Daniel Quinn, Ishmael: An Adventure Of The Mind And Spirit

Quotes

• “This law … defines the limits of competition in the community of life. You may compete to the full extent of your capabi...”
• “The mythology of your culture hums in your ears so constantly that no one pays the slightest bit of attention to it. Of ...”
• “You're captives of a civilizational system that more or less compels you to go on destroying the world in order to live....”
• “It's the idea that people living close to nature tend to be noble. It's seeing all those sunsets that does it. You can't...”
• “[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 mentio...”
• “If you alone found out what the lie was, then you're probably right—it would make no great difference. But if you ALL fo...”
• “This is precisely how someone speaks who imagines that he is the world's divinely appointed ruler: 'I will not LET them ...”
• “No one species shall make the life of the world its own.' … That's one expression of the law. Here's another: 'The world...”
• “[A]ny species that exempts itself from the rules of competition ends up destroying the community in order to support its...”
• “The premise of the Taker story is 'the world belongs to man'. … The premise of the Leaver story is 'man belongs to the w...”
• “[N]ow we have a clearer idea what this story is all about: The world was made for man, and man was made to rule it.”
• “If the world was made for us, then it BELONGS to us and we can do what we damn well please with it.”
• “The obvious can sometimes be illuminating when perceived in an unhabitual way.”