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There is an opinion that vegetarianism is as old as mankind. Therefore, disputes and reflections about him constantly pushed the great and famous personalities of our planet to interesting thoughts, which were later captured in history in the form of quotes, poems and aphorisms. Looking through them today, one involuntarily becomes convinced that the people who deliberately refused animal food, in fact, are countless. It’s just that not all of their words and ideas have yet been found. Nevertheless, thanks to the painstaking work of historians, the following list was compiled. Perhaps, to find out who entered it is interesting to absolutely everyone, regardless of who we are by nature and how we feel about it.
Traditionally, they thought about the benefits of plant foods and the dangers of meat:
- sages and philosophers, scientists;
- writers, poets, artists, doctors;
- politicians and politicians of all countries and peoples;
- musicians, actors, radio hosts.
But what prompted them to become vegetarian? They say ethical considerations. Simply because the latter allowed them to penetrate into the essence of things and feel the pain of others. Possessing a keen sense of justice, such people simply could not help but overstep their own views, desires and interests if someone felt bad because of them. First of all, let’s talk about them.
Sages and philosophers of ancient Greece and Rome about vegetarianism
Diogenes Sinopski (412 – 323 BC)
“We can eat human flesh in the same way as we eat animal flesh.”
Plutarch (ca 45 – 127 AD)
“I do not understand what the sensations, the state of mind and state of mind of the first person should be, who, having committed the murder of an animal, began to eat its bloody flesh. How did he, putting out treats from the dead on the table in front of the guests, called them the words “meat” and “edible”, if only yesterday they walked, bellowed and looked at everything around? How can his vision bear pictures of mutilated, stripped and innocently murdered bodies with spilled blood? How could his sense of smell bear the terrible smell of death, and all this horror did not spoil his appetite? ”
“How the madness of gluttony and greed pushes people to the sin of bloodshed, if there are an abundance of resources around to ensure a comfortable existence? Aren’t they ashamed to put the product of agriculture on the same level with the torn victim of the slaughter? Among them it is customary to call snakes, lions and leopards wild animals, while they themselves are covered in blood and are in no way inferior to them. ”
“We don’t eat lions and wolves. We catch the innocent and defenseless and kill them mercilessly. ” (On eating flesh.)
Porphyry (233 – c. 301 – 305 AD)
“Anyone who refrains from harming a living will be much more careful not to harm members of their own species.”
Horace (65 – 8 BC)
“Dare to become wise! Stop killing animals! The one who postpones justice for later is like a peasant hoping that the river will be shallow before he crosses it. ”
Lucius Annieus Seneca (c. 4 BC – 65 AD)
“The principles of avoiding meat by Pythagoras, if they are correct, teach purity and innocence, and if not, at least teach frugality. Will your loss be great if you lose your cruelty? ”
Keeps the Gospel of Peace from Yeseev Jesus’ words about vegetarianism: “And the flesh of the slain creatures in his body will become his grave. For I tell you truly: the one who kills – kills himself, who eats the slain flesh, eats death from the body. “
Vegetarian writers, poets, artists
Their works delight the eyes, soul, heart. Nevertheless, in addition to their creation, they actively urged people to abandon cruelty, murder and violence and, in combination, from meat food.
Ovid (43 BC – 18 AD)
Oh mortals! Be afraid to desecrate
Their bodies are unholy food,
Take a look – your fields are full of cereals,
And the branches of the trees bowed under the weight of the fruits,
Given to you are herbs that are delicious,
When skillfully prepared by hand,
The vine is rich in bunch,
And honey gives fragrant
Indeed, Mother Nature is generous,
Giving us plenty of these delicacies,
She has everything for your table,
Everything .. to avoid murder and bloodshed.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519)
“Truly, man is the king of beasts, for what other beast can compare with him in cruelty!”
“We live off killing others. We are walking graves! ”
Alexander Pope (1688 – 1744)
“Like luxury, a depraved dream,
Decline and disease replaces,
So death in itself brings vengeance,
And the shed blood cries out for retribution.
A wave of mad fury
This blood was born from the age,
Descending to the human race to attack,
The most ferocious beast – Human. ”
(“Essay about a Man”)
Francois Voltaire (1694 – 1778)
“Porfiry views animals as our brothers. They, like us, are endowed with life and share with us life principles, concepts, aspirations, feelings – the same as we do. Human speech is the only thing they lack. If they possessed it, would we dare to kill and eat them? Will we continue to commit this fratricide? ”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 – 1778)
“One of the proofs that meat food is unusual for humans is the indifference of children to it. They prefer dairy products, cookies, vegetables, etc. ”
Jean Paul (1763 – 1825)
“Oh, the just Lord! From how many hours of hellish torment of animals, a man milked out a single minute of pleasure for the tongue.
Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862)
“I have no doubt that humanity in the process of its evolution will stop eating animals in the same way that once wild tribes stopped eating each other when they came into contact with more advanced ones.”
Lev Tolstoy (1828 – 1910)
“How can we hope that peace and prosperity will reign on earth if our bodies are living graves in which killed animals are buried?”
“If a person is serious and sincere in his quest for morality, the first thing he should turn away from is meat-eating. Vegetarianism is considered a criterion by which one can recognize how serious and sincere a person’s striving for moral excellence is. ”
George Bernard Shaw (1859 – 1950)
“Animals are my friends … and I don’t eat my friends. This is terrible! Not only by the suffering and death of animals, but also by the fact that a person in vain suppresses the highest spiritual treasure in himself – sympathy and compassion for living beings similar to himself. ”
“We pray to God to light our way:
“Grant us light, oh, all-good Lord!”
The nightmare of war keeps us awake
But there is flesh on our teeth of dead animals. ”
John Harvey Kellogg (1852 – 1943), American surgeon, founder of Battle Creek Sanatorium Hospital
“Flesh is not optimal food for humans. She was not part of the diet of our ancestors. Meat food is a secondary derivative product, because initially all food is supplied by the plant world. There is nothing useful or irreplaceable in meat. Something that he could not find in plant foods. A dead sheep or a cow lying in a meadow is carrion. A delicacy embellished and hung in a butcher’s shop is a corpse! Only a careful microscopic examination will show the differences between carrion under the fence and carcass in the shop, if not the complete absence of such. Both of them are teeming with pathogenic bacteria and exude a putrid odor. ”
Franz Kafka (1853 – 1924) about fish in an aquarium
“Now I can look at you calmly: I don’t eat you anymore.”
Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955)
“Nothing will bring such benefits to human health and increase the chances of preserving life on Earth, than the spread of vegetarianism.”
Sergei Yesenin (1895 – 1925)
Decrepit, teeth fell out,
Scroll of years on the horns.
Beaten her up by a rude kicker
On the distillation fields.
The heart is not kind to the noise,
The mice are scratching in the corner.
Thinks a sad thought
About the white-legged heifer.
They did not give the mother a son,
The first joy is not for the future.
And on a stake under an aspen
The breeze fluttered the skin.
Soon on buckwheat light,
With the same filial destiny,
Tie a noose around her neck
And they will lead to the slaughter.
Plain, sad and skinny
Horns are screaming into the ground …
She dreams of a white grove
And grassy meadows.
(“Cow”)
Politicians and Economists About Vegetarianism
Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790), American politician
“I became a vegetarian at the age of sixty. A clear head and increased intelligence – this is how I would characterize the changes that took place in me after that. Meat-eating is an unjustified murder. ”
Mohandas Gandhi (1869 – 1948), leader and ideologist of the Indian national liberation movement
“An indicator of the greatness of a nation and the level of morality in society can be the way its representatives treat animals.”
Prasad Rajendra (1884 – 1963), first President of India
“Any integrated view of life as a whole will reveal the relationship between what an individual eats and how he acts in relation to others. On further reflection, we come to the conclusion that the only way to avoid the hydrogen bomb is to get away from the state of mind that generated it. And the only way to avoid mentality is to develop respect for all living things, all forms of life under any circumstances. And all this is just another synonym for vegetarianism. ”
In Well (1907 – 1995), Prime Minister of Burma
“Peace on earth is highly dependent on the state of mind. Vegetarianism provides the right mental state for the world. It carries the power of a better way of life, which, if universalized, can lead to a better, more just and peaceful community of nations. ”
Musicians and actors
Seva Novgorodtsev (1940), radio presenter of the BBC.
“If I got caught in the rain, I was soaked. Pleased in the dirt – got dirty. I let the thing out of my hands – it fell. According to the same immutable, only invisible laws, a person acquires what is called karma in Sanskrit. Every deed and thought determines the future life. And that’s all – wherever you want, move there, to the saints or crocodiles. I won’t get into the saints, but I don’t want to get into crocodiles either. I am somewhere in the middle. I haven’t eaten meat since 1982, its smell eventually became disgusting to the point of disgust, so you won’t tempt me with a sausage. ”
Paul McCartney (1942)
“There are a lot of problems on our planet today. We hear a lot of words from businessmen, from the government, but it seems that they are not going to do anything about it. But you yourself can change something! You can help the environment, you can help end animal cruelty, and you can improve your health. All you have to do is become a vegetarian. So think about it, it’s a great idea! ”
Mikhail Zadornov (1948)
“I saw a woman eating barbecue. The same woman cannot watch a lamb being slaughtered. I consider this to be hypocrisy. When a person sees a clear murder, he does not want to be the aggressor. Have you seen the carnage? It’s like a nuclear explosion, only a nuclear explosion can we photograph, but here we only feel the release of the most terrible negative energy. This will terrify the very last man in the street. I believe that a person who strives for self-improvement should start with nutrition, I would even say, with philosophy, but not everyone is given this. Now there are few people who are able to start with philosophy and come to the commandment “Thou shalt not kill”, so it would be right to start with food; through healthy food the consciousness is purified and, consequently, the philosophy changes ”.
Natalie Portman (1981)
“When I was eight years old, my father took me to a medical conference where the achievements of laser surgery were demonstrated. A live chicken was used as a visual aid. Since then I have not eaten meat. ”
The most interesting thing is that the list is endless. Only the most striking quotes are presented above. Believe them and change your life for the better or not – everyone’s personal business. But you should definitely try to do it!