"If one is trying to practice meditation and it still eating meat, he would be like a man closing his ears and shouting loudly, and then asserting that he heard nothing."——Ancient Buddhist text by Surangama Sutra

"May all beings everywhere plagued with sufferings of body and mind quickly be freed from their pain. May those frightened cease to be afraid, and may those bound be free. May the powerless find power, and may people befriend all life. May those of all species who find themselves lost, the young, the aged, the unprotected, be guarded by beneficent celestials, and may they swiftly attain Buddhahood."—Buddhist Prayer for Peace Greeting Card

"One must not deliberately kill any living creature either by committing the act oneself, instructing others to kill, or approving of or participating in acts of killing. To completely abstain from the act of killing directly and indirectly, eat only pure vegetarian food."—Buddhism

"The eating of flesh extinguishes the seed of great compassion."—Mahaparinirvana Buddhism

"Because he has pity on every living creature, therefore is a man called ‘holy’"—Buddhism Dhammapada

"But ...meat eating in any form, in any manner, and in any place is unconditionally and once and for all prohibited ...Meat eating I have not permitted to anyone, I do not permit, I will not permit’"—Lord Buddha in the Lankavatara Sutra

"Animals are God's creatures, not human property, nor utilities, nor resources, nor commodities, but precious beings in God's sight…Christians whose eyes are fixed on the awfulness of crucifixion are in a special position to understand the awfulness of innocent suffering. The Cross of Christ is God's absolute identification with the weak, the powerless, and the vulnerable, but most of all with unprotected, undefended, innocent suffering."— Reverend Andrew Linzey

"Animals have done us no harm and they have no power of resistance.…There is something so very dreadful…in tormenting those who have never harmed us, who cannot defend themselves, who are utterly in our power."—Cardinal John Henry Newman

"Animals, as part of God’s creation, have rights which must be respected. It behooves us always to be sensitive to their needs and to the reality of their pain."—Dr. Donald Coggan, former Archbishop of Canterbury

"Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God."—Luke 12:6

"We may pretend to what religion we please, but cruelty is atheism. We may make our boast of Christianity; but cruelty is infidelity. We may trust our orthodoxy, but cruelty is the worst of heresies."—Humphry Primatt. Dissertation on the Duty of Mercy and the Sin of Cruelty to Brute Animals

"We should remember in our dealings with animals that they are a sacred trust to us from our Heavenly Father. They are dumb and cannot speak for themselves"—Harriet Beecher Stowe

"And the flesh of the slain beasts in his body will become his own tomb. For I tell you truly, he who kills, kills himself and he who eats the flesh of slain beasts, eats the body of death."—The Essene Gospel of Peace

"To try to picture the Christ, the one whom Christians call ‘Agnus Dei’, the Lamb of God, chewing on a leg of lamb seems incongruous to me."—Elizabeth Farians

"And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the Earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat."—Genesis 1:29-30

"And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good."—Genesis 1: 20-25

"When I gather the clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds, I shall recall the covenant between myself and you and every living creature, in a word all living things, and never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all living things. When the bow is in the clouds I shall see it and call to mind the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on earth, that is, all living things. `That' God told Noah, `is the sign of the covenant I have established between myself and all living things on earth."—Genesis 9: 14-17


"For whosoever eateth the fat of the beast of which men offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord, even the soul that eateth it shall be cut off from his people. And ye shall eat no manner of blood, whether it be of fowl or of beast, in any of your dwellings."—Leviticus 7:23-27

"You have only to ask the cattle, for them to instruct you, and the birds of the sky, for them to inform you. The creeping things of earth will give you lessons, and the fish of the sea provide you an explanation: there is not one such creature but will know that the hand of God has arranged things like this! In his hand is the soul of every living thing and the breath of every human being!"—Job 12:7-10

"And now the beasts of the field, they shall teach thee, and the fowls of the air, they shall tell thee."—Job 12:7

"I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are mine."—Psalm 50:9-11

"For all forest creatures are mine already, the animals on the mountains in their thousands. I know every bird in the air, whatever moves in the fields is mine."
—Psalm 50:10-11

"...And who gives food to every creature. His love endures forever."—Psalm 136:25

