Quotes About Veganism, Activism and Animal Rights

Quotes about veganism

“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

“You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Truly man is the king of beasts, for his brutality exceeds theirs. We live by the death of others. We are burial places!” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“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.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

“The animals you eat are not those who devour others; you do not eat the carnivorous beasts, you take them as your pattern. You only hunger after sweet and gentle creatures who harm no one, which follow you, serve you, and are devoured by you as the reward of their service.” ~ John Jacques Rousseau

“Flesh eating is unprovoked murder.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“It’s troubling when people get upset with vegans for pointing out the suffering, rather than getting upset with themselves for causing it.” ~ Jo Tyler

“Becoming a vegan is a sure way of completely avoiding participation in the abuse of farmed animals. Vegans are a living demonstration of the fact that we do not need to exploit animals for food.” ~ Peter Singer

“Now I can look at you in peace; I don’t eat you any more.” ~ Franz Kafka

“Being vegan is easy. Are there social pressures that encourage you to continue to eat, wear, and use animal products? Of course there are. But in a patriarchal, racist, homophobic, and ableist society, there are social pressures to participate and engage in sexism, racism, homophobia, and ableism. At some point, you have to decide who you are and what matters morally to you. And once you decide that you regard victimizing vulnerable nonhumans is not morally acceptable, it is easy to go and stay vegan.” ~ Gary L. Francione

“Animals are my friends… and I don’t eat my friends.” ~ George Bernard Shaw

“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. If a man aspires towards a righteous life, his first act of abstinence is from injury to animals.” ~ Leo Tolstoy

“I don’t feel superior because I’m vegan. The truth is… I am vegan because I don’t feel superior to others.” ~ Michele McCowan

“Ruthless man: you begin by slaying the animal and then you devour it, as if to slay it twice.  It is not enough.  You turn against the dead flesh, it revolts you, it must be transformed by fire, boiled and roasted, seasoned and disguised with drugs; you must have butchers, cooks, turnspits, men who will rid the murder of its horrors, who will dress the dead bodies so that the taste decieved by these disguises will not reject what is strange to it, and will feast on corpses, the very sight of which would sicken you.” ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau

“The more red meat and blood we eat, the more bloodthirsty we get, the more violent we get. The more vegetarian food we eat, the more peace is taken into us.” ~ Ziggy Marley

“Alas, what wickedness to swallow flesh into our own flesh, to fatten our greedy bodies by cramming in other bodies, to have one living creature fed by the death of another!” ~ Pythagoras

“Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.” ~ Albert Einstein

Quotes about vivisection

“I abhor vivisection with my whole soul. All the scientific discoveries stained with innocent blood I count as of no consequence.” ~ Gandhi

“Vivisection is a social evil because if it advances human knowledge, it does so at the expense of human character.” ~ George Bernard Shaw

[on vivisectors]: “I don’t think that men capable of such cruelties have the faculties to penetrate the mysteries of nature.” ~ Sir Charles Bell

Quotes about oppression

cow john stuart mill quote was there ever any domination tht did not appear natural to those who possessed it

“Was there ever any domination that did not appear natural to those who possessed it?” ~ John Stuart Mill

“We have enslaved the rest of animal creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form.” ~ William Ralph Inge

“People say: ‘We have rights over animals. They are given to us to use.’ You have no rights over them.  You have duties towards them.” ~ Annie Wood Besant

“In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.” ~ Gandhi

“The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men.” ~Alice Walker

“Auschwitz begins whenever someone looks at a slaughterhouse and thinks: They are only animals.” ~ Theodor Adorno

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.” ~ Gandhi

“People often say that humans have always eaten animals, as if this is a justification for continuing 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 Singer

Quotes about freedom

“It is not a ‘personal choice’ when you are eating my friends and you are ruining my world. When you made your ‘personal choice’ did you ask the animal if you could confine, torture, and murder him or her? When you made your ‘personal choice’ did you ask me if I mind all your pollution and devastation?” ~ Dave Warwak

Quotes about sentience and kindness

horse buddha quote all being tremble before violence all fear death all love life see yourself in others then whom can you hurt what harm can you do

“The question is not, Can they reason? nor Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?” ~ Jeremy Bentham

“If [man] is not to stifle human feelings, he must practice kindness towards animals, for 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

“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?” ~ Buddha

“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 splendor and travail of the earth.” ~ Henry Beston

“No humane being … will wantonly murder any creature which holds its life by the same tenure that he does.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now; let me not defer of neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.

“I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.” ~ Stephen Grellet

“The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man.” ~ Charles Darwin

“If possessing a higher degree of intelligence does not entitle one human to use another for his or her own ends, how can it entitle humans to exploit non-humans for the same purpose? If a being suffers there can be no moral justification for refusing to take that suffering into consideration.” ~ Peter Singer

“It is a significant fact,that the more the habits of any particular animal are studied by a naturalist, the more he ascribes to reason and less to unlearnt instincts.” ~ Charles Darwin

“I once had a sparrow alight on my shoulder for a moment while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance than I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

the question is not can they reason nor can they talk but can they suffer?

