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Articles and Information
Conversations in Vegan
by Tammy Ruggles
From Budhha to Brandy, people throughout history and all over the world have had something to say about vegans and vegetarians. Let's listen in to some of their voices, historical and contemporary, for in them we just may hear our own:
I take vitamins daily, but just the bare essentials not what you'd call supplements. I try to stick to a vegan diet heavy on fruit, vegetables, tofu, and other soy products. - Clint Eastwood.
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To become vegetarian is to step into the stream which leads to nirvana. - Buddha.
I've been vegan for about 10 and a half years. It's been all good. I'm obviously much healthier - Woody Harrelson.
I did not become a vegetarian for my health. I did it for the health of the chickens. - Isaac Bashevis Singer.
I am a vegan now, and it was a conscious decision. I studied a lot about African culture and health and the best way to take care of the body. I really wanted to be healthy. At first I was just trying to challenge myself; I thought it was a phase and that I would grow out of it, but it wasn't. I found out a lot about the body and what [hormones] they put in meat. My taste buds started changing, and I didn't crave [meat and dairy products] anymore. - Brandy.
When a man of normal habits is ill, everyone hastens to assure him that he is going to recover. When a vegetarian is ill, (which fortunately very seldom happens), everyone assures him that he is going to die, and that they told him so, and that it serves him right. They implore him to take at least a little gravy, so as to give himself a chance of lasting out the night. - George Bernard Shaw
Nothing's changed my life more. I feel better about myself as a person, being conscious and responsible for my actions and I lost weight and my skin cleared up and I got bright eyes and I just became stronger and healthier and happier. Can't think of anything better in the world to be but be vegan. - Alicia Silverstone.
The Vegetarian movement ought to fill with gladness the souls of those who have at heart the realization of God's kingdom upon earth. - Leo Tolstoy.
When I first turned vegan about two and a half years ago, I decided to wear my suede Airwalks until they wore out but never bought leather again. I don't knowingly use anything of animal origin but I continue to learn more about different animal products all the time. - Daniel Johns.
If anybody said that I should die if I did not take beef-tea or mutton, even under medical advice, I would prefer death. - Mahatma Gandhi.
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.
As long as people will shed the blood of innocent creatures there can be no peace, no liberty, no harmony between people. Slaughter and justice cannot dwell together.- Isaac Bashevis Singer.
A modern vegetarian is also a teetotaler, yet there is no obvious connection between consuming vegetables and not consuming fermented vegetables... - William Blake.
I don`t hold animals superior or even equal to humans. The whole case for behaving decently to animals rests on the fact that we are the superior species. We are the species uniquely capable of imagination, rationality, and moral choice - and that is precisely why we are under an obligation to recognize and respect the rights of animals. - Brigid Brophy.
It does take a little work to be a vegetarian - but it's so worth it, oh it's so worth it! - Tippi Hedren.
I have from an early age abjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men. - Leonardo Da Vinci.
I have been a vegetarian for about 10 years. And it really was due to the reading that I did. And they explain so that you understand why it's important for the planet's survival along with compassion for animals. It certainly made it much easier for me. I lost weight really fast. My mother died from cancer so this is all very personal to me. And I just would like the planet to be a better place. And I think you'll find a vegetarian diet to be really incredible these days. - Linda Blair.
Flesh eating is unprovoked murder. - Ben Franklin.
Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet. - Albert Einstein.
If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian. We feel better about ourselves and better about the animals, knowing we're not contributing to their pain.--
Paul McCartney and Linda McCartney.
Animals are God's creatures, not human property, nor utilities, nor resources, nor commodities, but precious beings in God's sight.--Reverend Dr Andrew Linzey.
While we ourselves are the living graves of murdered beasts, how can we expect any ideal conditions on this earth?--George Bernard Shaw.
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.
If you visit the killing floor of a slaughterhouse, it will brand your soul for life.--Howard Lyman.
The question is not, Can they reason?
Nor Can they talk?
But, Can they suffer?--Jeremy Bentham.
The philosophy behind vivisection, the sacrifice of creatures we regard as 'inferior' beings, differs little from that behind the concentration camp or the slave trader.--Aga Khan
We must never permit the voice of humanity within us to be alienated. It is man's sympathy with all creatures that first makes him truly a man.--Albert Schweitzer.
In fact, if one person is unkind to an animal it is considered to be cruelty, but where a lot of people are unkind to animals, especially in the name of commerce, the cruelty is condoned and, once large sums of money are at stake, will be defended to the last by otherwise intelligent people.--Ruth Harrison, Animal Machines.
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.--Leo Tolstoy.
Wild animals never kill for sport. Man is the only one to whom the torture and death of his fellow creatures is amusing in itself.--James A. Froude.
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.
About 2,000 pounds of grains must be supplied to livestock in order to produce enough meat and other livestock products to support a person for a year, whereas 400 pounds of grain eaten directly will support a person for a year. Thus, a given quantity of grain eaten directly will feed 5 times as many people as it will if it is eaten indirectly by humans in the form of livestock products.--M.E. Ensminger, Ph.D.
My opinion is well known. I do not regard flesh food as necessary for us at any stage and under any clime in which it is possible for human beings ordinarily to live. I hold flesh-food to be unsuited to our species.--Mohatma Gandhi.
Who was the guy who first looked at a cow and said, 'I think I'll drink whatever comes out of these things when I squeeze 'em!'?--Calvin & Hobbes.
The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man.--Charles Darwin.
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 D. Barnard, M.D., President, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who deal likewise with their fellow men. Not to hurt our humble brethren is our first duty to them, but to stop there is not enough. We have a higher mission - to be of service to them wherever they require it.--St.Francis of Assisi.
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.
The human body has absolutely no requirement for animal flesh. Nobody has ever been found face-down 20 yards from Burger King because they couldn't get their Whopper in time.--Dr. Michael Klaper.
Tammy Ruggles is a freelance writer in Kentucky and has been published in Writer's Digest, Spirituality & Health, Women's Health & Fitness, FamilyFun Magazine, and more. Her first hardcover book, Peace, will be out soon.
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