Suburban vegan gal with a penchant for good food and making new friends.
With more than 200,000 words in the English dictionary, we vegans still sometimes find ourselves at a loss for words during those inevitable conversations that follow the question, ”Why are you vegan?”. Here are ten inspiring/witty quotes that can help you say it better…
1. I am not a vegetarian because I love animals; I am a vegetarian because I hate plants. - A. Whitney Brown
2. Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet. - Albert Einstein
3. The human body has no more need for cows’ milk than it does for dogs’ milk, horses’ milk, or giraffes’ milk. - Michael Klaper
4. If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian. - Paul McCartney
5. One farmer says to me, “You cannot live on vegetable food solely, for it furnishes nothing to make the bones with;” and so he religiously devotes a part of his day to supplying himself with the raw material of bones; walking all the while he talks behind his oxen, which, with vegetable-made bones, jerk him and his lumbering plow along in spite of every obstacle. - Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854
6. My perspective of veganism was most affected by learning that the veal calf is a by-product of dairying, and that in essence there is a slice of veal in every glass of what I had thought was an innocuous white liquid – milk. - Rynn Berry, quoted in Joanne Stepaniak, The Vegan Sourcebook, 1998
7. To my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being. I should be unwilling to take the life of a lamb for the sake of the human body. - Mahatma Gandhi
8. Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them. - Samuel Butler, Note-Books of Samuel Butler, 1912
9. 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 A. Edison
10. I will not eat anything that walks, runs, skips, hops or crawls. God knows that I’ve crawled on occasion, and I’m glad that no one ate me. - Alex Poulos
Opening a business based on vegan principles is challenging, and an owner’s dedication to the vegan business may be largely due to their beliefs and dedication to the cause of animal rights. However, not every potential customer will be interested in activism; certainly this will be true if a business and its products/services are reaching the mainstream. It is understandable that a vegan business owner may want to share their motivation, but pushing too much unsought-after information on customers has the potential to close, not open, doors. Tempering vegan activism can actually increase the likelihood of reaching a broader audience.
Greenwashing
When you are something that is “not norm” by choice, it’s common to receive some questions, and oddly, sometimes hostility over your food choices. While I have always been mystified about why my not eating animal products appears to be insulting to someone, I have learned to deal with it. Perhaps they are expecting a lecture, but an activist I am not. Here are ten easy ways I have learned to deal with harassment over being vegan. 