“People must have renounced, it seems to me, all natural intelligence to dare to advance that animals are but animated machines…. It appears to me, besides, that [such people] can never have observed with attention the character of animals, not to have distinguished among them the different voices of need, of suffering, of joy, of pain, of love, of anger, and of all their affections. It would be very strange that they should express so well what they could not feel. ” ~ Voltaire

“A human being is a part of the whole called by us “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest- a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” ~ Albert Einstein

Quotes about ignorance

“Common sense is not so common.” ~ Voltaire

“Re-examine all you have been told, dismiss what insults your soul.” ~ Walt Whitman

“All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.” ~ Arthur Schopenhauer

“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ~ Søren Kierkegaard

“We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

Quotes about health

“The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest her or his patients in the care of the human frame, in a proper diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease.” ~ Thomas A. Edison

“The pain and suffering inflicted on children by the American diet is so brutal, that if it were administered with a stick, parents would be put in jail. ” ~ John McDougall, M.D.

Quotes about animal rights and its relation to human rights

“As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields.” ~ Leo Tolstoy

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” ~ Gandhi

“What is man without the beasts?  If the beasts were gone, men would die of a great loneliness of spirit.  For whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to man.  All things are connected.  Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it.  Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.” ~ Chief Seattle

“First it was necessary to civilize man in relation to man.  Now it is necessary to civilize man in relation to nature and the animals.” ~ Victor Hugo

“I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being.” ~ Abraham Lincoln

“As long as man continues to be the ruthless destroyer of lower living beings he will never know health or peace. For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love. ~ Pythagoras

Quotes about activism and perseverance

flowers mahatma mohandas gandhi quote a principle is a principle and in no case can it be watered down

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” ~ Lao Tsu

“Never doubt that a group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world . Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” ~ Margaret Mead

“A principle is a principle, and in no case can it be watered down because of our incapacity to live it in practice. We have to strive to achieve it, and the striving should be conscious, deliberate and hard.” ~ Gandhi

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

“Cowardice asks the question: is it safe? Expediency asks the question: is it political? Vanity asks the question: is it popular? But conscience asks the question: is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor political, nor popular – but one must take it simply because it is right.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, Nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” ~ Dr. Seuss (The Lorax)

“Activism is my rent for living on this planet.” ~ Alice Walker

“Few are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world that yields most painfully to change.” ~ Robert F. Kennedy

“I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse —  I will not retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD.” ~ William Lloyd Garrison

“To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards out of men.” ~ Abraham Lincoln

“Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.” ~ Albert Einstein

“Take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” ~ Elie Wiesel, concentration camp survivor

“You’re either part of the solution, or part of the problem.” ~ Eldridge Cleaver

“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” ~ Albert Einstein

“Activism is active.  It involves some degree of action, of movement, of potential for change.  Activism can be lobbying legislators.  Activism can be sabotaging hunts.  Activism can be rescuing animals, undercover investigations, lecturing about animal rights.  Food, however, is not activism.  Vegan dinner parties is not activism.  What these things do is provide a surrogate activity for people who want ‘rain without thunder.’ ” ~ PJ McKosky

“My doctrine is this: that if we see cruelty or wrong that we have the power to stop, and do nothing, we make ourselves sharers in the guilt.” ~ Anna Sewell

“The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.” ~ Oscar Wilde

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“He who allows oppression, shares the crime.” ~ Erasmus Darwin

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” ~ Anne Frank

“It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds.” ~ Samuel Adams

“If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” ~ Frederick Douglass

Quotes about religion and animal rights

“Yes, any act of mercy, even to the humblest and lowliest of God’s creatures is an act that brings us near to God.” ~ Arthur Penrhyn Stanley

“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

“Since, according to the Bible, the goal of history is the transformation [from] the predatory princliple to the principle of universal love, it seems reasonable to suppose that people who take the bible seriously should strive to bring their lives into accordance with the righteousness and nonviolence that will prevail in God’s kingdom. … No rational or scriptural reason can be discovered that would prohibit the teacher of Christian truth from encouraging believers to go beyond the concession to human weakness granted in Genesis 9:3 so that even now, before the full dawning of God’s kingdom of peace, they may begin living according to the ethics of that kingdom. To live in this way must be considered as part of God’s ultimate intention for humanity, for how else can one account for the fact that the Bible both begins and ends in a kingdom where the sound of slaughter is unknown?” ~ Kenneth Rose, Ph.D.

“Animals share with us the privilege of having a soul.” ~ Pythagoras

“Man was born to live with innocence and compassion, but he has deviated from nature; he was born to share the bounties of heaven, but he has monopolized them; he was born to govern the ‘brute creation’, but he has become their tyrant.” ~ Oliver Goldsmith

“To say we love God as unseen and at the same time exercise cruelty toward the least creature moving by His life or by life derived from Him, is a contradiction in itself.” ~ John Woolman

“To become vegetarian is to step into the stream which leads to nirvana.” ~ Buddha