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Animal Rights History Timeline » [BCE-CE] Antiquity » Porphyry

Porphyry

On Abstinence from Animal Food, Book the First

[3rd c.] Porphyry, On Abstinence from Animal Food, Book the First, in The Select Works of Porphyry, trans. by Thomas Taylor (London, 1823; Online at Animal Rights History, 2003)

Why should we not, at the same time, liberate ourselves from many inconveniences by abandoning a fleshly diet? For we should not be liberated from one only, but from myriads of evils, by accustoming ourselves to be satisfied with things of the smallest nature; viz. we should be freed from a superabundance of riches, from numerous servants, a multitude of utensils, a somnolent condition, from many and vehement diseases, from medical assistance, incentives to venery, more gross exhalations, an abundance of excrements, the crassitude of the corporeal bond, from the strength which excites to [base] actions, and, in short, from an Iliad of evils. But from all these, inanimate and slender food, and which is easily obtained, will liberate us, and will procure for us peace, by imparting salvation to our reasoning power. For, as Diogenes says, thieves and enemies are not found among those that feed on maize, but sycophants and tyrants are produced from those who feed on flesh.