Religious quotes
Religious quotes

Thou shalt not kill.
--Exodus 20:13 (The Bible)

"He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man..."
--Isaiah 66:3

"And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb-bearing seed which is upon the face of the earth, and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed: to you it shall be as meat...."
--Genesis 1:29

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

Love animals: God has given them the rudiments of thought and joy untroubled. Do not trouble their joy, don't harrass them, don't deprive them of their happiness, don't work against God's intent. Man, do not pride yourself on superiority to animals; they are without sin, and you, with your greatness, defile the earth by your appearance on it, and leave the traces of your foulness after you - alas, it is true of almost every one of us!
--Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881)

Mercy to living beings, self restraint, truth, honesty, chastity and contentment, right faith and knowledge, and austerity are but the entourage of morality.
--Sila-prabhrita (Jainism)

All breathing, existing, living, sentient creatures should not be slain nor treated with violence, nor abused, nor tormented, nor driven away. This is the pure unchangeable law.
--Sutrakritanga (Jainism)

To become vegetarian is to step into the stream which leads to nirvana.
--Buddha

May all that have life be delivered from suffering.
--Buddha

"All beings tremble before violence. All fear death, all love life. See yourself in others. Then whom can you hurt? What harm can you do?"
--Buddha

There is not an animal on the earth, nor a flying creature on two wings, but they are people like unto you.
--The Koran

All beings hate pains; therefore one should not kill them. This is the quintessence of wisdom: not to kill anything.
--Sutrakritanga (Jainism)

Even in the worm that crawls in the earth there glows a divine spark. When you slaughter a creature, you slaughter God.
--Isaac Bashevis Singer (author, Nobel 1978)

"You who are innocent, what have you done worthy of death?"
--Richard of Wyche Bishop of Chichester 1197-1253

"Cruelty to animals is as if humans did not love God."
--Cardinal John Henry Newman

"...there is something so very dreadful, so satanic in tormenting those who have never harmed us, and who cannot defend themselves, who are utterly in our power, who have weapons neither of offence nor defence, that none but very hardened persons can endure the thought of it"
--Cardinal Newman

"It is in the battery shed that we find the parallel with Auschwitz....To shut your mind, heart and imagination from the sufferings of others is to begin slowly, but inexorably, to die. Those Christians who close their minds and hearts to the cause of animal welfare, and the evils it seeks to combat, are ignoring the Fundamental spiritual teachings of Christ himself"
--John Baker, Bishop of Salisbury


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