Picture a dinner party in ancient Athens where one guest quietly pushes the roasted lamb to the side of his plate, not because he’s picky, but because he believes eating animals disrupts the soul’s journey toward wisdom. That guest could have been Pythagoras. He wasn’t alone, either. Long before “vegetarian” was coined in the 1840s or “vegan” followed a century later, people across very different cultures and centuries were making the same basic choice: leave meat off the plate.
Their reasons varied wildly, from religious doctrine to personal ethics to early, sometimes shaky, ideas about health. But together they show that skipping meat isn’t a trend invented by modern wellness culture. It’s a habit with a long, surprisingly rich history.
Key Takeaways
- Meat-free eating has been documented across cultures for at least 2,500 years, long predating the terms ‘vegetarian’ and ‘vegan.’
- Historical figures avoided animal products for a mix of religious, philosophical, ethical, and health-related reasons, not a single unified movement.
- Several major world religions, including Jainism and certain Buddhist traditions, built meat avoidance into their core teachings centuries before Western vegetarianism took shape.
- Some of history’s most influential writers, scientists, and leaders, including Leonardo da Vinci and Leo Tolstoy, chose plant-based diets as an expression of personal ethics.
- The word ‘vegetarian’ only entered common use in the 1840s, meaning most people on this list practiced the diet without ever having a label for it.
Ancient Philosophers Who Questioned Eating Meat
Long before nutrition science existed, some of the ancient world’s sharpest minds were already debating whether eating animals was justifiable. Their arguments weren’t about calories or protein.
They were about ethics, the soul, and what kind of life counted as good.
1. Pythagoras (circa 570–495 BCE)
The Greek mathematician best known for his theorem was also famous in his own time for refusing meat. Pythagoras believed in the transmigration of souls, the idea that human and animal souls were connected and could be reborn into different bodies.
Eating an animal, in his view, risked harming a being that might share a kind of kinship with humans. His followers, known as Pythagoreans, kept a diet based on vegetables, grains, and fruit, and for centuries afterward, a meat-free diet in the West was simply called ‘the Pythagorean diet.’ The word ‘vegetarian’ didn’t exist yet, so his name did the job instead.
2. Plutarch (circa 46–120 CE)
The Greek biographer and essayist wrote one of the earliest surviving direct arguments for vegetarianism, an essay called ‘On the Eating of Flesh.’ In it, he asked why humans needed to justify eating meat at all, arguing that the burden of proof should fall on meat-eaters, not on those who abstained.
He pointed to the suffering of animals and questioned whether human comfort justified it.
It’s a strikingly modern-sounding ethical argument, made nearly two thousand years before the animal rights movement took shape.
3. Porphyry (circa 234–305 CE)
A student of Plotinus and a defender of Pythagorean philosophy, Porphyry wrote ‘On Abstinence from Killing Animals,’ a lengthy defense of vegetarianism grounded in reason rather than religious law. He argued that justice should extend beyond humans to any creature capable of feeling and reasoning.
Porphyry’s work remained influential among later philosophers who revisited vegetarian ethics during the Renaissance and Enlightenment.
Religious and Spiritual Leaders Who Built Meat Avoidance Into Their Teachings
For many traditions, avoiding animal products wasn’t a personal preference but a spiritual discipline, tied closely to ideas about nonviolence, purity, and compassion toward all living beings.
4. Mahavira (circa 599–527 BCE)
The 24th Tirthankara of Jainism, Mahavira taught ‘ahimsa,’ or nonviolence, as the highest ethical principle. Jain teaching extended this nonviolence to all living creatures, leading followers to avoid meat, and in stricter practice, root vegetables that might harm small organisms when pulled from soil.
Jainism remains one of the oldest continuously practiced vegetarian traditions in the world, and many Jain communities today follow diets that align closely with modern vegan principles.
5. Buddha (circa 563–483 BCE)
Siddhartha Gautama’s teachings on compassion for all sentient beings encouraged many Buddhist traditions to adopt vegetarian or largely plant-based diets, particularly in Mahayana Buddhism practiced in China, Vietnam, and parts of Japan.
Early Buddhist texts don’t universally mandate vegetarianism, and practices vary by region and school, but the emphasis on avoiding harm to living creatures shaped centuries of dietary custom across Asia.
6. Ashoka the Great (circa 304–232 BCE)
The Mauryan emperor who ruled much of the Indian subcontinent converted to Buddhism after a brutal military campaign left him wracked with remorse. He issued edicts, carved into rock pillars still standing today, that promoted nonviolence toward animals and reportedly reduced the killing of animals for the royal kitchen.
Ashoka’s edicts are among the earliest known state-level endorsements of reduced meat consumption, driven by religious conviction rather than health advice.
7. Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910)
The Russian novelist behind ‘War and Peace’ and ‘Anna Karenina’ adopted vegetarianism later in life after visiting a slaughterhouse, an experience he described as horrifying in his essay ‘The First Step.’ Tolstoy connected his diet to his broader philosophy of nonviolence, arguing that causing unnecessary suffering to animals corrupted human character.
His writing on the subject influenced later vegetarian advocates, including a young Mahatma Gandhi, who corresponded with Tolstoy directly.
