If you were to list every famous vegetarian, you would fill a large city's phone book. Here are a few particularly notable ones.

Pythagoras
580 – 500 BC 
Greek mathematician and philosopher

Plato
428 – 347 BC 
Greek philosopher

Plutarch 
46 – 120 BC 
Greek philosopher and biographer

St. Frances of Assisi 
1182 – 1226 
Italian founder of Franciscan order of friars

Leonardo da Vinci 
1452 – 1519 
Italian painter, architect and engineer
"One day the world will look upon research upon animals as it now looks upon research on human beings."

Martin Luther 
1483 – 1546 
German church reformer; founder of Protestantism

Sir Isaac Newton 
1642 – 1727 
English physicist and mathematician

Voltaire 
1694 – 1778 
French writer

John Wesley 
1703 – 1791 
English founder of Methodism

Ralph Waldo Emerson 
1803 – 1882 
US philosopher, essayist and poet

Charlotte Bronte 
1816 – 1855 
English writer; author of Jane Eyre

Henry David Thoreau 
1817 – 1862 
US writer; back-to-nature exponent

Susan B. Anthony 
1820 – 1906 
US feminist and anti-slavery campaigner

Leo Tolstoy 
1828 – 1910 
Russian novelist; author of War and Peace
"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."

Vincent Van Gogh 
1853 – 1890 
Dutch Post-Impressionist painter

George Bernard Shaw 
1856 - 1950 
Irish dramatist, novelist and socialist

"It is nearly fifty years since I was assured by a conclave of doctors that if I did not eat meat I should die of starvation." (He lived a healthy life and died aged 94.)

Henry Ford 
1863 – 1847 
US car manufacturer

Mahatma Gandhi 
1869 – 1948 
Indian nationalist leader and advocate of non-violence

Albert Schweitzer 
1875 – 1965 
French theologian, missionary and Nobel Peace Prize winner

Albert Einstein 
1879 – 1955 
Swiss-German scientist; author of the theories of relativity
"Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet."

H.G. Wells 
1886 – 1946 
English science fiction writer

Tony Benn 
1925 - 
British socialist politician

See also:

• Famous Vegetarians (A - Z)

• Famous Veggie

March 2003

What is Veg World? | Full disclosure | Privacy policy | How to contact us

Recipes
Main courses
Desserts
Other dishes

Books
Recipe books
Travel guides

More Articles

Links

You might enjoy these books:

Ethical Vegetarianism: From Pythagoras to Peter Singer

Food for the Gods: Vegetarianism & the World's Religions 

Vegetariana

What is Veg World?
Full disclosure
Privacy policy
How to contact us

Copyright Veg World and contributors, 2003 - 2008. All rights reserved.