"A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal."—Proverbs 12:10

"A righteous man has regard for the life of his beast."—Proverbs 12:10

"Man's fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath, man has no advantage over the animal. Everything is meaningless. All go to the same place; all come from dust and to dust all return. Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?"—Ecclesiastes 3:19-21

"For that which befalleth the sons of men, befalleth beasts…As one dieth so dieth the other. Yet they have all one breath. So that a man hath no pre-eminence over a beast."— Ecclesiastes 3:19

"I do not regard flesh food as necessary for us. I hold flesh food to be unsuited to our species. We err in copying the lower [supposedly lower] animal world if we are superior to it. The only way to live is to let live."—Mahatma Gandhi

"Life is life—whether in a cat, or dog or man. There is no difference there between a cat or a man. The idea of difference is a human conception for man's own advantage."—Sri Aurobindo

"If you want to be spiritually higher you must be a vegetarian. In India It is said that what ever you eat It is reflected in your mind, so if you eat vegetarian you become purer and purer, and It is reflected in your mind. Those who want to go to spiritualism have to ultimately go to vegetarianism because if you are not a vegetarian your thoughts are disturbing and you can not achieve the higher things you want to achieve. Even in yoga, It is sometimes said that It is not necessary to change your diet but ultimately It is the change of the diet which starts the ball rolling."— Jashu Shah

Non vegetarians should become vegetarian as soon as possible. They must understand that vegetarianism is ultimately for the benefit of the human race."— Jashu Shah

"Meat cannot be obtained without injury to animals, and the slaughter of animals obstructs the way to heaven; let us therefore shun the use of meat."—Hinduism

"Having well considered the origin of flesh foods. And the cruelty of fettering and slaying corporeal beings let man entirely abstain from eating flesh."—Manusmriti 5.49. Hinduism

"Those who permit the slaughter of an animal, who kills it, who cuts it up, who buys or sells flesh, who cooks it, who serves it up, and who eats it, are all slayers."—Hinduism

"What is religion? Compassion for all things, which have life."—Hinduism. Hitopadesa

"A good deed done to an animal is as meritorious as a good deed done to a human being, while an act of cruelty to an animal is a bad as an act of cruelty to a human being."—Prophet Mohammed

"There is not an animal on the earth, nor a flying creature on two wings, but they are people like unto you."—Islam. Qur’an

"The food of the future will be fruit and grains. The time will come when meat will no longer be eaten. Our natural food is that which comes out of the ground. The people will gradually develop up to the condition of this natural food."

"Meat can not be procured without causing destruction of life; one who uses flesh, therefore, commits ahimsa (injury) unavoidably."—Jainism

"One who harms animals, directly or indirectly, has not understood deeds of sin…those whose minds are at peace and who are free from passions do not desire to live at the expense of others."—Jainism

"Non-injury to living beings is the highest religion."—Jainism

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

"I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it."—Abraham Lincoln

"There is no religion without love, and people may talk as much as they like about their religion, but if it does not teach them to be good and kind to beasts as well as man it is all a sham."—Anna Sewell, author of Black Beauty

"We call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words."—Anna Sewell, author of Black Beauty

"Every animal knows more than you do."—Native American Proverb

"What is a man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, men would die form great loneliness of spirit, for whatever happens to the beasts also happens to man."—Chief Seattle

"The Earth does not belong to man; Man belongs to the Earth. This we know. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons of the Earth. 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

"Is not the sky a father and the earth a mother, and are not all living things with feet or wings or roots their children?; Hear me, four quarters of the world…a relative I am! Give me the strength to walk the soft Earth, a relative to all that is,…all over the Earth, the faces of living things are all alike."—John G. Neihardt in Black Elk Speaks

"We must protect the forests for our children, grandchildren and children yet to be born. We must protect the forests for those who can't speak for themselves such as the birds, animals, fish and trees."—Qwatsinas

