Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)

"If a man earnestly seeks a righteous life, his first act of abstinence is from animal food...."

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"Vegetarianism serves as the criterion by which we know that the pursuit of moral perfection on the part of humanity is genuine and sincere."

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"If a man aspires towards a righteous life, his first act of abstinence is from injury to animals."

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"The vegetarian movement ought to fill with gladness the souls of those who have at heart the realization of God's kingdom upon Earth."

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"'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."

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"A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life for the sake of his appetite. And to act so is immoral."

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"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."

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"If he be really and seriously seeking to live a good life, the first thing from which he will abstain will always be the use of animal food, because ... its use is simply immoral, as it involves the performance of an act which is contrary to the moral feeling -- killing.

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"This is dreadful! Not the suffering and death of the animals, but that a 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."

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"A vegetarian diet is the acid test of humanitarianism."