Quotessence
Home / Books / Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

Book by Daniel Quinn · 7 quotes · Philosophy, Civilization, Exploitation

Filter quotes by topic

AllPhilosophyCivilizationExploitationAgricultureAnthropologyAnxietyCommunityDifferent PathsEcologyEvolutionFriendshipsHumanityHumansLifeNatural OrderOwnershipSolitude

Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit Quotes

“This is considered almost holy work by farmers and ranchers. Kill off everything you can't eat. Kill off anything that eats what you eat. Kill off anything that doesn't feed what you eat." "It IS holy work, in Taker culture. The more competitors you destroy, the more humans you can bring into the world, and that makes it just about the holiest work there is. Once you exempt yourself from the law of limited competition, everything in the world except your food and the food of your food becomes an enemy to be exterminated.”

PhilosophyAgricultureExploitationEcology
Book:Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit
Create image

“The evening I went for a walk. To walk for the sake of walking is something I seldom do.Inside my apartment I'd felt inexplicably anxious. I needed to talk to someone, to be reassured. Or perhaps I needed to confess my sin: I was once again having impure thoughts about saving the world. Or it was neither of these--I was afraid I was dreaming. Indeed, considering the events of the day, it was likely that I was dreaming. I sometimes fly in my dreams, and each time I say to myself, "At last--it's happening in reality and not in a dream!" In any case, I needed to talk to someone, and I was alone. This is my habitual condition, by choice--or so I tell myself. Mere acquaintanceship leaves me unsatisfied, and few people are willing to accept the burdens and risks of friendship as I conceive of it.”

SolitudeAnxietyFriendships
Book:Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit
Create image

“It is in fact an orderly community. The green plants are food for the plant eaters, which are food for the predators, and some of those predators are food for still other predators. And what's left over is food for the scavengers, who return to the earth nutrients needed by the green plants. It's a system that has worked magnificently for billions of years. Filmmakers understandably love footage of gore and battle, but any naturalist will tell you that the species are not in any sense at war with one another. The gazelle and lion are enemies only in the minds of the Takers. The lion that comes across a herd of gazelles doesn't massacre them as an enemy would. It kills one, not to satisfy its hatred of gazelles but to satisfy its hunger, and once it has made its kill the gazelles are perfectly content to go on grazing with the lion in the midst.”

CommunityNatural Order
Book:Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit
Create image