112 Inspirational & Truthful Vegan Quotes

Vegan Vegetarian Quotes

Who doesn’t love a good, inspiring quote? Whether you are vegan now or thinking about transitioning, these quotes are thought-provoking and powerful. Enjoy, and please feel free to add to this list in the comments! Let’s do some serious inspiring, people.


(For 100 more vegan quotes, see part 2 here!)

“It takes nothing away from a human to be kind to an animal.” -Joaquin Phoenix

“Veganism is not a sacrifice. It is a joy.” -Gary L. Francione

“Only when we have become non-violent towards all life will we have learned to live well ourselves,” -Cesar Chavez

“Animals are not products. Life doesn’t have a price.” -Anonymous

“Every living creature has the right to live ethically.” -Dirk Verbeuren

“All life deserves respect, dignity, and compassion. All life.” -Anonymous

“It’s not hard to make decisions once you know what your values are.” Roy E. Disney

“May all that have life be delivered from suffering.” -Buddha

“It is much easier to show compassion to animals. They are never wicked.” -Haile Selassie

“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.” -Ellen DeGeneres

“The greatness of a nation and it’s moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” -Gandhi

“If you think that being vegan is difficult, imagine being a factory farmed animal.” -Davegan Raza

“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” -Anatole France

“I don’t see why someone should lose their life just so you can have a snack.” -Russell Brand

“To get mud off your hands, use soap and water. To get blood off your hands, go vegan.” -John Sakars

“Life is too short to make others shorter.” -Chris Hannah (Propagandhi)

“Animals are here with us, not for us.” -Anonymous

“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.” -Albert Einstein

“I’m a vegan. I respect the environment and I do my best to spread the importance of such an issue.” -Jared Leto

“The problem is that humans have victimized animals to such a degree that they are not even considered victims. They are not even considered at all. They are nothing; they don’t count; they don’t matter. They are commodities like TV sets and cell phones. We have actually turned animals into inanimate objects – sandwiches and shoes.” Gary Yourofsky

“If a kid ever realized what was involved in factory farming, they would never touch meat again.” -James Cromwell

“Eating meat is the most disgusting thing I can think of. It’s like biting into your grandmother.” -Morrisey

“I hold that the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man” -Ghandi

“One to change a few. A few to change many. Many to change the world. Starts with one.” -Anonymous

“As I improved my diet, I started to learn to love my self, probably for the first time ever.” -Frank Ferrante

“There is no fundamental difference between man and animals in their ability to feel pleasure and pain, happiness, and misery.” -Charles Darwin

“It’s never really been that hard for me. I’ve never had any desire to eat meat. In fact, when I was a kid I would have a really difficult time eating meat at all.” -Tobey Maguire

“The only animals I eat are crackers.” -Anonymous

“Animal factories are one more sign of the extent to which our technological capacities have advanced faster than our ethics.” -Peter Singer

“My body will not be a tomb for other creatures.” -Leonardo Da Vinci

“World Peace begins in the kitchen.” -Anonymous

“Could you look an animal in the eyes and say to it, ‘My appetite is more important than your suffering’?” -Moby

“People eat meat and think they will become as strong as an ox, forgetting that the ox eats grass.” -Pino Caruso

“Please don’t refuse with your eyes what the animals endure with their bodies.” -Shaun Monson

“Why are vegans made fun of while the inhumane factory farming process regards animals and the natural world merely as commodities to be exploited for profit?” -Ellen Page

“Compassion is the best side effect of being vegan.” -Anonymous

“No animal needs to die in order for me to live. And that makes me feel good.” -Howard Lynan

“Science that fails to embrace all living beings is far more dangerous than any virus!” -Steve Simmons

“We all love animals. Why do we call some ‘pets’ and others ‘dinner?’” -K.D. Lang

“Everyone has to find what is right for them, and it is different for everyone. Eating for me is how you proclaim your beliefs three times a day. That is why all religions have rules about eating. Three times a day, I remind myself that I value life and do not want to cause pain to or kill other living beings. That is why I eat the way I do.” -Natalie Portman

“When humans act with cruelty we characterize them as “animals”, yet the only animal that displays cruelty is humanity.” -Anthony Douglas Williams

“I can’t think of anything better in the world to be but a vegan.” -Alicia Silverstone

“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

“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.” -Paul McCartney

“The soul is the same in all living creatures, although the body of each is different.” -Hippocrates

“Behind every beautiful fur coat, there is a story. It is a bloody, barbaric story.” -Mary Tyler Moore

“When people ask me why I don’t eat meat or any other animal products, I say, ‘Because they are unhealthy and they are the product of a violent and inhumane industry.'”-Cassey Afleck

