Mean Girls

Most people abuse power.

They use power to dominate others.

They use power to destroy others.

Ultimately, when you do this, you lose it.

Frederick Lenz

The limits of tyrants are prescribed by

the endurance of those whom they oppress.

Frederick Douglass

People seem good while they are oppressed,

but they only wish to become oppressors in

their turn: life is nothing but a competition

to be the criminal rather than the victim.

Bertrand Russell

The greatest evil perpetrated is the evil

committed by nobodies, that is, by

human beings who refuse to be persons.

Hannah Arendt

Power is never the property of an individual;

it belongs to a group and remains in existence

only so long as the group keeps together.

Hannah Arendt

The individual has always had to struggle

to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.

If you try it, you will be lonely often,

and sometimes frightened. But no price

is too high to pay for the privilege

of owning yourself.

Rudyard Kipling

Consider the Turkey 🦃

Don't talk of love and peace when

you have a dead animal on your plate.

Socrates

People who say they love animals sit down

to enjoy the flesh of creatures who have been

utterly deprived of everything that could make

their lives worth living and who endured

the awful suffering and the terror

of the abattoirs.

Jane Goodall

Mend the part of the world

that is within your reach.

Clarissa Pinkola Estés

I hope life treats you as well as you treat animals.

Ricky Gervais

Flesh eating is unprovoked murder.

Benjamin Franklin

Thanksgiving dinner's sad and thankless

Christmas dinner's dark and blue

When you stop and try to see it

From the turkey's point of view

Sunday dinner isn't sunny

Easter feasts are just bad luck

When you see it from the view point

of a chicken or a duck

Oh how I once loved tuna salad

Pork and lobsters, lamb chops too

Till I stopped and looked at dinner

From the dinner's point of view

Shel Silverstein

Every culture has something to be ashamed of,

but every culture also has the right to change,

to challenge negative traditions,

and to create new ones.

Azar Nafisi

Where there is love there is life.

Mahatma Gandhi

Happy Thanksgiving

Understand that... you own nothing.

Everything that surround you is temporary,

only the love in your heart will last.

Buddha

He who is not contended with what he has,

would not be contended with what

he would like to have.

Socrates

Happiness is the spiritual experience of living

every minute with love, grace and gratitude.

Denis Waitley

Comparison is the thief of joy.

Theodore Roosevelt

If you celebrate Thanksgiving, stop paying

someone to hurt animals for your Thanksgiving

centerpiece. Choose a vegan roast so that

everyone can have something

to be thankful for this season.

Joaquin Phoenix

A good heart will refuse the happiness

built on misfortune of others.

Saadie

Create all the happiness you are able to create;

remove all the misery you are able to remove.

Every day will allow you, will invite you to

add something to the pleasure of others,

or to diminish something of their pains.

Jeremy Bentham

Where there is love there is life.

Mahatma Gandhi

War on Women

Before you think good or evil, who are you?

Huineng

Ultimately evil is done not so much by evil people,

but by good people who do not know themselves

and who do not probe deeply.

Reinhold Niebuhr

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world;

the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt

the world to himself. Therefore all progress

depends on the unreasonable man.

George Bernard Shaw

I sometimes try to imagine what would have

happened if we'd known the bonobo first

and the chimpanzee only later - or not at all.

The discussion about human evolution might not

revolve as much around violence, warfare and

male dominance, but rather around sexuality,

empathy, caring and cooperation.

Frans de Waal

The arc of the moral universe is long,

but it bends towards justice.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

It is impossible to think of the welfare of

the world unless the condition of women

is improved. It is not possible for a bird

to fly on only one wing.

Swami Vivekananda

The number of people with any criteria for

distinguishing between good and evil

is very small.

T.S. Eliot

One's life has value so long as one attributes

value to the life of others, by means of love,

friendship, indignation and compassion.

Simone de Beauvoir

I think there is a connection between the way

we treat animals and the way we treat people

who are at the bottom of the hierarchy.

Angela Davis

The worst thing that we can do as women

is not stand up for each other, and this is

something we can practice every day,

no matter where we are and what we do

- women sticking up for other women,

choosing to protect and celebrate each other

instead of competing or critizing each other.

Amal Clooney

The question is not whether we will be extremists,

but what kind of extremists we will be. For hate

or for love? For the preservation of injustice

or for the extension of justice?

Martin Luther King, Jr.

When I despair, I remember that all through

history the way of truth and love has always

won. There have been tyrants and murderers

and for a time they seem invincible, but in

the end they always fall... think of it, always.

Mahatma Gandhi

Who We Really Are

I have always felt that the way we treat animals

is a pretty good indicator of the compassion

we are capable of for the human race.

Ali MacGraw

Jo Frederiks

10 percent of any population is cruel,

no matter what, and 10 percent is merciful,

no matter what, and the remaining

80 percent can be moved in any direction.

