Vegetarianism Quotes - Page 11

• Perhaps in the back of our minds we already understand, without all the science I've discussed, that something terribly wrong is happening. Our sustenance now comes from misery. We know that if someone offers to show us a film on how our meat is produced, it will be a horror film. We perhaps know more than we care to admit, keeping it down in the dark places of our memory-- disavowed. When we eat factory-farmed meat we live, literally, on tortured flesh. Increasingly, that tortured flesh is becoming our own.

  Jonathan Safran Foer

  Memories, Dark, Science

  "Eating Animals". Book by Jonathan Safran Foer, March 4, 2010.

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• Vegetarianism as a moral position is no more coherent than saying that you think it morally wrong to eat meat from a spotted cow but not morally wrong to eat meat from a non-spotted cow.

  Gary L. Francione

  Thinking, Meat, Cows

  Source: www.believermag.com

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• The wrongfulness, the immorality of eating animal food has been recognized by all mankind during all the conscious life of humanity. Why, then have people generally not come to acknowledge this law? The answer is that the moral progress of humanity is always slow; but that the sign of true, not casual Progress, is in uninterruptedness and its continual acceleration. And one cannot doubt that vegetarianism has been progressing in this manner

  Leo Tolstoy

  Animal, Law, People

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• Life in its infinite forms exists as one organic unity. We are part of it: the part should feel reverence for the whole. That is the idea of vegetarianism. It simply means: don't destroy life. It simply means: life is God - avoid destroying it, otherwise you will be destroying the very ecology.

  Rajneesh

  Mean, Ideas, Unity

  Rajneesh (Bhagwan Shree), Swami Krishna Prem (1984). “From R to Z”

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• If you meditate long enough, deep enough, it is impossible for you to hurt anybody for food; it is impossible. It is not a question of argument, it is not a question of scriptures, it is not who says what, it is not a question of calculating that if you take vegetarian food you will become spiritual; it is automatic. It is not a question of cunningness, you simply become spiritual. The whole thing seems so absurd. Just for food, killing animals, birds, seems so absurd, it falls down.

  Rajneesh

  Spiritual, Hurt, Fall

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• Various philosophers and religious leaders tried to convince their disciples and followers that animals are nothing more than machines without a soul, without feelings. However, anyone who has ever lived with an animal-be it a dog, a bird, or even a mouse-knows that this theory is a brazen lie, invented to justify cruelty.

  Isaac Bashevis Singer

  Religious, Dog, Lying

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• Among the noblest in the land - Though man may count himself the least - That man I honor and revere, Who without favor, without fear, In the great city dares to stand, The friend of every friendless beast.

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  Men, Land, Cities

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (2012). “My Complete Poetical Works (Annotated Edition)”, p.665, Jazzybee Verlag

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• To avoid causing terror to living beings, let the disciple refrain from eating meat... the food of the wise is that which is consumed by the sadhus [holymen]; it does not consist of meat... There may be some foolish people in the future who will say that I permitted meat-eating and that I partook of meat myself, but... meat-eating I have not permitted to anyone, I do not permit, I will not permit meat-eating in any form, in any manner and in any place; it is unconditionally prohibited for all.

  Gautama Buddha

  Wise, Meat Eating, People

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• ... man was not born a carnivorous animal, but born to live on the fruits and herbs that the earth grows. I know we must all err. I would give up milk if I could, but I cannot. I have made that experiment times without number. I could not, after a serious illness, regain my strength, unless I went back to milk. That has been the tragedy of my life. But the basis of my vegetarianism is not physical, but moral. If anybody said that I should die if I did not take beef tea or mutton, even on medical advice, I would prefer death. That is the basis of my vegetarianism.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Giving Up, Animal, Men

  Mahatma Gandhi (1958). “Collected Works”

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• The factory farm is . . . an obvious moral evil so sickening and horrendous. . . All this so we can have our accustomed veal or lamb or fried chicken or pork chop or hot dog.

  Matthew Scully

  Dog, Evil, Pork

  Matthew Scully (2011). “Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy”, p.138, Souvenir Press

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• Vegetarianism is a conscious effort, a deliberate effort, to get out of the heaviness that keeps you tethered to the earth so that you can fly - so that the flight from the alone to the alone becomes possible.

