“Exactly. That's what's been happening here for the past ten thousand years: You've been doing what you damn well please with the world. And of course you mean to go right on doing what you damn well please with it, because the whole damn thing belongs to you.” LifeHumansHumanityEvolutionOwnership Book:Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit Source: Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit
“From the animist point of view, humans belong in a sacred place because they themselves are sacred. Not sacred in a special way, not more sacred than anything else, but merely as sacred as anything else -- as sacred as bison or salmon or crows or crickets or bears or sunflowers.” WayHumansViewsSpecialBearsSacredPoint Of ViewCricketCrowSalmonSunflowerSacred PlacesBison Author:Daniel Quinn
“To you, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism look very different, but to me they look the same. Many of you would say that something like Buddhism doesn't even belong on the list, since it doesn't link salvation to divine worship, but to me this is just a quibble. Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism all perceive human beings as flawed, wounded creatures in need of salvation, and all rely fundamentally on revelations that spell out how salvation is to be attained, either by departing from this life or rising above it.” NeedsHumansLooksDifferentHuman BeingsChristianityDivineBuddhismCreaturesWorshipSalvationIslamListsThis LifePerceiveRelyRisingRevelationsLinksSpellsHinduismWoundedJudaismFlawedRise AboveDeparting Author:Daniel Quinn
“The world of the Takers is one vast prison, and except for a handful of Leavers scattered across the world, the entire human race is now inside that prison.” WorldHumansRacePrisonHuman RaceHandfulLeavers Author:Daniel Quinn
“[T]he price you've paid is not the price of becoming human. It's not even the price of having the things you just mentioned. It's the price of enacting a story that casts mankind as the enemy of the world.” WorldHumansStoriesEnemyMankindBecomingPaidCasts Book:Ishmael: A Novel Source: Ishmael: A Novel
“If Mother Culture were to give an account of human history using these terms, it would go something like this: ' The Leavers were chapter one of human history -- a long and uneventful chapter. Their chapter of human history ended about ten thousand years ago with the birth of agriculture in the Near East. This event marked the beginning of chapter two, the chapter of the Takers. It's true there are still Leavers living in the world, but these are anachronisms, fossils -- people living in the past, people who just don't realize that their chapter of human history is over. '” PeopleIfsWorldGivingYearsHumansLongStillsTwoPastMotherCultureTermRealizingEventsBirthThousandTenYears AgoAccountsEastChaptersAgricultureThousand YearsFossilsHuman HistoryLiving In The PastAnachronismLeavers Book:Ishmael: A Novel Source: Ishmael: A Novel
“During your lifetime, the people of our culture are going to figure out how to live sustainably on this planet--or they're not. Either way, it's certainly going to be extraordinary. If they figure out how to live sustainably here, then hum anity will be able to see something it can't see right now: a future that extends into the indefinite future. If they don't figure this out, then I'm afraid the human race is going to take its place among the species that we're driving into extinction here every day--as many as 200--every day” PeopleIfsWayHumansAbleCultureRaceFiguresPlanetsRight NowLifetimeSpeciesExtraordinaryDrivingHuman RaceExtinction Book:If They Give You Lined Paper, Write Sideways. Source: If They Give You Lined Paper, Write Sideways.
“The theory I'm putting forward here is that storytelling is a genetic characteristic in the sense that early human hunters who were able to organize events into stories were more successful than hunters who weren't—and this success translated directly into reproductive success. In other words, hunters who were storytellers tended to be better represented in the gene pool than hunters who weren't, which (incidentally) accounts for the fact that storytelling isn't just found here and there among human cultures, it's found universally.” HumansFactsStoriesAbleCultureFoundSuccessfulEventsTheoryAccountsStorytellingCharacteristicsPoolGenesOrganizeStorytellerHuntersHere And There Author:Daniel Quinn
