Vegetarianism Quotes - page 2
Can the human appropriation of nature ever achieve the elimination of violence, cruelty, and brutality in the daily sacrifice of animal life for the physical reproduction of the human race? To treat nature "for its own sake" sounds good, but it is certainly not for the sake of the animal to be eaten, nor probably for the sake of the plant. The end of this war, the perfect peace in the animal world - this idea belongs to the Orphic myth, not to any conceivable historical reality. In the face of the suffering inflicted by man on man, it seems terribly "premature" to campaign for universal vegetarianism or synthetic foodstuffs; as the world is, priority must be on human solidarity among human beings. And yet, no free society is imaginable which does not, under its "regulative idea of reason," make the concerted effort to reduce consistently the suffering which man imposes on the animal world.
Herbert Marcuse
The precise reason why abstinence from animal food will be the first act ... of a moral life is admirably explained in the book, The Ethics of Diet [by Howard Williams]; and not by one man only, but by all mankind in the persons of its best representatives during all the conscious life of humanity. ... the moral progress of humanity - which is the foundation of every other kind of progress - is always slow; but ... the sign of true, not casual, progress is its uninterruptedness and its continual acceleration. And the progress of vegetarianism is of this kind. That progress, is expressed both in the words of the writers cited in the above-mentioned book and in the actual life of mankind, which from many causes is involuntarily passing metre and more from carnivorous habits to vegetable food, and is also deliberately following the same path in a movement which shows evident strength, and which is growing larger and larger - viz., vegetarianism.
Leo Tolstoy
Nothing was ever in tune. People just blindly grabbed at whatever there was: communism, health foods, zen, surfing, ballet, hypnotism, group encounters, orgies, biking, herbs, Catholicism, weight-lifting, travel, withdrawal, vegetarianism, India, painting, writing, sculpting, composing, conducting, backpacking, yoga, copulating, gambling, drinking, hanging around, frozen yogurt, Beethoven, Bach, Buddha, Christ, TM, H, carrot juice, suicide, handmade suits, jet travel, New York City, and then it all evaporated and fell apart. People had to find things to do while waiting to die. I guess it was nice to have a choice.
Charles Bukowski
I don't know if it's a hundred years, but it seems to me if history continues-that's not at all obvious, that it will-but if society continues to develop without catastrophe on something like the course that you can sort of see over time, I wouldn't be in the least surprised if it moves toward vegetarianism and protection of animal rights. In fact, what we've seen over the years-and it's hard to be optimistic in the twentieth century, which is one of the worst centuries in human history in terms of atrocities and terror and so on-but still, over the years, including the twentieth century, there is a widening of the moral realm, bringing in broader and broader domains of individuals who are regarded as moral agents.
Noam Chomsky
Once he [Kafka] went to the Berlin aquarium ... Suddenly he began to speak to the fish in their illuminated tanks, "Now at last I can look at you in peace, I don't eat you any more." It was the time that he turned strict vegetarian. If you have never heard Kafka saying things of this sort with his own lips, it is difficult to imagine how simply and easily, without any affectation, without the least sentimentality-which was something almost completely foreign to him-he brought them out. Among my notes I find something else that Kafka said about vegetarianism. He compared vegetarians with the early Christians, persecuted everywhere, everywhere laughed at, and frequenting dirty haunts. "What is meant by its nature for the highest and the best, spreads among the lowly people."
Max Brod
For those who are still merely vegetarian and not yet vegan, I ask, what in heaven's name are you waiting for? If you are trying to avoid the health pitfalls of eating carcasses-high fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol content; lack of fiber; deficiency of vitamins and enzymes; abundance of stored toxins-well, then take a good look at the dairy you're eating. Dairy is basically liquid meat without the iron. ... Milk should be viewed as no more or less than what it is: a delivery system for fat, cholesterol, blood, pus, antibiotics, and carcinogenic growth hormones. ... If your reason for abstaining from meat has more to do with an emotional attachment to animals than a concern for your health, then understand that dairy cows are truly sick, miserable, abused creatures ... Someone who has become vegetarian for emotional reasons ought to switch to the vegan diet as swiftly and surely as someone brought to vegetarianism for reasons of health.
Howard F. Lyman
With all the wonderful vegetarian foods available today, it doesn't take a mentalist to realize that eating meat just doesn't make sense anymore. It's not healthy, it's devastating to our planet, and it means a cruel and painful death for literally billions of animals every year. So why not give vegetarianism a try? You will have a lot more energy, you can lose weight, and best of all you will know that you are creating a better world for all the animals that live here.
Owain Yeoman
Just as the Bible teaches the Golden Rule - "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you” - the Mahabharata (5.39.57), predating the Bible, teaches a similar truth, and in almost the exact same wording. Yogis and spiritual adepts in India extend the teaching to its logical limits, showing kindness to all species of life - and this, of course, means vegetarianism. It is hard to be kind to animals if you are eating them. In other words, if you don't want someone eating your entrails, don't eat the entrails of others.
Steven J. Rosen
Vegetarianism is a really important part of what we need to do to help the environment. The meat industry is really toxic to the environment. The cattle industry - besides the fact that there's a lot of cruel things happening - the manure is extremely toxic. We just need to pull back as a culture as much as we can.
Lisa Edelstein
I would never preach vegetarianism. It's such a personal choice. It's got to suit you, and be right for you: emotionally, spiritually and physically. If it's working for you, that's really great. ... I definitely think there are some benefits. I know a lot of people that have had cancer, for example, and they'll make a point of telling me, ‘The first thing my doctor told me to do was stop eating meat during this process.' I think it's interesting a doctor would suggest a vegetarian diet when you're already sick. ... I stick to a mixture of real raw, whole-food items every day. I make sure I'm eating greens every day, and nuts, and food that's not processed. I do that every day.
Shania Twain
I'm vegan in my fashion and vegetarian in my food. I don't buy any leather goods or anything made from animal products – no down, nothing. It's something people should be mindful of. ... I think because I came to live in L. A. the transition was simple because vegetarianism is so common there. And I didn't feel like I was missing that much by being a vegetarian. ... I had a moment about 9 years ago. It was so odd. I was talking to my then-boyfriend and he was talking about a fishing trip and how he'd never had the experience of ‘killing' his food. Even though I had fished my whole life, something just snapped in me and I said, I'm not eating this anymore. ... Being vegan is more challenging, especially when it comes to going out to eat. But I found Chicago has great vegetarian and vegan restaurants. ... Healthwise, I notice when I wasn't eating meat anymore I felt so much lighter.
Torrey DeVitto
In the writings of such "pagan" philosophers as Plutarch and Porphyry we find a humanitarian ethic of the most exalted kind, which, after undergoing a long repression during medieval churchdom, reappeared, albeit but weakly and fitfully at first, in the literature of the Renaissance, to be traced more definitely in the eighteenth century school of "sensibility." But it was not until after the age of Rousseau, from which must be dated the great humanitarian movement of the past century, that Vegetarianism began to assert itself as a system, a reasoned plea for the disuse of flesh-food.
Henry Stephens Salt
Vegetarianism that is me. I don't eat meat. It's been over 10 years. Actually it's been 11 and a half years and I feel good and I feel like I look good and I have energy& and you have to look at what you're putting in your body. I eat vegetables and I eat grain and I take care of myself and I don't think I look that bad, do I?
Traci Bingham