  Rajneesh

  Effort, Earth, Flight

  Rajneesh (Bhagwan Shree), Swami Krishna Prem (1984). “From R to Z”

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• The smell of factory farms . . . many notice these places only when the odours reach their homes, affecting their own quality of life. We create these animals for our profit and pleasure, playing with their genes, violating their dignity as living creatures, forcing them to lie and live in their own urine and excrement, turning pens into penitentiaries and frustrating their every desire except what is needed to keep them breathing and breeding. And then we complain about the smell.

  Matthew Scully

  Lying, Home, Animal

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• In every country in the world, killing human beings is condemned. The Buddhist precept of non-killing extends even further, to include all living beings.

  Nhat Hanh

  Country, Buddhist, Animal

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• Vegetarianism has nothing to do with religion: it is something basically scientific. It has nothing to do with morality, but it has much to do with aesthetics. It is unbelievable that a man of sensitivity, awareness, understanding, love, can eat meat. And if he can eat meat then something is missing he is still unconscious somewhere of what he is doing, unconscious of the implications of his acts.

  Rajneesh

  Men, Missing, Understanding

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• It is the other way round: food cannot make you spiritual, but if you are spiritual your food habits will change. Eating anything will not make much difference. You can be a vegetarian and cruel to the extreme, and violent; you can be a non-vegetarian and kind and loving. Food will not make much difference. In India there are communities who have lived totally with vegetarian food; many Brahmins have lived totally with vegetarian food. They are non-violent but they are not spiritual.

  Rajneesh

  Spiritual, Differences, Community

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• 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

  Thinking, Vegetables, Years

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• If experiments on animals were abandoned on grounds of compassion, mankind would have made a fundamental advance.

  Richard Wagner

  Animal, Compassion, Fundamentals

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• I'm no shrinking violet. I played hockey until half my teeth were knocked down my throat. And I'm extremely competitive on a tennis court. . . But that experience at the slaughterhouse overwhelmed me. When I walked out of there, I knew I would never again harm an animal! I knew all the physiological, economic, and ecological arguments supporting vegetarianism, but it was firsthand experience of man's cruelty to animals that laid the real groundwork for my commitment to vegetarianism.

  Peter Burwash

  Real, Commitment, Hockey

  Peter Burwash, John Tullius (1983). “Peter Burwash's Vegetarian Primer”, Atheneum Books

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• Eating meat is a leftover of the greatest brutality [killing]; the transition to vegetarianism is the first and most natural consequence of enlightenment.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Enlightenment, Meat, Transition

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• Some say vegetarianism is an alternative diet, but it is the original diet, the plan designed by God.

  James Marcus

  Alternatives, Vegetarian Health, Plans

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• Animals are nicer than humans and they're conscious beings. If you stick your grandmother in an oven, she will probably be tasty. But is that any reason to eat your grandmother?

  Steven Morrissey

  Grandmother, Animal, Sticks

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• With me, meditation is the only essential religion. And everything that follows it is virtue, because it comes of its own accord. You don't have to drag it, you don't have to discipline yourself for it. I have nothing to do with vegetarianism, but I know that if you meditate you are going to grow new perceptivity, new sensitivity, and you cannot kill animals.

  Rajneesh

  Animal, Discipline, Meditation

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• Vegetarianism preserves live, health, peace, the ecology, creates a more equitable distribution of resources, helps to feed the hungry, encourages nonviolence for the animal and human members of the planet, and is a powerful aid for the spiritual transformation of the body, emotions, mind, and spirit.

  Gabriel Cousens

  Spiritual, Powerful, Animal

  FaceBook post by Gabriel Cousens, MD from Oct 07, 2015

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• Your choice of diet can influence your long term health prospects more than any other action you might take.

  C. Everett Koop

  Long, Choices, Vegan Food

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• No vegetarian has been able to achieve a single Nobel prize. It is a clear-cut condemnation of vegetarianism. Why do all the Nobel prizes go to non-vegetarians? - because vegetarian food does not contain those proteins which create intelligence. And unless we provide those proteins, intelligence cannot grow. The body is a very delicate phenomenon and it needs a very well balanced diet.

  Rajneesh

  Cutting, Needs, Body

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