" Some say if animals are not used for food they will overrun the earth. In India the Hindus do not kill cows, but they are not overrun by them. "
- Ralph Waldo Trine
" 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
" 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. "
" We consume the carcasses of creatures of like appetites, passions and organs as our own, and fill the slaughterhouses daily with screams of pain and fear. "
- Robert Louis Stevenson
" You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity. "
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
" Every individual who eats flesh food, whether an animal is killed expressely for him or not, is supporting the trade of slaughtering and contributing to the violent deaths of harmless animals. "
" Ultimately the case for shunning animal flesh does not rest on what the Buddha allegedly said or didn't say. What is does rest on is our innate moral goodness, compassion, and pity which, when liberated, lead us to value all forms of life. It is obvious, then, that willfully to take life, or through the eating of meat indirectly to cause others to kill, runs counter to the deepest instincts of human beings. "
" Although one can sympathize with lay person trying to break their attachment to a diet featuring meat, it is something else again to extend those sympathies to monks, priests, and teachers. What business have these latter to propound the Dharma when they possess neither the perception nor compassion to see the connection between meat eating and the killing of harmless animals, and when they lack the self-discipline to put Buddhist compassion before the pleasure on their palates' What right have they to wear the Buddha's robes when they won't or can't honor the bodhisattva vows they recite daily to liberate all beings? "
- Roshi Philip Kapleau
" 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
" Sooner or later, we'll all be on the menu. "
- Rod Serling
" A vegetarian until I started leaning toward the sunlight. "
- Rita Rudner
" A feminist man is a bit like a vegetarian: it's the humanitarian principle he's defending, I suppose. "
- Rachel Cusk
" If a rabbit defined intelligence the way man does, then the most intelligent animal would be a rabbit, followed by the animal most willing to obey the commands of a rabbit. "
- Robert Brault
" Vegetarianism is harmless enough, though it is apt to fill a man with wind and self-righteousness. "
- Robert Hutchinson
" 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
" 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
" I spoke often in Congress against the war in Vietnam. and commented on congresspersons hiding from the reality of war by saying 'many eat the meat but few go to the slaughterhouse'. I said it so often I became a vegetarian. "
- Rep. Andrew Jacobs
" 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. "
- Rev. Andrew Linzey
" People get offended by animal rights campaigns. It’s ludicrous. It’s not as bad as mass animal death in a factory. "
" As custodians of the planet, it is our responsibility to deal with all species with kindness. People get offended by animal rights campaigns. It's ludicrous. It's not as bad as mass animal death in a factory. "
- Richard Gere
" I have reached zero tolerance for the cruelty against our animal brothers. If we are to nuture our culture, let’s begin with the animals who have been nothing but our beasts of burden for so long. "
" If animal experimentation, animal dissection and any kind of animal exploitation all ended tomorrow, I don’t make a f-----’ dime! I am for the animals, I couldn’t care less about your need to eat animals, wear them, shoot them or exploit them. Too bad if you consider it suffering to let all that self-centered and traditional bullshit stop you from having the will to help the animals. "
- Riki Rockett
" When I was old enough to realize all meat was killed, I saw it as an irrational way of using our power, to take a weaker thing and mutilate it. It was like the way bullies would take control of younger kids in the schoolyard. "
" Animals can’t really voice their opinion. We feel as though we can be on of the spokespeople on their behalf. "
" I've always felt somewhat out of place with other kids my own age ", said River. " I was constantly reminded by people's reaction to our names and our diet that we seemed weird to them. "
- River Phoenix
" Compassion is the foundation of everything positive, everything good. If you carry the power of compassion to the marketplace and the dinner table, you can make your life really count. "
- Rue McClanahan
" I'm into yoga, I meditate all the time, I'm vegetarian. "
- Russell Brand