Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
Russian novelist, essayist, moral philosopher
(1828-1910)
"All beings, both humans and [other] animals, are connected to one another in such a way that when one suffers, sooner or later these sufferings reach everyone and everything in one way or another. Likewise, the happiness of each individual is connected with everyone and in one way or another will reach everyone."
"A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite. And to act so is immoral."
"'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."
"When the suffering of another creature causes you to feel pain, do not submit to the initial desire to flee from the suffering one, but on the contrary, come closer, as close as you can to him who suffers, and try to help him."
"A human can be healthy without killing animals for food. Therefore if he eats meat he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite."
“Vegetarianism serves as a criterion by which we know that the pursuit of moral perfection on the part of humanity is genuine and sincere.”
“ ‘Thou shalt not kill’ does not apply to 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.”
"Man by violating his own feelings becomes cruel. And how deeply seated in the human heart is the injunction not to take life."
"If a man earnestly seeks a righteous life, his first act of abstinence is from animal food..."
"As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields."
“What I think about vivisection is that if people admit that they have the right to take or endanger the life of living beings for the benefit of many, there will be no limit for their cruelty.”
“Flesh eating is simply immoral, as it involves the performance of an act which is contrary to moral feeling: killing. By killing, man suppresses in himself, unnecessarily, the highest spiritual capacity, that of sympathy and pity towards living creatures like himself and by violating his own feelings becomes cruel.”