“Part of my becoming a vegetarian was that I would look at my burger, then look at my dogs, and I wasn’t able to see a difference.” -Kristen Bell

“Every time sitting at a dining table, we make a choice. Please choose vegetarianism. Do it for the animals. Do it for the environment and for the sake of your own health.”  -Alec Baldwin

“I love animals. All animals. I wouldn’t hurt a cat or a dog — or a chicken, or a cow. And I wouldn’t ask someone else to hurt them for me. That’s why I’m a vegetarian.” -Peter Dinklage

“If slaughterhouses had glass walls, we’d all be vegetarian.” -Paul McCartney

“If you don’t like pictures of animal cruelty being posted on social media, you need to help stop the cruelty, not the pictures. You should be bothered that its happening, not that you saw it.” -Marie Sarantakis

“Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.” -Albert Einstein

“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

“The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than blacks were made for whites, or women for men.” -Alice Walker

“The Gods created certain kinds of beings to replenish our bodies; they are the trees and the plants and the seeds.” -Plato

“The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man.” -Charles Darwin

“No other animal on Earth has portrayed such a disregard for life than mankind.” -Anthony Douglas Williams

“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 mother giraffe; it is just as unnatural for a human being to drink the milk of a cow.” -Michael Klaper

“If you don’t want to be beaten, imprisoned, mutilated, killed or tortured then you shouldn’t condone such behaviour towards anyone, be they human or not.” -Moby

“An animal’s eyes have the power to speak a great language.” -Martin Buber

“We cannot have peace among men whose hearts find delight in killing any living creature.” -Rachel Carson

“Nobody really needs a mink coat… Except the mink.” -Glenda Jackson

“Nothing hurts a good soul and a kind heart more than to live amongst people who can’t understand it.” -Ali Ibn Abi Taalib

“We choose to eat meat and have therefore built slaughter houses for the animals and hospitals for us.”-Akbarali Jetha

“Cruelty is one fashion statement we can all do without.” -Rue McClanahan

“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

“The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?” -Jeremy Bentham

“It’s not a diet. It’s not a phase. It’s a permanent lifestyle.” -Anonymous

“When diet is wrong, medicine is of no use. When diet is correct, medicine is of no need.” -Ayurvedic proverb

“When you feel the suffering of every living thing in your own heart, that is consciousness.” -Bhagavad Gita

“If you can’t stand watching it be produced, you shouldn’t be eating it.” -Anonymous

“I didn’t change, I just woke up.” -Anonymous

“Animals don’t have a voice, but I do. A loud one. A big fucking mouth. My voice is for them. And I’ll never shut up while they suffer.” -Ricky Gervais

“It almost seems to me that man was not born to be a carnivore.” -Einstein. Albert

“Earth was created for all of us, not some of us.” -Anthony Douglas Williams

“Animals are my friends. And I don’t eat my friends.” -George Bernard Shaw

“I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.” -Anonymous

“If you think eating meat is just a personal choice, you are forgetting someone.” -Anonymous

“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” -Maya Angelou

“Vegan is not about being perfect. It is about doing the least harm and the most good.” -Anonymous

“The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong in the world.” -Dr. Paul Farmer

“Veganism is not about how hard it is for you. It’s about every animal’s right not to be used as a slave.” -Randy Sandberg

“To face animal suffering is to face our responsibility in their suffering.” -JoAnne McArthur

“You can’t do anything violent humanely.” -James Wildman

“People may hate you for being different and not living by society’s standards but deep down, they wish they had the courage to do the same.” -Anonymous

“It’s pretty amazing to wake up every morning, knowing that every decision I make is to cause as little harm as possible. It’s a pretty fantastic way to live.” -Colleen Patrick-Goudreau

“Animal protection isn’t a radical idea. It follows the simple principle that if animals feel pain, joy and fear, they should be protected from suffering.” -Anonymous

“Fur coats are worn by beautiful animals and ugly people.” -Anonymous

“We strive for a world where every earthling has the right to live and grow. That’s why we don’t eat animals.” -Ruby Roth

“Animals are not ingredients.” -Barbara Thompson

“The future depends on what we do in the present.” -Gandhi

“Always let your conscience be your guide.” -Jiminy Cricket

“Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it’s not acceptable.” -Jodi Foster

“I’ve been vegan since I got out of the hospital… It’s another eye opener. It changed my life in a number of ways.” -Travis Barker

“The future is not something we enter, the future is something we create.” -Anonymous

“We are, quite literally, gambling with the future of our planet- for the sake of hamburgers.” -Pete Singer

“Poor animals, how jealously they guard their bodies, for to us is merely an evening’s meal, but to them is life itself.” -T. Casey Brennan

“I am grateful to realize that my desires do not entitle me to add to another’s suffering.” -Zoe Weil

