiracies..."
GK Chesterton, A Defense of Detective Stories 1901.

[rxseeeyse]

Because of my culture background I find buddism the most moving.
so supposely Buddha said

"All beings tremble before violence.
All fear death.
All love life.
See yourself in others.
Then whom can you hurt?
What harm can you do?"

PS: Dalai Lama is awesome :D

[SaraJane]

This is my favorite:

“We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature, and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.”
~Henry Beston

[Back-Space]

My favourite was

“Why should man expect his prayer for mercy to be heard by What is above him when he shows no mercy to what is under him?”
~ Pierre Troubetzkoy

[RubyDuby]

love that!