Compassion is ethical intelligence: it is the capacity to make connections and the consequent urge to act to relieve the suffering of others.

Now, knowing better, we can act better, we can live better, and give the animals, our children and ourselves a true reason for hope and celebration.

Our knowledge and understanding of nonhuman animals is polluted far more than we acknowledge by our belief in our own superiority, our unrecognized cultural programming, and our separation from nature.

There is no way to overstate the magnitude of the collective spiritual transformation that will occur when we shift from food of violent oppression to food of gentleness and compassion.

Once a vegan, we are always so, because our motivation is not personal and self-oriented, but is based on concern for others and on our undeniable interconnectedness with other living beings.

There is something about veganism that is not easy, but the difficulty is not inherent in veganism, but in our culture.

How could it ever be to our purpose to rob another living being of his or her purpose?

To meditate for world peace, to pray for a better world, and to work for social justice and environmental protection while continuing to purchase the flesh, milk, and eggs of horribly abused animals exposes a disconnect that is so fundamental that it renders our efforts absurd, hypocritical, and doomed to certain failure.