” We cannot pretend that we do not know this…

” We cannot pretend that we do not know this. We are not ostriches, and cannot believe that if we refuse to look at what we do not wish to see, it will not exist. This is especially the case when what we do not wish to see is what we wish to eat. If it were really indispensable, or, if not indispensable, at least in some way useful! But it is quite unnecessary, and only serves to develop animal feelings, to excite desire, and to promote fornication and drunkenness. And this is continually being confirmed by the fact that young, kind, undepraved people—especially women and girls—without knowing how it logically follows, feel that virtue is incompatible with beefsteaks, and, as soon as they wish to be good, give up eating flesh.” - Leo Tolstoy, Essays and Letters, The First Step

Ethical

Other Vegetarianism Quotes

“Simply let those, like him of Samos, live! / Let herbs to them a bloodless banquet give. / In beechen goblets let their beverage shine, / Cool from the crystal spring their sober wine! / Their youth should pass in innocence secure / From stain licentious, and in manners pure.” - John Milton, Elegy 6″ 55-66, to Charles Diodati - View Quote Details on “Simply let those, like him of Samos, live! / Let…
“In the perfect world originally designed by God, man was meant to be a vegetarian.” - Rabbi Jacob Cohen, The Royal Table - View Quote Details on “In the perfect world originally designed by God, man was…
“Refrain at all times such foods as cannot be procured without violence and oppression. For know that all the inferior Creatures, when hurt, do cry and send forth their complaints to their Maker.” - Thomas Tryon, The Way to Health, Long Life, and Happiness, 1683 - View Quote Details on “Refrain at all times such foods as cannot be procured…
“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 More - View Quote Details on “The Utopians feel that slaughtering our fellow creatures gradually destroys…
“Yes, I am a vegetarian. I find the thought of stuffing fragments of corpses down my throat quite repulsive, and I am amazed that so many people do it every day. ” - J. M. Coetzee - View Quote Details on “Yes, I am a vegetarian. I find the thought of…
“You don’t have to give antibiotics to broccoli.” - Michael Klamper, MD - View Quote Details on “You don’t have to give antibiotics to broccoli.” - Michael…
Jack LaLanne, Interview by Dennis Hughes, Share Guide - View Quote Details on Jack LaLanne, Interview by Dennis Hughes, Share Guide
“Would the delicate ladies who devour sanguinary beef-steaks like to see their sons working as slaughtermen? If not, then they have no right to put this task upon some other woman’s son. – C.W. Leadbeater, Vegetarianism and Occultism, 1913, p. 28 - View Quote Details on “Would the delicate ladies who devour sanguinary beef-steaks like to…
“For every 16 pounds of grain and soy fed to beef cattle in the United States we only get 1 pound back in meat on our plates. The other 15 pounds are inaccessible to us, either used by the animal to produce energy or to make some part of its own body that we do not eat (like hair or bones) or excreted.” – Frances Moore Lappé, Diet for a Small Planet - View Quote Details on “For every 16 pounds of grain and soy fed to…
“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, On Civil Disobedience - View Quote Details on “A man can live and be healthy without killing animals…