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Answers: this is mine...

"We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature, and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth."
Henry beston

What's yours?

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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."
Thomas Edison



"As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields."
Leo Tolstoy

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."
Mahatma Gandhi

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That was an EXCELLANT one.

Truely man is the king of beasts, for his brutality exceeds theirs. We live by the death of others: we are burial places! I have from an early age abjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I will look on the murder of animals as they now look on the murder of men. ~Leonardo da Vinci

"Thou shalt not kill" does not apply to murder of one's own kind only, but to all living beings; and this Commandment was inscribed in the human breast long before it was proclaimed from Sinai. ~Leo Tolstoy

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

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So hard to choose one. Here are my top three.

Why should man expect his prayer for mercy to be heard by What is above him when he shows no mercy to what is under him? ~Pierre Troubetzkoy

The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creatures that cannot. ~Mark Twain

If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men. ~St. Francis of Assisi

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I am not a vegetarian because I love animals; I am a vegetarian because
I hate plants. A. Whitney Brown

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"But for the sake of some little mouthful of flesh, we deprive a soul of the sun and light and of that proportion of life and time it had been born into the world to enjoy."
- Plutarch

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These are all very interesting and inspiring quotes, from famous and intelligent people whom I never knew reasoned the same as myself. Thank you all for your contribution.

I don't mean to sound pompous here, but I honestly find my own unique answer to the endlessly asked question "Why are you vegan?" to be the most inspiring quote, because every time I say it it is different, and reinvigorates my passion and resolve for this cause. Therefore I offer this answer for purely selfish reasons, and anyone who may benefit from this answer is an extremely welcome bonus.

The five main reasons human beings consciously choose to change their diet to veg*nism are:
Human rights
Human Health
Animal Rights
Animal Welfare
The Environment
For me, the most highlighted reason is probably the one least popularly chosen among veg*ns, namely human rights.
As a self conscious living being, it is my fundamental human right to choose to eat or not to eat whatever I desire. There is no authority, organisation, corporation or individual who can legally force another human being to consume animal products anywhere on Earth, as is clearly mentioned in the United Nations international laws, just as it would apply in cases of torture or homicide/genocide.

As a self conscious living being, I enjoy the right and ability to assess my options, to choose between potential futures, and to experience the outcome of my choices. One of the choices I greatly enjoy is to award the right and ability of choice to other living beings, whom I could have otherwise chosen to disempower and subsequently consume. This choice brings with it an appreciation for all of life, and the power of choice, cause and effect, action and reaction. Given that I am aware and appreciative of my ability to choose, I find it incomprehensible to enforce or impose my beliefs on any other being which is able to choose. Therefore, just as I desire to allow animals that would otherwise be slaughtered to live, I also believe it is important to allow other humans their fundamental human right to choose for themselves whether to be empowering or disempowering toward other living beings. For this reason I will never attempt to forcefully convert a person toward my lifestyle choice, regardless of how reprehensible I consider it to be. I will always, however, attempt to educate and inform those who seek knowledge, wisdom or enlightenment to the best of my ability, and should my time be limited relative to their interest, I will supply sufficient references for further research.

The majority of organisations and influential individuals on Earth who promote veg*nism tend to skim or skip over human rights as a source of inspiration for those considering a change in diet, yet I see it as the most powerful, fundamentally inherent driving force behind all 4 of the other reasons, namely the desire to grant life to those who cannot speak for themselves, such as Gaia, the innocent, or the unhealthy cells within you; or to prevent the suffering and pain experienced by those who will be slaughtered.

When I heard the president of PETA describe these five reasons to me via an audio recording, his topical focus was largely on animal welfare, human health and the environment, and each of those 3 reasons individually were enough to alert me to the situation we have today. Hearing all three together was much like a slap in the face, saying "wake up!" After having been vegan for 7 years now, I find myself wondering how I could have ever maintained my sanity knowing these actions I had at the time considered evil were not only allowed to continue but actually promoted and supported by so many intelligent minds. More surprising still is that I knew there is little if anything I can actually do to stop these people or awaken them to the truth, which made me feel very helpless, yet I remained. My salvation came from my remembering that prior to hearing that audio recording, I would have ignored or insulted a person who attempted to awaken me to these truths, that I was happy not knowing, that I was afraid of what I would become if I listened.

So I ask you, all of you out there, veg*n or not, please do not attempt to force others to follow your way. Simply make it known that information is available upon request, and allow followers to approach you. If they like what they see (or hear, smell, taste, or feel), they may choose to stay and trial your way. If they do not like what they see, it is important that you let them leave with a smile on both your face and theirs, knowing that both lives have improved as a direct result of your interaction. It is through these exchanges that we as a biosphere learn to enjoy being aware of ourselves, others and our environment in the eternal moment of now. After all, the moment of now is the only moment we have, or will ever have. So in short, ...

ENJOY AWARENESS NOW

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this is not so much inspiring as it is thought-provoking. I saw it at the back of "Skinny B!tch," and it's a quote from C. David Coates:

"Isn't man an amazing animal? He kills wildlife by the millions to protect his domestic animals and their feed. Then he kills domestic animals by the billions and eats them. This in turn kills man by the millions, because eating all those animals leads to degenerative--and fatal--health conditions like heart disease, kidney disease, and cancer. So then man tortures and kills millions more animals to look for cures for these diseases. Elsewhere, millions of other human beings are being killed by hunger and malnutrition because food they could eat is being used to fatten domestic animals. Meanwhile, some people are dying of sad laughter at the absurdity of man, who kills so easily, and once a year sends out cards praying for 'Peace on Earth.'"

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To quote John Lennon..
"All we are saying ...is give peas a chance"

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There's nothing inherently vegan about that quote. Beston himself is not known to have been vegetarian, let alone vegan.

How about this: "There's room for all of God's creatures, right between the peas and mashed potatoes."

Or, "I love vegetarians; they taste just like chicken."

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