Susan Sontag

When all are guilty, no one is;

and the very magnitude of the crime

becomes the best excuse for doing nothing.

Hannah Arendt

Tsunami of Indifference

Evil thrives on apathy

and cannot exist without it.

Hannah Arendt

Any of us has the capacity for atrocity - 

just as each of us has the capacity for heroism.

David Mamet

Jo Frederiks

Your beliefs become your thoughts,

your thoughts become your words,

you words become your actions,

your actions become your habits,

your habits become your values,

your values become your destiny.

Mahatma Gandhi

A long habit of not thinking a thing is wrong,

gives it a superficial appearance of being right.

Thomas Paine

Jo Frederiks

Tomorrow the sun will rise to a world

without you in it. You've been given

no reason to live yet you'll fight for another

day in a world that broke your spirit,

that took your freedom and that

showed you the depth of cruelty

capable by humankind.

Emma Hurst

Only with awareness of carnism

can we reclaim our freedom of choice;

without awareness, there is no free choice.

Melanie Joy

Individuals

The systematic torture of sentient beings,

whatever the pretext and in whatever form,

cannot achieve anything more than it

already has: to show us what is the lowest

point of debasement man can reach.

Joaquin Phoenix

Often, vegan advocates assume that a person's

defensiveness is the result of selfishness or

apathy, when in fact it is much more likely

the result of systematic and intensive

social conditioning.

Melanie Joy

There are no conditions to which a person cannot

grow accustomed, especially if he sees that

everyone around him lives in the same way.

Leo Tolstoy

Execution of the Soul

Monsters exist, but they are too few in number

to be truly dangerous. More dangerous

are the common men, the functionaries

ready to believe and to act

without asking questions.

Primo Levi

Whoever does wrong, wrongs himself;

whoever does injustice, does it to himself,

making himself evil.

Marcus Aurelius

The individual has always had to struggle

to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.

If you try it, you will be lonely often, and

sometimes frightened. But no price is too high

to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.

Rudyard Kipling

Both optimists and pessimists contributes

to society. The optimist invents the airplane,

the pessimist the parachute.

George Bernard Shaw

Life is no brief candle to me.

It is a sort of splendid torch

which I have got a hold of for the moment and

I want to make it burn as brightly as possible

before handing it on to future generations.

George Bernard Shaw

A good heart will refuse the happiness

built on the misfortune of others.

Saadie

Freedom from Indoctrination

The whole universe is sum up in the human

being. Devil is not a monster waiting to

trap us. He is a voice inside. Look for your

devil in yourself, not in the others. Don't

forget that the one who knows his devil,

knows his God.

Shams Tabrizi

Our task must be to free ourselves... by widening

our circle of compassion to embrace all living

creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.

Albert Einstein

Word 🎶

From beasts we scorn as soulless,

In forest, field and den,

The cry goes up to witness,

The soullessness of men.

M. Frida Hartley

I've Seen You in the Meat Aisle

~ by Emma Murphy

I've seen you in the meat aisle,

Seen you choosing who to eat,

Eyeing up their body parts

In rows all nice and neat.

I've seen you grabbing bottled milk

That wasn't made for you

And I know you never think about

The suffering they knew.

I've watched your fill your trolley up

With misery and pain,

Eggs and cheese, a leg, a wing,

My heart just broke again.

You say I should respect your choice,

That it's your right to choose,

Well, legally perhaps you win,

But morally, you lose.

I don't know how you do it

But you close your ears and eyes

To the slaughterhouse, the blood and screams,

Their fear, despair and cries.

It doesn't even cross your mind,

You bite and drink and chew,

And you keep yourself from knowing

That they died because of you.

So no, I don't respect your choice,

There's no respect from me.

You are putting in your stomach

Someone you refuse to see.

The animals, they have no voice,

Convenient for you,

But have a heart and look at those

Who lost their lives for you.

We are the living graves of murdered beasts,

Slaughtered to satisfy our appetites.

We never pause to wonder at our feasts,

If animals, like men, can possibly have rights.

We pray on Sundays that we may have light,

To guide our footsteps on the path we tread.

We're sick of war, we do not want to fight -

The thought of it now fills our hearts with dread,

And yet - we gorge ourselves upon the dead.

Like carrion crows, we live and feed on meat.

Regardless of  the suffering and pain

We cause by doing so, if thus we treat

Defensless animals for sport or gain,

How can we hope in this world to attain

The peace we say we are so anxious for.

We pray for it, o'er hecatombs of slain,

To God, while outraging the moral law.

Thus cruelty begets its offspring - war.

George Bernard Shaw

Thou never didst them wrong, nor no man

wrong; And as the butcher takes away the calf

And binds the wretch, and beats him when he

strays, Bearing him to the bloody slaughter-

house, Even so remorseless have they borne him

hence; And as the dam runs lowing up and

down, Looking the way her harmless young

went, And can do nought but wail

her darling's loss.