Learn more Sites about Religion and Animal Rights

"Can you really ask what reason Pythagoras had for abstaining from flesh? For my part I rather wonder both by what accident and in what state of soul or mind the first man did so, touched his mouth to gore and brought his lips to the flesh of a dead creature, he who set forth tables of dead, stale bodies and ventured to call food and nourishment the parts that had a little before bellowed and cried, moved and lived. How could his eyes endure the slaughter when throats were slit and hides flayed and limbs torn from limb? How could his nose endure the stench? How was it that the pollution did not turn away his taste, which made contact with the sores of others and sucked juices and serums from mortal wounds?"—Plutarch

"The obligations of law and equity reach only to mankind; but kindness and beneficence should be extended to the creatures of every species, and these will flow from the breast of a true man, as streams that issue from the living fountain."—Plutarch

"Though boys throw stones at frogs in sport, the frogs do not die in sport, but in earnest."—Bion, "Water and Land Animals" Plutarch

"As long as man continues to be the ruthless destroyer of lower livings 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

"Animals share with us the privilege of having a soul."—Pythagoras

"The soul is the same in all living creatures, although the body of each is different."—Hippocrates

"Respect the old and cherish the young. Even insects, grass and trees you must not hurt". T’ai-shang kan-ying p’ien, a Confucian-Taoist treatise. Attributed to Ko Hung

"For hundreds of thousands of years the stew in the pot has brewed hatred and resentment that is difficult to stop. If you wish to know why there are disasters of armies and weapons in the world, listen to the piteous cries from the slaughter house at midnight."—Ancient Chinese verse

"Truly man is the king of beasts, for his brutality exceeds theirs. We live by the death of others: we are burial places! I have from an early age abjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I will look on the murder of animals as they now look on the murder of men."—Leonardo da Vinci

Quotes from Contemporary Greats

The Original Starfish Story found in "Star Thrower," a collection of essays by the naturalist and writer Loren Eiseley 1978

"One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed
a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean.
Approaching the boy, he asked, ‘What are you doing?’
The youth replied, ‘Throwing starfish back into the ocean.
The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.’
‘ Son,’ the man said, ‘don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish?
You can’t make a difference!’
After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish,
and threw it back into the surf. Then, smiling at the man, he said…‘I made a difference for that one.’"

"It is my view that the vegetarian manner of living by its purely physical effect on the human temperament would most beneficially influence the lot of mankind."—Albert Einstein

"Our task must be to free ourselves— by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty."—Albert Einstein

"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

"Vegetarian food leaves a deep impression on our nature. If the whole world adopts vegetarianism, it can change the destiny of mankind."—Albert Einstein

"I do not like eating meat because I have seen lambs and pigs killed. I saw and felt their pain. They felt the approaching death. I could not bear it. I cried like a child. I ran up a hill and could not breathe. I felt that I was choking. I felt the death of the lamb."—Vaslav Nijinsky

"Thousands of people who say they ‘love' animals sit down once or twice a day to enjoy the flesh of creatures who have been utterly deprived of everything that could make their lives worth living and who endured the awful suffering and the terror of the abattoirs."—Jane Goodall

"One cannot watch chimpanzee infants for long without realizing that they have the same emotional need for affection and reassurance as human children."—Jane Goodall

"I have developed a deep respect for animals. I consider them fellow living creatures with certain rights that should not be violated any more than those of humans."—Jimmy Stewart actor

"Who can believe that there is no soul behind those luminous eyes!"—Theophile Gautier

"An animal's eyes have the power to speak a great language."— Martin Buber

"I think dogs are the most amazing creatures; they give unconditional love. For me they are the role model for being alive."—Gilda Radner

"A Robin Redbreast in a cage Puts all Heaven in a Rage."— William Blake, Auguries of Innocence

"When I lost my way, I was accustomed to throw the reins on his neck, and he always discovered places where I, with all my observation and boasted superior knowledge, could not."—Napoleon Bonaparte about his horse Marengo

"The squirrel that you kill in jest, dies in earnest."—Henry David Thoreau

"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 the savage tribes have left off eating each other."—Henry David Thoreau

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

"A mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels."—Walt Whitman Greeting Card

"How can I teach your children gentleness and mercy to the weak, and reverence for life, which in its nakedness and excess, is still a gleam of God’s omnipotence, when by your laws, your actions and your speech, you contradict the very things I teach?"—Henry W. Longfellow

