Plutarch
Plutarch
(Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus)
Greek historian, biographer, essayist
(AD46 - AD210)
"Can you really ask what reason Pythagoras had for abstaining from flesh? For my part I rather wonder both by what accident and in what state of soul or mind the first man did so, touched his mouth to gore and brought his lips to the flesh of a dead creature, he who set forth tables of dead, stale bodies and ventured to call food and nourishment the parts that had a little before bellowed and cried, moved and lived. How could his eyes endure the slaughter when throats were slit and hides flayed and limbs torn from limb? How could his nose endure the stench? How was it that the pollution did not turn away his taste, which made contact with the sores of others and sucked juices and serums from mortal wounds?… It is certainly not lions and wolves that we eat out of self-defense; on the contrary, we ignore these and slaughter harmless, tame creatures without stings or teeth to harm us, creatures that, I swear, Nature appears to have produced for the sake of their beautyand grace. But nothing abashed us, not the flower-like tinting of the flesh, not the persuasiveness of the harmonious voice, not the cleanliness of their habits or the unusual intelligence that may be found in the poor wretches. No, for the sake of a little flesh we deprive them of sun, of light, of the duration of life to which they are entitled by birth and being."
"...I rather wonder both by what accident and in what state of mind the
first man touched his mouth to gore and brought his lips to the flesh of a
dead creature, set forth tables of dead, stale bodies, and ventured to call
food and nourishment the parts that had before bellowed and cried, moved and
lived."
~ On Eating Flesh
"How could eyes endure the slaughter when throats were slit and hides
flayed and limbs torn from limb? How could his nose endure the stench? How
was it that the pollution did not turn away his taste, which made contact
with sores of others and sucked juices and serums from mortal wounds?"
~ On Eating Flesh
"It is certainly not lions or wolves that we eat out of self-defense; on
the contrary, we ignore these and slaughter harmless, tame creatures without
stings or teeth to harm us. For the sake of flesh we deprive them of sun, of
light, of the duration of life to which they are entitled by birth and
being."
~ On Eating Flesh
"If you declare that you are naturally designed for such a diet, then
first kill yourself what you want to eat. Do it, however, only through your
own resources, unaided by cleaver or cudgel or any kind of ax."
~ On Eating Flesh
"Were it only to learn benevolence to humankind, we should be merciful to other creatures."
"...To the Dolphin alone, beyond all other, nature has granted what the best philosophers seek: friendship for no advantage"
"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."
~Moralia
"Though the boys throw stones at the frogs in sport, yet the frogs do not die in sport, but in earnest."
"The obligations of law and equity reach only to mankind; but kindness and beneficence should be extended to the creatures of every species, and these will flow from the breast of a true man, as streams that issue from the living fountain."
