110 Powerful Vegan Quotes That Inspire Compassion for Animals

Vegan quotes provide us with inspiration to keep fighting on behalf of the animals. They also help us put our thoughts into a concise, hard-hitting sentence that can be shared with others.

Indeed, when we don't quite know how to put something, these powerful snippets help us get the message across.

Quotes from those who are valued in society give additional weight to the message, and sharing our thoughts in this way can compel others to stand up and take notice.

In this post I've compiled over 100 vegan quotes from celebrities, activists and a handful of anonymous people, plus a few of my own.

Please feel free to copy and share the ones that inspire you with your friends.

110 Vegan Quotes to Share On Behalf of the Animals

“Could you look an animal in the eye and say, ‘My appetite is more important than your suffering?” ~Moby
“From a young age we teach children that caging, exploiting and killing certain types of sentient being is justified by culture. We then wonder why society is full of bullying, prejudice and violence.” ~ Peter Litchfield
“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
“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
“It is not your right—based on YOUR traditions, YOUR customs and YOUR habits—to deny animals THEIR freedom so you can harm them, enslave them and kill them. Thats not what rights are about. Thats injustice. There is no counter-argument to veganism. Accept it. Apologize for the way you've been living. Make amends and move forward. ” ~ Gary Yourofsky
“How would you feel, if the day that you were born, somebody else had already planned the day of your execution? ” ~ Gary Yourofsky
“The worst scream I have ever heard, by far, is a mother cow on a dairy farm screaming her lungs out day, after day, after day for her stolen baby to be given back to her. And why do they steal babies from their moms? Well, the dairy industry can't have little babies sucking up all that milk that was meant for them. Every time you have a glass of cow milk, some calf is not.” ~ Gary Yourofsky
“If it's not good enough for your eyes, why is it good enough for your stomach?” ~ Gary Yourofsky
“Protecting the weak is the first step to enlightenment and being truly civilized.” ~ Gary Yourofsky
“Is slavery – owner, victim, profit, and domination – exclusive to the human race? Have blacks, Jews, women and children been the only victims of this atrocity? Have not cows been enslaved? What about pigs, chickens, turkeys, fish, sheep? If they’re not enslaved, then what are they? Free?” ~ Gary Yourofsky
“You either approve of violence or you don’t, and nothing on earth is more violent or extreme than the meat industry.” ~ Morrissey
“Nobody can possibly be so hungry that they need to take a life in order to feel satisfied – they don’t after all, take a human life, so why take the life of an animal? Both are conscious beings with the same determination to survive. It is habit, and laziness and nothing else.” ~ Morrissey
“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
“My refusing to eat flesh occasioned an inconveniency, and I was frequently chided for my singularity, but, with this lighter repast, I made the greater progress, for greater clearness of head and quicker comprehension. Flesh-eating is unprovoked murder.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
“Many people know that animals around the world are treated badly, yet they turn their minds away. To be vegan means to care deeply about how our choices help or harm animals, how we create peace or suffering in the world. Our choices are powerful. Vegan is love.” ~ Ruby Roth
“Veganism is not a ‘sacrifice.’ It is a joy.” ~ Gary L. Francione
“If you really care about animals, then stop trying to figure out how to exploit them ‘compassionately’. Just stop exploiting them.” ~ Gary Francione
“We do not need to eat animals, wear animals, or use animals for entertainment purposes, and our only defense of these uses is our pleasure, amusement, and convenience.” ~ Gary Francione
“Veganism is not about giving anything up or losing anything; it is about gaining the peace within yourself that comes from embracing nonviolence and refusing to participate in the exploitation of the vulnerable.” ~ Gary L Francione
“Every time you drink a glass of milk or eat a piece of cheese, you harm a mother. Please go vegan.” ~ Gary L. Francione
“We are, quite literally, gambling with the future of our planet- for the sake of hamburgers” ~ Peter Singer
“If a kid ever realized what was involved in factory farming, they would never touch meat again.” ~ James Cromwell
“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
“People eat meat and think they will become strong as an ox, forgetting that the ox eats grass.” ~ Pino Caruso
“The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?” ~ Jeremy Bentham
“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 one cares about the earth—if one respects nature—it is better to consume vegetables, fruits, nuts, and grains. If you care about the planet and wish to adopt an earth-friendly lifestyle, it is advisable to focus only secondarily on the car that you drive, or recycling, or turning off lights and turning down heat, and primarily on what you buy at the grocery store. What we eat has a much greater impact on the environment.” ~ Lisa Kemmerer