"The fate of animals is of greater importance to me than the fear of appearing ridiculous."—Emile Zola, 1840-1902

"It is only by softening and disguising dead flesh by culinary preparation that it is rendered susceptible of mastication or digestion, and that the sight of its bloody juices and raw horror does not excite intolerable loathing and disgust."—Percy Bysshe Shelley

"Moral progress has consisted in the main of protest against cruel customs, and of attempts to enlarge human sympathy."—Bertrand Russel

"In all the round world of Utopia there is no meat. There used to be. But now we cannot stand the thought of slaughterhouses. And it is impossible to find anyone who will hew a dead ox or pig. I can still remember as a boy the rejoicings over the closing of the last slaughterhouse."—H.G. Wells

"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 A. Edison

"If we cut up beasts simply because they cannot prevent us and because we are backing our own side in the struggle for existence, it is only logical to cut up imbeciles, criminals, enemies, or capitalists for the same reasons."—C.S. Lewis

"If man is not to stifle human feelings, he must practice kindness to 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

"I admit to having worn suede and leather pants myself for a while, but you just never feel clean, and it's degenerate, anyway, to wear animal skins."— Andy Warhol

"Heaven goes by favour. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in…man is the only creature that inflicts pain for sport, knowing it to be pain."— Mark Twain

"It is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions."— Mark Twain

"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

"While we ourselves are the living graves of murdered beasts, how can we expect any ideal conditions on this earth?"—George Bernard Shaw

"A mind of the calibre of mine cannot derive its nutriment from cows."—George Bernard Shaw

"A man of my spiritual intensity does not eat corpses."—George Bernard Shaw

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

"When a man wants to murder a tiger he calls it sport; when the tiger wants to murder him he calls it ferocity."—George Bernard Shaw

"Until we have the courage to recognize cruelty for what it is—whether its victim is human or animal —we cannot expect things to be much better in this world. We cannot have peace among men whose hearts delight in killing any living creature. By every act that glorifies or even tolerates such moronic delight in killing we set back the progress of humanity."—Rachel Carson, Silent Spring

"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

"The animals of the planet are in desperate peril…without free animal life I believe we will lose the spiritual equivalent of oxygen."—Alice Walker

"Animals can communicate quite well. And they do. And generally speaking, they are ignored."—Alice Walker

"Kindness and compassion toward all living things is the mark of a civilized society."—Cesar Chavez

"The assumption that animals are without rights and the illusion that our treatment of them has no moral significance is a positively outrageous example of Western crudity and barbarity. Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality."—Arthur Shopenhauer

"There will be no justice as long as man will stand with a knife or with a gun and destroy those who are weaker than he is."—Isaac Bashevis Singer

"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

"As often as Herman had witnessed the slaughter of animals and fish, he always had the same thought: in their behaviour toward creatures, all men were Nazis. The smugness with which man could do with other species as he pleased exemplified the most extreme racist theories, the principle that might is right."—Isaac Bashevis Singer

"Even in the worm that crawls in the earth there glows a divine spark. When you slaughter a creature, you slaughter God."—Isaac Bashevis Singer

"One of the most dangerous things that can happen to a child is to kill or torture an animal and get away with it."—Margaret Mead

"I venture to maintain that there are multitudes to whom the necessity of discharging the duties of a butcher would be so inexpressibly painful and revolting, that if they could obtain a flesh diet on no other condition, they would relinquish it forever."—W.E.H. Lecky

"The indifference, callousness and contempt that so many people exhibit toward animals is evil first because it results in great suffering in animals, and second because it results in an incalculably great impoverishment of the human spirit. All education should be directed toward the refinement of the individual's sensibilities in relation not only to one's fellow humans everywhere, but to all things whatsoever."—Ashley Montague

"In an earlier stage of our development most human groups held to a tribal ethic. Members of the tribe were protected, but people of other tribes could be robbed or killed as one pleased. Gradually the circle of protection expanded, but as recently as 150 years ago we did not include blacks. So African human beings could be captured, shipped to America and sold. In Australia white settlers regarded Aborigines as a pest and hunted them down, much as kangaroos are hunted down today. Just as we have progressed beyond the blatantly racist ethic of the era of slavery and colonialism, so we must now progress beyond the speciesist ethic of the era of factory farming, of the use of animals as mere research tools, of whaling, seal hunting, kangaroo slaughter and the destruction of wilderness. We must take the final step in expanding the circle of ethics."— Pete Singer

