For as long as I can remember, I’ve always found solace in words. In times of great joy, and in times of great sorrow, words have and always will be a perennial fixture in my life. I especially find that quotes can succinctly and beautifully express my thoughts about something as concrete as the weather, or as abstract as love.
So naturally, when I started to explore veganism many years ago, I turned to quotes to guide my way. I was delighted to find that there was no shortage of animal rights quotes, ranging from poignant to powerful to downright funny. And, as I learned more about veganism and its broader worldview, I began to collect my favorite vegan quotes. Affixed to my computer and walls around my work desk, these quotes about veganism now serve as a constant reminder for why I live the way I do. I hope they inspire you, too!
“Animals are my friends–and I don’t eat my friends.” -George Bernard Shaw
“To become vegetarian is to step into the stream which leads to nirvana.” -Buddha
“Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace.” -Albert Schweitzer
“Now I can look at you in peace; I don’t eat you anymore.” -Franz Kafka
“You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
“I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals, as surely as savage tribes have left off eating each other when they came in contact with the more civilized.” -Henry David Thoreau
“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
“What is it that should trace the insuperable line?… The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?” —Jeremy Bentham
“The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man.” -Charles Darwin
“He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.” -Immanuel Kant
“The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for whites or women for men.” – Alice Walker
“As long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seeds of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love.” -Pythagorus
“I am not interested to know whether vivisection produces results that are profitable to the human race or doesn’t…The pain which it inflicts upon unconsenting animals is the basis of my enmity toward it, and it is to me sufficient justification of the enmity without looking further.” -Mark Twain
“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
“Flesh eating is unprovoked murder.” — Benjamin Franklin
What are your favorite quotes about veganism? Share with us in the comments!
Also see: 16 Most Moving Quotes About Love
Related to Veganism: Why Some People Stop Being Vegan
How Veganism Can Alleviate Climate Change
What You Need to Know About Vivisection
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Photo: BK via Flickr
