Lately, I've been discovering that many of the great intellectuals of history were actually vegetarians. Einstein, Thomas Edison, Leo Tolstoy, Leonardo Da Vinci, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Phythagorus, Immanuel Kant, Isaac Newton, and the list goes on... Why is it that society recognizes these great minds for their intellectual accomplishments and inventions, and yet we conveniently gloss over the fact that they were ethical vegetarians? Maybe these guys were on to something, and perhaps the rest of us should pay attention?
Here's what Gandhi had to say about this: "It is very significant that some of the most thoughtful and cultured men are partisans of a pure vegetable diet."
So, the question is, were these folks vegetarians because they were geniuses, or were they geniuses because they were veggies? I'm not sure that there is any significant evidence linking IQ with compassionate living, but I did find this article from BBC about a study that seems to show a correlation. Oh, and another interesting point: After Will Tuttle ('The World Peace Diet') became vegan, Mensa said that his IQ was that of the top 0.25% of the population. No, I did not mistype that. That's POINT-25%.
CLEARLY, I am no genius. But for those of you who tease me about being a veggie, I dare you to tease or debate any of these intellectual heavy weights! I gotz braniacs on ma side!
Here are some quotes:
"For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love."
-Pythagoras, mathematician
"I have from an early age abjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men will look upon the murder of animals as they now look on the murder of men."
-Leonardo da Vinci, artist and scientist
"Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances of survival for life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet."
-Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel Prize 1921
"Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages."
-Thomas Edison, inventor
"The gods created certain kinds of beings to replenish our bodies...they are the trees and the plants and the seeds."
-Plato, Greek philosopher
"My refusing to eat meat occasioned an inconveniency, and I have been frequently chided for my singularity. But my light repast allows for greater progress, for greater clearness of head and quicker comprehension."
- Benjamin Franklin, American statesman, inventor and
author
"A man can live and 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. And to act so is immoral."
-Leo Tolstoy, writer, philosopher
"The highest realms of thought are impossible to reach without first attaining an understanding of compassion."
- Socrates, Greek philosopher and teacher