“It takes nothing away from a human to be kind to an animal.” ~ Joaquin Phoenix
“Vegetarian is better; vegan is the best — A cow says.” ~ Vinita Kinra
“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
“There is no fundamental difference between man and animals in their ability to feel pleasure and pain, happiness, and misery.” ~ Charles Darwin
“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
“I made the choice to be vegan because I will not eat (or wear, or use) anything that could have an emotional response to its death or captivity. I can well imagine what that must feel like for our non-human friends – the fear, the terror, the pain – and I will not cause such suffering to a fellow living being.” ~ Rai Aren
“My body will not be a tomb for other creatures.” ~ Leonardo Da Vinci
“The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look on the murder of men.” ~ Leonardo Da Vinci
“When you truly understand that your food choices are powerful and life-affirming, you can exercise control and restraint without deprivation.” ~ Marlene Adlemann
“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
“I don’t see why someone should lose their life just so you can have a snack.” ~ Russell Brand
“We all love animals. Why do we call some ‘pets’ and others dinner?” ~ K.D. Lang
“No animals need to die in order for me to live. And that makes me feel good.” ~ Howard Lyman
“Killing and eating animals is a betrayal of our own core humanity…killing an innocent goes against our nature.” ~ Evanna Lynch
“If slaughterhouses had glass walls, the whole world would be vegetarian.” ~ Linda McCartney
“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
“I’m a vegan. It makes me feel really good and bright.” “Behind every beautiful fur coat, there is a story. It is a bloody, barbaric story.” ~ Mary Tyler Moore Lea Michelle
“Cruelty to animals is an enormous injustice; so is expecting those on the lowest rung of the economic ladder to do the dangerous, soul-numbing work of slaughtering sentient beings on our behalf.” ~Victoria Moran
“To face animal suffering is to face our responsibility in their suffering.” ~ JoAnne McArthur
“Behind every beautiful fur coat, there is a story. It is a bloody, barbaric story.” ~ Mary Tyler Moore
“Animals are not products. Life doesn’t have a price.” ~ Anonymous
“World Peace begins in the kitchen.” ~ Anonymous
“Nothing tastes as good as being Vegan feels” ~ Anonymous
“If you can’t stand watching it be produced, you shouldn’t be eating it.” ~ Anonymous
“There is no greater wrecking ball to the planet than the industries that turn animals into food. No single choice that we make has a bigger or more positive impact.” ~ David Agranoff
“The sixteen hundred dairies in California’s Central Valley alone produce more waste than a city of twenty-one million people-that’s more than the populations of London, New York, and Chicago combined.” ~ Gene Baur
“Veganism is a brilliant approach for elevating human consciousness and avoiding the energy of death and degeneration associated with killing animals for food, which enters us when we eat their flesh and blood.” ~ Gabriel Cousens M.D.
“Let us remember that animals are not mere resources for human consumption. They are splendid beings in their own right, who have evolved alongside us as co-inheritors of all the beauty and abundance of life on this planet” ~ Marc Bekoff
“Make ethical choices in what we buy, do, and watch. In a consumer-driven society our individual choices, used collectively for the good of animals and nature, can change the world faster than laws.” ~ Marc Bekoff
“It takes 12 pounds of grain and 2,500 gallons of water to create a single pound of beef.” ~ Mayim Bialik
“If your meals consistently revolve around corpses multiple times daily, you might become one sooner than you planned.” ~ Kris Carr
“We cannot have peace among men whose hearts find delight in killing any living creature.” ~ Rachel Carson
“I’m a vegan. I don’t want to torture anything. I guess it’s about trying to live a life where I’m not contributing to the cruelty of the world.” ~ Jessica Chastain
“Only when we have become non-violent towards all life will we have learned to live well ourselves.” ~ Cesar Chavez
“The vegan lifestyle is a compassionate way to live that supports life, supports fairness and equality, and promotes freedom.” ~ Robert Cheeke
“Be the voice of those who can’t say …’stop.’ Who can’t say ‘that hurts.’ Who can’t say ‘I’m so afraid to die.’ Be the voice of the animals!” ~ Miley Cyrus
“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
“Most people would say they love animals, but the reality is, if you’re using animals for food, clothing, or entertainment, you’re only considering the lives of certain animals, typically those of cats and dogs.” ~ Melisser Elliott
“You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
“As I improved my diet, I started to learn to love myself, probably for the first time ever.” ~~ Frank Ferrante
“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” ~ Anatole France
