Vegetarianism can easily reach religious proportions. Refraining from meat on moral grounds serves to dignify feelings of guilt toward sad-eyed, furry creatures and substitutes righteousness for squeamishness. – Bill Griffith, Griffith Observatory comic strip, 1977

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

Millions of [the indigenous peoples of India] have lived to an advanced age, without having tasted of any thing that ever possessed life, and been wholly free from a chain of maladies, which have scourged every civilized nation on the globe… – “Food,” The Medical Adviser, and Guide to Health and Long Life, edited by Alex.