Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit Quotes

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

And every time the Takers stamp out a Leaver culture, a wisdom ultimately tested since the birth of mankind disappears from the world beyond recall.

Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

You shouldn't have to settle for rabbits if what you want is deer

Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

Diversity is a survival factor for the community itself. A community of a hundred million species can survive anything short of total global catastrophe. Within that hundred million will be thousands that could survive a global temperature drop of tw...

Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

I went out and had a drink. I needed to talk to someone, and solitary drinkers are lucky in this regard— they always have someone to talk to.

Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

The world is not going to survive very much longer as humanity’s captive.

Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

We had been taken from The Wild and brought together in one place, because, for some strange reason, people found us interesting.

Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

Do you see the slightest evidence anywhere in the universe that creation came to an end with the birth of man? Do you see the slightest evidence anywhere out there that man was the climax toward which creation had been straining from the beginning? ....

Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

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 belong...

Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

Within your culture as a whole, there is in fact no significant thrust toward global population control. The point to see is that there never will be such a thrust so long as you're enacting a story that says the gods made the world for man. For as l...

Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

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 watch a sunset and then go off and set fire to your neighbor's tepee. Living close to nature is wonderful for your mental health.

Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

The obvious can sometimes be illuminating when perceived in an unhabitual way.

Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

Everyone in your culture knows this. Man was born to turn the world into paradise, but tragically he was born flawed. And so his paradise has always been spoiled by stupidty, greed, destructiveness, and shortsightedness.

Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

[A]ny species that exempts itself from the rules of competition ends up destroying the community in order to support its own expansion.

Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

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 ...

Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

The world is a very, very fine place. It wasn't a mess. It didn't need to be conquered and ruled by man. In other words, the world doesn't belong to man - but it does need man to belong to it. creature had to be the first to go through this... creatu...

Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

The sign stopped me-- or rather, this text stopped me. Words are my profession; I seized these and demanded that they explain themselves, that they cease to be ambiguous.

Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit