List of vegetarians
The following is a list of people who practise or practised vegetarianism.
- Pythagoras
- Plutarch
- Tertullian
- Origen
- Clement of Alexandria
- Basil the Great
- John Chrysostom
- Saint David (whose symbol is the leek)
- Leonardo da Vinci
- John Wesley (Methodism's founder)
- Benjamin Franklin (temporarily)
- Percy Bysshe Shelley and his wife Mary Shelley
- Richard Wagner
- Henry David Thoreau
- Ellen G. White (founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church) (many 7th day adventists are vegetarian or vegan, though not all of them)
- Leo Tolstoy
- William and Catherine Booth (Salvation Army cofounders)
- Nikola Tesla (Tesla today would be considered a pesco-vegetarian, as he substituted boiled fish for meat in his diet, but nearly eliminated fish by the end of his life)
- George Bernard Shaw
- H. G. Wells
- Mohandas Gandhi
- Francisco Madero
- Albert Schweitzer
- Albert Einstein (for the last year of his life)
- Adolf Hitler - according to several sources who had close personal contact with him, including the architect Albert Speer, his personal secretary Traudl Junge, and both of his cooks, Constanze Manziarly and Marlene von Exner. All of the respected biographies of Hitler, including those by Joachim Fest and Ian Kershaw, state that Hitler became a steadfast vegetarian after the death of his niece Geli Raubal in 1931. There is an urban legend that he occasionally engaged in the consumption of pork, but no member of his personal circle has confirmed this.
- Isaac Bashevis Singer
- Savitri Devi
- Betty White
- Bernard Weatherill, former Speaker of the British House of Commons
- Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam - President of India from 2002
- Brigitte Bardot
- Paul McCartney - Paul and his wife Linda became outspoken vegetarians and animal-rights activists after owning cattle and watching them outside the window as they cooked and ate meat; in 1991, Linda introduced her own line of vegetarian meals to the general market.
- Dennis Kucinich
- Michael Jackson
- Peter Singer philosopher, Princeton University ethics professor and animal rights activist
- Natalie Portman, actress
- Gregory R. Smith, 10-year-old high school graduate and Nobel Peace Prize nominee
- Lisa Simpson, cartoon character
- Steve Jobs
- Matthew Hale, neo-Fascist leader
See Also: List of vegans