"All the arguments to prove man's superiority cannot shatter this hard fact: in suffering the animals are our equals."— Pete Singer

"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, Trate sur la tolerance

"The beef industry has contributed to more American deaths than all the wars of this century, all natural disasters, and all automobile accidents combined. If beef is your idea of "real food for real people" you'd better live real close to a real good hospital."—Neal Barnard, M.D.

Nothing more strongly arouses our disgust than cannibalism, yet we make the same impression on Buddhists and vegetarians, for we feed on babies, though not our own."—Robert Louis Stevenson

"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."—Count Leo Tolstoy

"'Thou shalt not kill' does not apply to murder of one's own kind only, but to all living beings; and this Commandment was inscribed in the human breast long before it was proclaimed from Sinai."—Count Leo Tolstoy

"Flesh eating is simply immoral, as it involves the performance of an act, which is contrary to moral feeling: killing. By killing, man suppresses in himself, unnecessarily, the highest spiritual capacity, that of sympathy and pity towards living creatures like himself and by violating his own feelings becomes cruel."—Count Leo Tolstoy

"As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields."—Count Leo Tolstoy

"Now I can look at you in peace; I don't eat you anymore"—Franz Kafka

"If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian."—Sir Paul McCartney

"We don't need to eat anyone who would run, swim, or fly away if he could."—James Cromwell, the farmer in the movie "Babe"

"No heaven will not ever heaven be; Unless my cats are there to welcome me."— Anonymous

"The best thing you can do for the environment is quit eating meat"—Anonymous

"Thousands of animals [now billions] are butchered every day without a shadow of remorse. It cries vengeance upon all the human race."—Romain Rolland, Nobel Prize Literature

"To a man whose mind is free there is something even more intolerable in the sufferings of animals than in the sufferings of man. For with the latter it is at least admitted that suffering is evil and that the man who causes it is a criminal. But thousands of animals are uselessly butchered every day without a shadow of remorse. If any man were to refer to it, he would be thought ridiculous. And that is the unpardonable crime."—Romain Rolland, Nobel Prize Literature 1915

"We manage to swallow flesh only because we do not think of the cruel and sinful thing that we do. Cruelty... is a fundamental sin, and admits of no arguments or nice distinctions. If only we do not allow our heart to grow callous, it protests against cruelty, is always clearly heard; and yet we go on perpetrating cruelties easily, merrily, all of us—in fact, anyone who does not join in is dubbed a crank."—Rabindranath Tagore, Nobel Prize 1913

"Hear our humble prayer, o God, for our friends the animals who are suffering; for any that are hunted or lost or deserted or frightened or hungry….We entreat for them all Thy mercy and pity, and for those who deal with them we ask a heart of compassion and gentle hands and kindly words. Make us, ourselves, to be true friends to animals and so to share the blessings of the merciful."—Albert Schweitzer

"Very little of the great cruelty shown by men can really be attributed to cruel instinct. Most of it comes from thoughtlessness or inherited habit. The roots of cruelty therefore, are not so much strong as widespread. But the time must come when inhumanity protected by custom and thoughtlessness will succumb before humanity championed by thought. Let us work that this time may come."—Albert Schweitzer

"Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight."—Albert Schweitzer

"The thinking person must oppose all cruel customs no matter how deeply rooted in tradition or surrounded by a halo….We need a boundless ethic which includes the animals also."—Albert Schweitzer

"Ethics are complete, profound and alive only when addressed to all living beings. Only then are we in spiritual connection with the world. Any philosophy not representing this, not based on the indefinite totality of life, is bound to disappear."——Albert Schweitzer

"The human spirit is not dead. It lives on in secret….It has come to believe that compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind."—Albert Schweitzer, Novel Peace Prize address, "The Problem of Peace in the World Today"

