The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.

— Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

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

I am in favour of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of the whole human being.

— Abraham Lincoln

We humans are the only primates who eat meat. Somewhere along the line, someone sold us all a bill of goods that it’s good for us to eat meat.

— Unknown

If you love animals called pets, why do you eat animals called dinner?

— Unknown

The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for whites or women for men.

— Alice Walker

You put a baby in a crib with an apple and a rabbit. If it eats the rabbit and plays with the apple, I’ll buy you a new car.

— Harvey Diamond

It is just like man’s vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his [man’s] dull perceptions.

— Mark Twain

Atrocities are not less atrocities when they occur in laboratories and are called medical research.

— George Bernard Shaw

The wild, cruel beast is not behind the bars of the cage. He is in front of it.

— Axel Munthe

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

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

Jack La Lanne: "You name me one creature on this Earth that used milk after they're weaned."

Keith Morrison: "But milk's good for you."

Jack La Lanne: "It's not good for you. It's good for a suckling calf. Are you a suckling calf?"

— Jack La Lanne
On Dateline NBC,

Jack La Lanne was questioned

about his refusal to drink milk.

— Howard Lyman

ex-cattle rancher,

international lecturer,

author of Mad Cowboy

It is nearly fifty years since I was assured by a conclave of doctors that if I did not eat meat, I should die of starvation.

— George Bernard Shaw

1856-1950

People are the only animals that drink the milk of the mother of another species. All other animals stop drinking milk altogether after weaning. It is unnatural for a dog to nurse from a giraffe; a child drinking the milk of a mother cow is just as strange. It is not surprising that problems ensue from this inherently unnatural act.

— Michael A. Klaper, M.D.

American author and

international lecturer from

Pregnancy, Children,

and the Vegan Diet

Vegetarianism is the cure for 99% of the world's problems. Think about it …

— Casey Kasem

The question is not, can they reason? Nor, can they talk? But, can they suffer?

— Jeremy Bentham

1748-1832

English philosopher

An introduction to:

The principles of morals

and legislation, 1789

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.

— Mahatma Gandhi

1869-1948

Hindu pacificst, spiritual leader

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

— George Bernard Shaw

Animals, too, are God’s creatures … Certainly, a sort of industrial use of creatures, so that geese are fed in such a way as to produce as large a liver as possible, or hens live so packed together that they become just caricatures of birds, this degrading of living creatures to a commodity seems to me in fact to contradict the relationship of mutuality that comes across in the Bible.

— Pope Benedict XVI

Reigned 2005-2013

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

Cornell and Harvard says that the optimum amount of meat for a healthy diet is precisely ZERO.

— Philip Wollen, June 21, 2012

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.

The soul is the same in all living creatures … although the body of each is different.

— Hippocrates

When I look into the eyes of an animal, I do not see an animal. I see a living being. I see a friend. I feel a soul.

— Anthony Douglas Williams,

Inside the Divine Pattern

Never, never be afraid to do what’s right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.

— Martin Luther King, Jr.

According to the group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, fish have feelings too. Whenever my sons go fishing they always tell me, "Dad, it doesn't hurt a fish to get hooked." Well I watch and I see and I believe it's painful for the fish.

— Donald Trump

It is a certainty that consuming animals and animal products is not only unsustainable and devastating to our planet, but also detrimental to human health, as well as cruel to animals in all respects.

— Christopher Stasney of Portland, OR

November 26, 2016

via Change.org

It takes nothing away from a human to be kind to an animal.

— Joaquin Phoenix

I don't see why someone should lose their life just so you can have a snack.

— Russell Brand

I personally chose to go vegan because I educated myself on factory farming and cruelty to animals, and I suddenly realized that what was on my plate were living things, with feelings. And I just couldn't disconnect myself from it any longer. I read books like Diet for a New America and saw documentaries like Earthlings and Meet Your Meat, and it became an easy choice for me.

— Ellen DeGeneres

The reason I took a [one-year] vow of silence was to raise awareness for the voiceless victims of this planet -- the animals. We all say we love animals, and we all are against animal cruelty, but we pay people to mutilate, torture, and slaughter animals. And it's not for any necessity. It's not because we need to for our health. It's just because we like the way they taste.

So I went voiceless because they're voiceless. But, animals aren't voiceless after all -- rather, what they do say too often goes unheard. They cry in pain, they scream in terror, and when they do that, they're using their voice to tell us they're suffering. I did it to raise awareness for them.

— James Aspey

January 13, 2015

on Australia's Sunrise

morning television show

Hi. ‘Sup? Hi. God, I’m full of so much gratitude right now. I do not feel elevated above any of my fellow nominees or anyone in this room, because we share the same love, the love of film. This form of expression has given me the most extraordinary life. I don’t know what I’d be without it. But I think the greatest gift that it’s given me and many of us in this room is the opportunity to use our voice for the voiceless.

I’ve been thinking a lot about some of the distressing issues that we are facing collectively, and I think at times we feel or we’re made to feel that we champion different causes. But for me, I see commonality. I think whether we’re talking about gender inequality or racism or queer rights or indigenous rights or animal rights, we’re talking about the fight against injustice. We’re talking about the fight against the belief that one nation, one people, one race, one gender, or one species has the right to dominate, control, and use and exploit another with impunity.

I think that we’ve become very disconnected from the natural world and many of us, what we’re guilty of is an egocentric worldview, the belief that we’re the center of the universe. We go into the natural world, and we plunder it for its resources. We feel entitled to artificially inseminate a cow, and when she gives birth, we steal her baby even though her cries of anguish are unmistakable. Then we take her milk that’s intended for her calf, and we put it in our coffee and our cereal. [Additional commentary to Joaquin's speech here, as provided by comedian Ahmed Bharoocha (unrelated to Joaquin's speech): We then put photos of OUR missing children on cartons of cow's milk.]

I think we fear the idea of personal change, because we think that we have to sacrifice something, to give something up. But human beings at our best are so inventive and creative and ingenious, and I think that when we use love and compassion as our guiding principles, we can create, develop, and implement systems of change that are beneficial to all sentient beings and to the environment.

I’ve been a scoundrel in my life. I have been selfish, I’ve been cruel at times, hard to work with, and I’m grateful that so many of you in this room have given me a second chance. I think that’s when we’re at our best, when we support each other. Not when we cancel each other out for past mistakes, but when we help each other to grow, when we educate each other, when we guide each other towards redemption. That is the best of humanity.

When he was 17, my brother wrote this lyric. He said, “Run to the rescue with love and peace will follow.” Thank you.

— Joaquin Phoenix

Acceptance speech for Joker

at the 92nd Academy Awards

February 9, 2020