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Are there any “successful” vegetarians?
Some ask whether there are any “successful” vegetarians? The answer to this question can best be answered by taking a look into some examples from the history among vegetarians who have carved their name into the books of history and present some selected quotes:
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“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. Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances of survival for life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.”
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“If a group of beings from another planet were to land on Earth — beings who considered themselves as superior to you as you feel yourself to be to other animals — would you concede them the rights over you that you assume over other animals?”
– George Bernard Shaw, playwright, Nobel Prize 1925
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“Now I can look at you in peace; I don`t eat you anymore.”
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“Truly man is the king of beasts, for his brutality exceeds them. We live by the death of others. We are burial places.”
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“When I see bacon, I see a pig, I see a little friend, and that’s why I can’t eat it. Simple as that.”
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“Here’s a test you can try at home: put a two-year-old in a playpen with an apple and a rabbit. If it plays with the apple and eats the rabbit, you’ve got a carnivore.”
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“Quite rightly, we do not normally take the behaviour of animals as a model for how we may treat them. We would not, for example, justify tearing a cat to pieces because we had observed the cat tearing a mouse to pieces. Carnivorous fishes don’t have a choice about whether to kill other fish or not. They kill as a matter of instinct. Meanwhile, humans can choose to abstain from killing or eating fish and other animals. Alternatively, the argument could be made that is part of natural order that there are predators and prey, and so it cannot be wrong for us to play our part in this order. But this “argument from nature” can justify all kinds of inequities, including the rule of men over women and leaving the weak and the sick to fall by the wayside. “
– Peter Singer, The Ethics of What We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter
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“Nobody can come up with a good argument for eating animals — nobody can. People as some kind of a joke say, well, ‘It’s tasty’, but it’s only tasty once you garnish it and you put salt and pepper, and you cook it, and you have to do 300 things to it to disguise its true taste. If you put garnishes on a chair or fabric, it would probably taste quite nice.”
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“The average age of a meat-eater is 63. I am on the verge of 85 and still at work as hard as ever. I have lived quite long enough and am trying to die; but I simply cannot do it. A single beef-steak; would finish me; but I cannot bring myself to swallow it. I am oppressed with a dread of living forever. That is the only disadvantage of vegetarianism”
“Animals are my friends, and I don’t eat my friends.”
“The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them. That’s the essence of inhumanity. “
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“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, mathematician
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“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.”
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“Be the change you wish to see the world”
“To my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being.”
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
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“Auschwitz begins whenever someone looks at a slaughterhouse and thinks: they’re only animals.”
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” Why should man expect his prayer for mercy to be heard by what is above him when he shows no mercy to what is below him?”
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“Consider the biggest animals on the planet: elephants, and buffaloes, and giraffes. These are vegetarian animals. They grow to thousands of pounds of muscle and bone without ever eating cheeseburgers and pepperoni pizzas.”
– Michael Klaper, M.D.
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“The Gods created certain kinds of beings to replenish our bodies; they are the trees and the plants and the seeds.”
– Plato (Platon), Greek philosopher, (circa 428-347 B.C.):
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“May all that have life be delivered from suffering.”
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“We manage to swallow flesh, only because we do not think of the cruel and sinful thing we do.”
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“Don´t live to eat, eat to live”
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“My best performances were when I was 30 years old, and I was a vegan.”
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“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.”
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“We marvel that there should have been men, that there still should be men who slay human beings in order to eat their flesh. The time will come when our grandchildren will marvel that their grandfathers had been in the habit of killing millions of animals every day in order to eat them, although they could satisfy their hunger both wholesomely and pleasantly with the fruits of the earth and without killing.”
– Leo Tolstoy, The Pathway of Life: Teaching Love and Wisdom
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“Don’t eat meat, ride a bike, and be a frugal shopper — that’s how you can help brake global warming “
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“The Superior Man is aware of Righteousness, the inferior man is aware of advantage.”
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Above is a collage from NOAH showing some of the famous and successful vegetarians
“Man prays for mercy, but is unwilling to extend it to others. Why should man then expect mercy from God?”
– Isaac Bashevis Singer
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Genesis 1:29-30 (King James Version of the Bible)
29And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. 30And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
(In Norwegian: Første Mosebok, kapittel 1, 29-30:
29 Og Gud sa: «Se, jeg gir dere alle planter som setter frø, så mange som det finnes på hele jorden, og alle trær som bærer frukt med frø i. De skal være til føde for dere. 30 Og til alle dyr på jorden og alle fugler under himmelen og alt som kryper på jorden, alt som har livsånde i seg, gir jeg alle grønne planter til føde.» Og det ble slik.)
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Sources:
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Vegetarianism
http://www.veggieboards.com/newvb/showthread.php?20599-What-are-your-favorite-Veg*n-quotes/page3
http://vegetarian.about.com/od/vegetarianlifestyle/f/famousveg.htm
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