8 of History’s Most Famous Vegetarians
Pythagoras: The name of the ancient philosopher Pythagoras of Samos (c. 570—c. 500–490 BCE) is so closely tied to the idea of eschewing meat.
St. Anthony of Egypt: There were a number of vegetarian and semi-vegetarian groups in early Christianity.
Leonardo da Vinci: We should do the responsible thing and say up front thatLeonardo’s vegetarianism.
Mahatma Gandhi: The great Indian leader and activist was a vegetarian from childhood.
Franz Kafka: The author of A Hunger Artist suffered from chronic digestive ailments.
Mary Shelley: The term vegetarian didn’t exist at the start of the Romantic era.
John Harvey Kellogg: At the turn of the century, the medical doctor and health-food evangelist John Harvey Kellogg was the foremost proponent of vegetarianism.
Leo Tolstoy: One of the figures most responsible for the growth of the vegetarian movement in the 19th century was the Russian author Leo Tolstoy.