Thinkers, Scientists, and Artists Who Chose Plants for Ethics or Health
Not everyone on this list avoided meat for religious reasons. Some were driven by early scientific curiosity, personal ethics, or a mix of both, often decades ahead of mainstream medical thinking on nutrition.
8. Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519)
Historical accounts of Leonardo’s diet are debated among scholars, but multiple biographers and contemporaries described him as avoiding meat, reportedly out of compassion for animals.
Whether or not every detail is fully verified, the Renaissance polymath was known for his notebooks expressing concern for animal welfare, once writing that the human body would become the tomb of other creatures.
He designed some of history’s earliest known vegetarian-friendly recipes in his notebooks, decades before anyone used the word.
9. Isaac Newton (1642–1727)
Newton’s dietary habits are less discussed than his physics, but historical accounts suggest he avoided meat for stretches of his life, partly influenced by his interest in ancient philosophy, including Pythagorean ideas about ethical living.
Newton’s personal writings show a fascination with early Christian and classical texts that debated the morality of killing animals for food, and some biographers argue this shaped periods of his own eating habits.
10. Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)
The Romantic poet was an outspoken vegetarian who published essays defending the diet on ethical grounds, including ‘A Vindication of Natural Diet.’ Shelley argued that a plant-based diet aligned with a more natural, less violent human existence, tying his dietary choices to his broader radical politics.
His wife, Mary Shelley, author of ‘Frankenstein,’ was influenced by these same circles of vegetarian, reform-minded thinkers.
11. Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790)
One of America’s founding fathers experimented with vegetarianism as a teenager, inspired by a book he’d read on the subject. In his autobiography, Franklin wrote about giving up meat for a period, partly for health and partly for the money he saved, which he spent on books instead.
He didn’t stay strictly vegetarian for life, but he documented the experience candidly, making him one of early America’s clearest examples of a deliberate, reasoned choice to eat less meat, according to the History Channel’s account of Franklin’s early dietary experiments.
12. Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948)
Gandhi grew up in a vegetarian Hindu and Jain-influenced household in India and later became one of the most famous vegetarian advocates in modern history. He wrote extensively about the ethical and spiritual dimensions of diet, connecting nonviolence toward animals to his broader philosophy of nonviolent resistance.
During his years in London as a young law student, Gandhi joined vegetarian societies and later credited that community with helping shape his lifelong commitment to nonviolence, a link explored in detail by the BBC’s coverage of Gandhi’s vegetarian roots.
Why This History Still Matters Today
None of these twelve people ever called themselves vegan. The word wasn’t invented until Donald Watson coined it in 1944, and ‘vegetarian’ only became common English usage a century before that.
But their choices show that questioning meat consumption isn’t a fad born from modern wellness culture. It’s a recurring thread running through very different civilizations, each arriving at similar conclusions from different starting points: compassion, spiritual discipline, personal ethics, or plain curiosity about what a body actually needs.
If you’re curious how these old ideas connect to entire food cultures rather than individuals, it’s worth looking at 12 Countries Where Vegan Food Was Invented Long Before It Was Trendy, which traces plant-based cooking traditions that developed independently across the globe, or 9 Countries Where Vegan Eating Has Existed for Centuries, for a broader regional view.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did any of these historical figures use the word ‘vegan’ or ‘vegetarian’?
No. The word ‘vegetarian’ entered common use in the 1840s with the founding of the Vegetarian Society in England, and ‘vegan’ was coined by Donald Watson in 1944. Everyone on this list predates one or both terms, so they described their own diets using whatever language was available at the time, often just ‘abstaining from flesh.’
Were these historical figures strictly plant-based, or did some still eat animal products like eggs or dairy?
It varied widely. Many, including Pythagoras and Gandhi, avoided meat but still consumed dairy in some periods of their lives, which would today be classified as vegetarian rather than vegan. Strict avoidance of all animal products, including eggs and dairy, was rare before the twentieth century, since dairy was often central to religious dietary law in ways meat was not.
Why did so many ancient philosophers connect vegetarianism to the soul rather than health?
Ancient Greek and Indian philosophical traditions were largely concerned with ethics, the nature of the soul, and reincarnation, not nutrition science, which didn’t exist yet in any recognizable form. Ideas like Pythagoras’s belief in transmigration of souls made eating animals feel ethically risky, since a soul might be reborn into an animal body, giving the diet a spiritual rather than medical justification.
Is there evidence Leonardo da Vinci was actually vegetarian, or is that a myth?
Historians disagree on how firmly established this is. Several early biographers, including accounts referenced by art historians, describe Leonardo expressing compassion for animals and possibly avoiding meat, but definitive primary-source proof is limited. It’s treated by most scholars as plausible and well-supported by his writings, though not proven with the same certainty as more documented figures like Tolstoy or Shelley.
Which religion has the longest continuous tradition of vegetarianism?
Jainism is generally considered to have one of the oldest continuously practiced vegetarian traditions, dating back to teachings attributed to Mahavira around the 6th century BCE. The practice has remained a core, largely unbroken part of Jain religious life for roughly 2,500 years.