"We must fight against the spirit of unconscious cruelty with which we treat the animals. Animals suffer as much as we do. True humanity does not allow us to impose such sufferings on them. It is our duty to make the whole world recognize it. Until we extend our circle of compassion to all living things, humanity will not find peace."—Albert Schweitzer, The Philosophy of Civilization

"Anyone who has accustomed himself to regard the life of any living creature as worthless is in danger of arriving also at the idea of worthless human lives."—Albert Schweitzer

"Personally, I would not give a fig for any man's religion whose horse, cat and dog do not feel its benefits. Life in any form is our perpetual responsibility."—S. Parkes Cadman

"We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion, they would depict the devil in human form. "—William Ralph Inge, Outspoken Essays

Because one species is more clever than another, does it give it the right to imprison or torture the less clever species? Does one exceptionally clever individual have a right to exploit the less clever individuals of his own species? ['dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions.'— Mark Twain] To say that he does is to say with the Fascists that the strong have a right to abuse and exploit the weak—might is right, and the strong and ruthless shall inherit the Earth."—Richard Ryder

"I think there will come a time…when civilized people will look back in horror on our generation and the ones that have preceded it; the idea that we should eat other living things running around on four legs, that we should raise them just for the purpose of killing them! The people of the future will say, ‘meat-eaters’ in disgust and regard us in the same way that we regard cannibals and cannibalism."—Dennis Weaver

"We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature, and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. 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. The animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with extension 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

"I am sometimes asked 'Why do you spend so much of your time and money talking about kindness to animals when there is so much cruelty to men?' I answer: 'I am working at the roots.'"—George T.Angell

"Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened."— Anatole France

"Only animals were not expelled from Paradise."—Milan Kundera

"The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? But rather, Can they suffer?"—Jeremy Bentham

"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

"You call yourself an enviromentalist and you still eat meat?"—E The Environmental Magazine

"Hunting is not a sport. In a sport, both sides should know they're in the game."—Paul Rodriguez

"Animals do feel like us, also joy, love, fear and pain but they cannot grasp the spoken word. It is our obligation to take their part and continue to resist the people who profit by them, who slaughter them and who torture them."— Denis de Rougement

"We're beginning to realize the almost irreparable loss in such cruel and barbaric practices as hunting and killing innocent creatures for pleasure…whose sole "offense" is being beautiful." —Joseph F. Goodavage; Magic: Science of the Future.

"When a man wantonly destroys one of the works of man we call him a vandal. When he destroys one of the works of God we call him a sportsman."—Joseph Wood Krutch

"The fascination of shooting as a sport depends almost wholly on whether you are at the right or wrong end of a gun."—P.G. Wodehouse

"When it comes to having a central nervous system, and the ability to feel pain, hunger, and thirst, a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy."—Ingrid Newkirk

"Animals are reliable, many full of love, true in their affections, predictable in their actions, grateful and loyal. Difficult standards for people to live up to."—Alfred A. Montapert

"Whether hunting is right or wrong, a spiritual experience, or an outlet for the killer instinct, one thing it is not is a sport. Sport is when individuals or teams compete against each other under equal circumstances to determine who is better at a given game or endeavor. Hunting will be a sport when deer, elk, bears, and ducks are…given 12-gauge shotguns. Bet we'd see a lot fewer drunk yahoos (live ones, anyway) in the woods if that happened."—R. Lerner, letter, Sierra, March-April 1991

"When I was twelve, I went hunting with my father and we shot a bird. He was laying there and something struck me. Why do we call this fun to kill this creature [who] was as happy as I was when I woke up this morning."—Marv Levy

"This world could be an Eden—nature created that way, but we’ve corrupted it. Take the common cow, if kindness and love of all creatures where our guiding principle, we could have just a little milk, cheese or butter and all the great love our fellow creatures are dying to give to us."—Anonymous. Greeting Card

"I eat everything that nature voluntarily gives: fruits, vegetables, and the products of plants. But I ask you to spare me what animals are forced to surrender: meat, milk, and cheese."—Anonymous