William Shakespeare

Anything with a face I don't taste.

Anything with an eye or two I don't chew.

Anything with a mouth stays out of my mouth.

Will.i.am

🐶 Why Love One But Kill and Eat the Other? 🐷

We send one species to the butcher and

give our love and kindness to another

apparently for no reason other than

because it's the way things are.

Melanie Joy

Jo Frederiks

Compassion towards animals is so natural to us,

that only through conditioning could we become

callous towards their suffering and death.

Leo Tolstoy

The soul is the same in all living creatures,

although the body of each is different.

Hippocrates

True compassion is not just an emotional

response but a firm commitment

founded on reason.

Dalai Lama

Animals are my friends...

and I don't eat my friends.

George Bernard Shaw

I wouldn't hurt a cat or a dog - or a chicken

or a cow. And I wouldn't ask someone else

to hurt them for me.

Peter Dinklage

The soul given to each of us is moved by

the same living spirit that moves the Universe.

Albert Einstein

In every living being there is the desire for love.

D.H. Lawrence

Jo Frederiks

If you choose to eat animals…

 you love pets, not animals.

A man who lies to himself, and believes his own

lies becomes unable to recognize truth,

either in himself or in anyone else,

and he ends up losing respect

for himself and for others.

When he has no respect for anyone, he can

no longer love, and in order to divert himself,

having no love in him, he yields to impulses,

indulges in the lowest forms of pleasure.

And it all comes from lying -

lying to others and to yourself.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Now I can look at you in peace;

I don't eat you anymore.

Franz Kafka

My heart broke when I pictured my little dog

experiencing even a second of the pain and

fear that factory-farmed animals feel

their entire lives.

Nikki Glaser

The idea that some lives matter less is

the root of all that is wrong in the world.

Paul Farmer

Why should the law refuse its protection to any

sentient being? The time will come when

humanity will extend its mantle over

everyone who breathes.

Jeremy Bentham

Although I can't stop all cruelty to living

creatures on the planet, I can be kinder

to every living creature in my life.

River Phoenix

Selective compassion is a deformity of the mind.

Mohanji

Love is life. All,

everything that I understand,

I understand only because I love.

Leo Tolstoy

The animal liberation movement is fighting

what is arguably the most entrenched

and widespread form of exploitation

in human history: speciesism.

Melanie Joy

Human beings see oppression vividly

when they are the victims. Otherwise

they victimize blindly and without a thought.

Isaac Bashevis Singer

As custodians of the planet it is our responsibility

to deal with all species with kindness, love and

compassion. What these animals suffer through

human cruelty is beyond understanding.

Please help to stop this madness.

Richard Gere

If you've ever loved a cat or a dog,

or even a human, I hope you'll extend

your compassion to include all animals.

Mike White

How to Go Vegan

It is our hearts, not just our heads,

that demand of us that we overcome,

for them, the habits and forces

behind their systematic oppression.

That requires both our passion and

our discipline. The fate of animals

is in our hands. God grant

we are equal to the task.

Tom Regan

Success is not achieved by the impractical who

merely contemplate, but by the individuals

who face reality head-on and take

purposeful action.

Plato

Once we're thrown off our habitual paths,

we think all is lost, but it's only here

that the new and the good begins.

Leo Tolstoy

The time is always right to do what is right.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

1. Education.

2. Identify Small Goals.

3. Make Room for Failure.

4. Create Small Habits.

5. Replace, NOT restrict.

6. Build Community.

The secret of change is to focus all of your

energy, not on fighting the old,

but on building the new.

Socrates

Do the best you can until you know better.

Then when you know better, do better.

Maya Angelou

Once I learned what was happening to animals,

I couldn't not do something. Every single day

I make choices that take them into consideration.

Elaine Hendrix

I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard

of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to

be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.

Frederick Douglass

He who has a why to live for

can bear almost any how.

Friedrich Nietzsche

There's so much pain in the world that we

are powerless over, but being party

to animal suffering is not one of them.

Joaquin Phoenix

I often think of alcohol as a genie in a bottle.

It promises everything but eventually

imprisons you in the bottle itself.

Erica Jong

Sugar is the sociopath of foods.

It acts sweet but it's really poison.

Karen Salmansohn

1. Know your why. Make the connection.

2. Transition at your own pace.

3. Whole food plant-based diet.

4. Learn easy GO TO vegan meals.

5. By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail (Benjamin Franklin).

6. Don't strive for perfection - it's a learning process.

7. Supplement B12 (& vitamin D in the winter).

8. Keep learning, keep growing.

9. Practice empathy and understanding.

10. Socialize & participate in the vegan community, on/off line.

11. Eat balanced meals.

12. Have fun. Explore!