Alicia Silverstone quotes on animal rights & veganism
At juju, we adore Alicia Silverstone. Apart from being absolutely gorgeous, she’s really taken a stand for compassionate diet, animal rights and environmentalism. Here are some words from Alicia about her lifestyle choices and realizations.
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I know what it feels like to be hurt, and I don’t want to cause that pain to any other person or creature. But somehow, in society, we numb ourselves in order to make money or to feel better about ourselves, such as with cosmetics or food. We say to ourselves, “I’m going to use this animal. I’m going to say it doesn’t have much worth so that I can allow myself to do these cruel things.” And that just isn’t fair.
We always had dogs, so I understood all the joy and the love animals are capable of giving. It’s crazy to me that some people have dogs in their homes, but they treat them more like furniture.
Not that I say, “Oh, I’m not going to associate with certain people,” but I have my world, and I only want to be around people who I feel stimulated by. I have to be honest, I do have a new quest: I want to meet more vegetarians, people who are more like-minded. There’s something real neat about that feeling. It makes you feel so settled to know there’s somebody else sitting right there, being so passionate about what I’m passionate about. I don’t want to be around selfish people. I try to keep myself surrounded by deep people who will move me.
Nothing’s changed my life more. I feel better about myself as a person, being conscious and responsible for my actions, and I lost weight and my skin cleared up and I got bright eyes, and I just became stronger and healthier and happier. Can’t think of anything better in the world to be but be vegan.
I don’t have any understanding of a human being who doesn’t respect the beauty of life and that goes for all creatures that have thoughts, feelings and needs.
I love animals and I knew they died to make food, but I loved meat. I was in denial for a long time. At first, I decided not to eat animals as some grand sacrifice, but in the end, it was the best gift I ever gave myself. My body started shedding weight immediately, and I had so much more energy.
Like most people, I wasn’t always a vegetarian, but I’ve always loved animals. If you ever have a chance to meet a cow, pig, turkey, or goat, you will see that they are just as cute and funny as your dogs and cats and that they, too, want to live and feel love. They don’t like pain. Now when I see a steak, it makes me feel sad and sick because right away, I see my dog or the amazing cows I met at a sanctuary.
It started with my love of animals – that was my entry point. Then I started to learn more and I found that the same things that were good for animals were also good for me – and the planet! That was so amazing to me.
Being vegan truly is the secret to my life’s joy and peace. I feel physically and spiritually better than I could have ever imagined knowing that I am doing everything I can to reduce animal suffering with simple lifestyle choices like being vegan, never wearing any products made from animals (like wool and leather), and buying only from companies that NEVER test their products or ingredients on animals.
I do feel that if environmentalists who are meat eaters were given the whole truth about how many of our resources are wasted on meat production, they’d be horrified. I can’t stress enough the connection between what goes on your plate and what’s going on in the planet. I know it scares people, but you can’t deny the facts.
People should flirt with a plant-based diet! The point here is that it’s not all or nothing. You can sort of play with the idea and see if you like it a little. Often, the more you flirt, the more you want to flirt. Flirters try on these foods and hopefully become so into them they stick with it.
I did it for political, moral reasons, thinking that I was making this great sacrifice, but it was absolutely necessary; I was not going to contribute to the violence in the world anymore.