"I had bought two male chimps from a primate colony in Holland. They lived next to each other in separate cages for several months before I used one as a [heart] donor. When we put him to sleep in his cage in preparation for the operation, he chattered and cried incessantly. We attached no significance to this, but it must have made a great impression on his companion, for when we removed the body to the operating room, the other chimp wept bitterly and was inconsolable for days. The incident made a deep impression on me. I vowed never again to experiment with such sensitive creatures."—Christian Barnard

"Ask the experimenters why they experiment on animals, and the answer is: 'Because the animals are like us.' Ask the experimenters why it is morally okay to experiment on animals, and the answer is: 'Because the animals are not like us.' Animal experimentation rests on a logical contradiction."—Charles R. Magel

"Unseen they suffer, unheard they cry, in agony they linger, in loneliness they die."—Anonymous Button

"The cow is an exceptionally loving and gentle creature. She cries for days when her calf is taken from her. It is a pitiful sound, a pitiful sound."—Helen Weston, former cattle rancher

"My perspective of veganism was most affected by learning that the veal calf is a by-product of dairying, and that in essence there is a slice of veal in every glass of what I had thought was an innocuous white liquid —milk."—Rynn Berry

"Cows are amongst the gentlest of breathing creatures; none show more passionate tenderness to their young when deprived of them; and, in short, I am not ashamed to profess a deep love for these quiet creatures."—Thomas De Quincey. Greeting Card

"The human body has no more need for cows' milk than it does for dogs' milk, horses' milk, or giraffes' milk."—Michael Klaper, M.D.

"I will not eat anything that walks, runs, skips, hops or crawls. God knows that I've crawled on occasion, and I'm glad that no one ate me."—Alex Poulos

"The basis of all animal rights should be the Golden Rule: we should treat them as we would wish them to treat us, were any other species in our dominant position."—Christine Stevens

"I just could not stand the idea of eating meat—I really do think that it has made me calmer.... People's general awareness is getting much better, even down to buying a pint of milk: the fact that the calves are actually killed so that the milk doesn't go to them but to us cannot really be right, and if you have seen a cow in a state of extreme distress because it cannot understand why its calf isn't by, it can make you think a lot."—Kate Bush

"I think if you want to eat more meat you should kill it yourself and eat it raw so that you are not blinded by…having it processed for you."—Margi Clark

"As soon as I realized that I didn't need meat to survive or to be in good health, I began to see how forlorn it all is. If only we had a different mentality about the drama of the cowboy and the range and all the rest of it. It's a very romantic notion, an entrenched part of American culture, but I've seen, for example, pigs waiting to be slaughtered, and their hysteria and panic was something I shall never forget."—Cloris Leachman

"True benevolence or compassion, extends itself through the whole of existence and sympathizes with the distress of every creature capable of sensation."—Joseph Addison

"We're beginning to realize the almost irreparable loss in such cruel and barbaric practices as hunting and killing innocent creatures for pleasure or mercilessly trapping and torturing harmless animals whose sole "offense" is being beautiful."—Joseph F. Goodavage; Magic: Science of the Future

"If an animal does something, we call it instinct; if we do the same thing for the same reason, we call it intelligence"—Will Cuppy

"Non-violence begins with the fork"—Elizabeth Frians

"There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face."—Bern Williams

"When an unloved creature suffers and dies Heaven Rages and Angels cry."—Nan Sea Love. Angel Greeting Card

"I know no greater proof for the existence of a benevolent God, no greater Heaven than holding a purring cat. Those who hunger for love need look no further. God has put opportunities to love and care all around us."—Nan Sea Love Greeting Card

"Perhaps the Animal Spirit is so great that one day it may inspire compassion in the human heart."—Nan Sea Love Artwork and Greeting Card

"All Nature is so filled with wisdom one only has to look to the natural world to be guided. As the American Indian intuitively knew— All life contains a Spirit with virtues we may learn from."—Nan Sea Love

"Have you ever felt like you where invisible? No matter how you cried out your loneliness and pain no one cared, you where not even important enough to be noticed, except perhaps as 'that damn dog is barking next door again.'"—Nan Sea Love

"One cannot look deeply into the eyes of an animal and not see the same depth, complexity and feeling we humans lay exclusive claim to."—Nan Sea Love