“If intelligence and capability are not criteria for the possession of rights, why would animals -who have the capacity to feel fear and pain- be excluded from our moral consideration?” -Jack Norris

“Becoming vegan is the most important and direct change we can immediately make to save the planet and its species.” -Chris Hedges

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to pause and reflect.” -Mark Twain

“You either approve of violence or you don’t, and nothing on earth is more violent or extreme than the meat industry.” -Morrisey

“Start with your heart, and only good can follow!” -Anonymous

“The concept that you are not ingesting rotting flesh sort of sums it up for me.” -Bryan Adams

“I’m a really big lover of animals, and, at the risk of sounding like a total hippie, I do feel more connected to the world at large and to animals.” -Mickey Madden

“Vegan food is soul food in its truest form. Soul food means to feed the soul. And to me, your soul is your intent. If your intent is pure, you are pure.” -Erykah Badu

“The best part of being a vegan is the purity and peace of mind one experiences and the strong connection I feel to the animal kingdom.” -Uri Gellar

“Being a vegan just helps me build up my self-esteem. I feel good about it every time I eat a meal.” -Steve-O

“If you can be anything, be kind.” -Anonymous

“I’m a vegan. It makes me feel really good and bright.” -Lea Michelle

“Being vegan just gives you such great karma.” -Alicia Silverstone

Which is your favorite? xx Bianca

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27 Comments

  1. WOW! That is a LOT of quotes! Several catch my eye but I think this one relates to me most. 33.“People eat meat and think they will become as strong as an ox, forgetting that the ox eats grass.” -Pino Caruso Note… I don’t need meat, chicken OR fish to be strong and healthy! :)

    1. I had sooo much fun pulling these together – I felt more inspired by the minute. You always “know” why you choose to eat the way you do… but the quotes definitely make you feel empowered. Love #33 <3

  2. Reblogged this on IsItVeganUK? and commented:
    I wanted to share this amazing list of “112 Inspiring & Truthful Vegan Quotes” with you all. It is such a thorough and thought provoking list, compiled by one of my fave vegan blogs “The Friendly Fig” from Bianca Scartabello and Sara Day. Check it out and while you’re there, have a look at some of their beautiful recipes and inspirational styling tips too. Enjoy!

    1. Wow – thank you so much for such a warm and kind intro!! I was so excited to put together this list – it was so empowering to have them all in one place. Thanks for spreading the kind word! <3

  3. I love the second one! Definitely seen people pity me for being vegan. Haha really no need :) great list.

    1. Same here! And I’m like, no no… no need to be sorry for me!! These quotes definitely made me feel really great about the way I choose to live! :) Thanks for stopping by <3

      1. And thanks for the follow too! ✌

  4. Amen.
    15 is my favorite quote.

    1. Yes – love that one! Thanks for stopping by :)

  5. A wonderful post – thanks for sharing :)

    1. Thank you – glad you liked it! <3

  6. This is an awesome list! I love 86, ” People may hate you for being different and not living by society’s standards but deep down, they wish they had the courage to do the same.” – anonymous. This is so true! Veganism is purposeful progression… We need to plant seeds to change society’s standards so people can live healthy, compassionate lives. Let’s VegInspire society!!

    1. Thank you, Kathy! We 100% agree with you, and glad you love the list :)

  7. I love this compilation! I want everyone I know to read this :). Thanks for posting!

    1. Ah, I feel the same! Love spreading the kind word!! I hope you share – thank you :-D

  8. I like Casey Affleck’s, succinct and hard-hitting!

    1. Agreed, Olivia! Love him!! <3

  9. Very interesting quotes. Thank you.

  10. Thanks for this awesome list! I also always liked this one: “Teaching a child not to step on a caterpillar is as valuable to the child as it is to the caterpillar.” – Bradley Miller

  11. What sets carnists apart from higher forms of life is their seemingly infinite capacity to love, nurture and care for other animals and then to betray, kill and eat them.

    It isn’t a ‘personal choice’ when you’re destroying the planet and eating my friends.

  12. Such an awesome collection. I put together my own Vegan Quotes website and this was such a useful resource to me. Can’t thank you enough!

  13. “Whether all my vegan food sources are natural or not is heavily outweighed by my desire to respect the natural world around the not so natural species that we have become!” Quote by me lol

    1. WordPress.com Support

      Audrey, I LOVE this!!! Thank you for sharing it <3

  14. A lot of truly inspirational quotes. I’m trying to use one for my paper at school, but so far have been unable to find direct sources to cite, particularly for Gandhi and Alice Walker.

    1. Hi Jody – I am glad you are finding them useful. I’m sorry that I do not have direct sources to cite. Hopefully you can find a few for others. xx

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