“Don’t wait for a better world. Start now to create a world of harmony and peace. It is up to you, and it always has been. You may even find the solution at the end of your fork.” ~ Sharon Gannon
“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
“Wearing cosmetics that were tested on animals makes you ugly on the inside.” ~ Ricky Gervais
“For me, living fully awake means embracing all species with the same level of respect and kindness. Being a joyful vegan doesn’t take willpower – just a willingness to try new things and choose mercy over misery.” ~ Mark Hawthorne
“Becoming vegan is the most important and direct change we can immediately make to save the planet and its species.” ~ Chris Hedges
“If you think that being vegan is difficult, imagine being a factory farmed animal.” ~ Davegan Raza
“After all the information I gathered about the mistreatment of animals, I couldn’t continue to eat meat.” ~ Liam Hemsworth
“There are no negatives to eating like this. I feel nothing but positive, mentally, and physically. I love it. I feel like it also has a kind of a domino effect on the rest of my life.” ~ Liam Hemsworth
“Veganism is beneficial to the wellbeing of all.” ~ Lynda Mullaly Hunt
“One acre of land can produce either 20,000 pounds of potatoes or a measly 165 pounds of meat.” ~ Lindsay S. Nixon
“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
“Science has proven beyond doubt that we do not need to eat meat or dairy to live a long, healthy life. So the question is: do you still want to partake in the pain and suffering caused by eating animal products?” ~ Peter Litchfield
“Being a vegan just helps me build up my self-esteem. I feel good about it every time I eat a meal.” ~ Steve-O
“We choose to eat meat and have therefore built slaughter houses for the animals and hospitals for us.” ~ Akbarali Jetha
“Do you know why most survivors of the Holocaust are vegan? It’s because they know what it’s like to be treated like an animal.” ~ Chuck Palahniuk
“If the whole world went vegan, there would be less war. How you eat determines your mood and your outlook on life.” ~ Alexandra Paul
“Animal rights are not a gift we give to animals. They are a birthright we have taken from them.” ~ Ryan Phillips
“How would you feel if someone came into your home, slaughtered your pet dog or cat, cooked it on a BBQ and then claimed it was justified by culture? Now you understand why I don't eat meat.” ~ Peter Litchfield
“Once you come to terms with why you don’t eat cats, dogs, monkeys, and dolphins, you will begin to understand why I don’t eat cows, pigs, chickens, and lambs.” ~ Edward Sanchez
“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
“The horse and the cow, the rabbit and the cat, the deer and the hare, the pheasant and the lark, please us better as friends than as meat.” ~ Élisée Reclus
“Consider that animals, like us, have one life. It is their life, their only life, and as important to them as our own life is to us.” ~ Jill Robinson
“I am a vegan because I don’t want to support the cruel industry that goes on on farms every day.” ~ Zoe Rosenberg
“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
“How would we fare psychologically if the walls of slaughterhouses were made of glass?” ~ Tom Regan
“I'm not asking you to go vegan. I'm asking you not to be unnecessarily violent” ~ Peter Litchfield
“To get mud off your hands, use soap and water. To get blood off your hands, go vegan.” ~ John Sakars
“Real men don't bully, exploit and murder the vulnerable. Real men are first in line to protect them.” ~ Peter Litchfield
“We have plenty of good things to satisfy hunger without bringing corpses upon our table to compose our bill of fare.” ~ Ellen G. White
“We don’t live like our ancestors did, so why should we base our diet and ethics on how they may or may not have lived? Let’s evolve into a more peaceful, compassionate species and respect all life forms.” ~ Mango Wodzak
“Being vegan isn’t about restricting oneself in any way, it’s simply about ceasing to take things which clearly are not ours.” ~ Mango Wodzak
“Most people just want to be left in peace to eat their bacon, not realizing that there is no peace behind bacon.” ~ Mango Wodzak
“It is much easier to show compassion to animals. They are never wicked.” ~ Haile Selassie
“I choose not to make a graveyard of my body for the rotting corpses of dead animals.” ~ George Bernard Shaw
“The health reasons are staggering! Do it also to take yourself out of the cycle of killing and abuse to living things. Show some compassion, and act on it.” ~ Ed Templeton
“Animals are not ingredients.” ~ Barbara Thompson
“A man of my spiritual intensity does not eat corpses.” ~ George Bernard Shaw
“Vegan is just pure love. Love for animals, love for the planet, and love for yourself.” ~ Mischa Temaul
“Science that fails to embrace all living beings is far more dangerous than any virus!” ~ Steve Simmons
“Even after COVID-19 and the ongoing threat of zoonotic disease, humans would rather gamble their future on the success of vaccines than simply give up meat. If this isn't the definition of insanity, then what is?” ~ Peter Litchfield
“It's amazing how many people are against animal cruelty until it inconveniences them” ~ Scott Green