Think of the fierce energy concentrated in an acorn! You bury it in the ground, and it explodes into an oak! Bury a sheep, and nothing happens but decay. – George Bernard Shaw

Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them. – Samuel Butler, Note-Books, 1912

It is only by softening and disguising dead flesh by culinary preparation that it is rendered susceptible of mastication or digestion, and that the sight of its bloody juices and raw horror does not excite intolerable loathing and disgust. – Percy Bysshe Shelley, Queen Mab Notes

My perspective of veganism was most affected by learning that the veal calf is a by-product of dairying, and that in essence there is a slice of veal in every glass of what I had thought was an innocuous white liquid — milk. – Rynn Berry, quoted in Joanne Stepaniak, The Vegan Sourcebook, 1998