Saja > Saja's Quotes

“There's nothing fundamentally wrong with people. Given a story to enact that puts them in accord with the world, they will live in accord with the world. But given a story to enact that puts them at odds with the world, as yours does, they will live at odds with the world. Given a story to enact in which they are the lords of the world, they will ACT like lords of the world. And, given a story to enact in which the world is a foe to be conquered, they will conquer it like a foe, and one day, inevitably, their foe will lie bleeding to death at their feet, as the world is now.”
― Daniel Quinn, Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

“We're not destroying the world because we're clumsy. We're destroying the world
because we are, in a very literal and deliberate way, at war with it.”
― Daniel Quinn, 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? ...Very far from it. The universe went on as before, the planet went on as before. Man's appearance caused no more stir than the appearance of jellyfish.”
― Daniel Quinn, Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

“In fact, of course, there is no secret knowledge; no one knows anything that can't be found on a shelf in the public library.”
― Daniel Quinn, Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

“The obvious can sometimes be illuminating when perceived in an unhabitual way.”
― Daniel Quinn, Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

“What is crucial to your survival as a race is not the redistribution of power and wealth within the prison but rather the destruction of the prison itself.”
― Daniel Quinn, Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

“You’re captives of a civilizational system that more or less compels you to go on destroying the world in order to live.”
― Daniel Quinn, Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

“If there are forty thousand people in an area that can only support thirty thousand, it's no kindness to bring in food from the outside to maintain them at forty thousand. That just guarantees that the famine will continue."

"True. But all the same, it's hard just to sit by and let them starve."

"This is precisely how someone speaks who imagines that he is the world's divinely appointed ruler: 'I will not *let* them starve. I will not *let* the drought come. I will not *let* the river flood.' It is the gods who *let* these things, not you.”
― Daniel Quinn, Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

“Famine isn’t unique to humans. All species are subject to it everywhere in the world. When the population of any species outstrips its food resources, that population declines until it’s once again in balance with its resources. Mother Culture says that humans should be exempt from that process, so when she finds a population that has outstripped its resources, she rushes in food from the outside, thus making it a certainty that there will be even more of them to starve in the next generation. Because the population is never allowed to decline to the point at which it can be supported by its own resources, famine becomes a chronic feature of their lives.”
― Daniel Quinn, Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

“Donald Trump can do a lot of things I can't, but he can no more get out of the prison than I can”
― Daniel Quinn, Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit