Famous quotes

Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide

English Italiano Polski עברית Français Português فارسی Español 中文 Русский Deutsch العربية हिन्दी 日本語 Ελληνικά Latina

Daniel Quinn

103 quotes

“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 (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Five severed fingers do not make a hand.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“People say that I’m sour and misanthropic, and I tell them they’re probably right. Argument of any sort, on any subject, has always seemed like a waste of time to me.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Leavers and the Takers are enacting two separate stories, based on entirely different and contradictory premises.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The problem is that man’s conquest of the world has itself devastated the world.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It’s pointless to argue with mythology.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We don’t need prophets to tell us how to live; we can find out for ourselves by consulting what’s actually there.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The law we’re looking for here is much like that with respect to civilizations. It’s not about civilizations, but it applies to civilizations in the same way that it applies to flocks of birds and herds of deer. It makes no distinction between human civilizations and beehives. It applies to all species without distinction. This is one reason why the law has remained undiscovered in your culture. According to Taker mythology, man is by definition a biological exception. Out of all the millions of species, only one is an end product.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But, alas, a law is catching up to them. They don’t know such a law even exists, but this ignorance affords them no protection from its effects.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The gazelle and the lion are enemies only in the minds of the Takers.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I no longer think of what we’re doing as a blunder. 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 (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“‘Intensification of production to feed an increased population leads to a still greater increase in population.’ Peter Farb said it in Humankind.” “You said it was a paradox?” “No, he said it was a paradox.” “Why?” Ishmael shrugged. “I’m sure he knows that any species in the wild will invariably expand to the extent that its food supply expands. But, as you know, Mother Culture teaches that such laws do not apply to man.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Increasing food production to feed an increased population results in yet another increase in population. Obviously it has to have this result, and to predict any other is simply to indulge in biological and mathematical fantasies.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 long as you enact that story, Mother Culture will demand increased food production today—and promise population control tomorrow.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This is precisely how someone speaks who imagines that he is the world’s divinely appointed ruler.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You must face the fact that increasing food production doesn’t feed your hungry, it only fuels your population explosion.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If the will is there, the method will be found.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Obviously Mother Culture must be finished off if you’re going to survive, and that’s something the people of your culture can do. She has no existence outside your minds. Once you stop listening to her, she ceases to exist.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The world was not made for any one species.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Mankind was not needed to bring order to the world.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Whenever a Taker couple talk about how wonderful it would be to have a big family, they’re reenacting the scene beside the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They’re saying to themselves, ‘Of course it’s our right to apportion life on this planet as we please. Why stop at four kids or six? We can have fifteen if we like. All we have to do is plow under another few hundred acres of rain forest—and who cares if a dozen other species disappear as a result?’”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Adam wasn’t the progenitor of our race, he was the progenitor of our culture.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In order to make their story come true, the Takers have to put an end to creation itself—and they’re doing a damned good job of it.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The premise of the Taker story is the world belongs to man.... The premise of the Leaver story is man belongs to the world.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Of course it’s not enough. But if you begin anywhere else, there’s no hope at all.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Daunting isn’t nearly strong enough. To call it daunting is like calling the Atlantic damp.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One thing I know people will say to me is ‘Are you suggesting we go back to being hunter-gatherers?’” “That of course is an inane idea,” Ishmael said. “The Leaver life-style isn’t about hunting and gathering, it’s about letting the rest of the community live—and agriculturalists can do that as well as hunter-gatherers.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It should be noted that what is crucial to our 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 (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Atterley’s message seemed difficult to summarize and was typically characterized as “mind-boggling” by those who were favorably impressed and as “incomprehensible” by those who weren’t.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Anyone who thinks the Church is open to new ideas is living in a dreamworld.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Programs are initiated in order to counter or defeat vision.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I asked, “Is it so easy to change a cultural vision.” “The relevant measures are not ease and difficulty. The relevant measures are readiness and unreadiness. If the time isn’t right for a new idea, no power on earth can make it catch on, but if the time is right, it will sweep the world like wildfire.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Always has been my guiding principle for forty years to say ‘Never trust a Christian.’ Not once has ever Christian given me reason to change.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I closed my eyes and found the interior rooms of my head quite thoroughly deserted.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It doesn’t matter that everyone ‘knows’ the human race is three million years older than the cities of Mesopotamia. Every molecule of thought in our culture bears the impress of the idea that we needn’t look beyond the Mesopotamian horizon in order to understand our history.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Modern humans have been around for two hundred thousand years, but according to to our beliefs, God had not a word to say to any of them until we came along.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Any culture will become an obscenity when blown up into a universal world culture to which all must belong.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I guess this is what you mean when you say that if the world is saved, it will be saved by people with changed minds. People with unchanged minds will say, ‘Let’s minimize the effects of pushing the button.’ People with changed minds will say, ‘Let’s throw the box away!’”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But when we look back beyond our agricultural revolution into the human past, we no longer understand what people had in mind. We don’t understand what they had in mind as they lived through tens of thousands of years without trade and commerce, without empires or kingdoms or even villages, without accomplishments of any kind.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The fundamental Taker delusion is that humanity itself was designed—and therefore destined—to become us. This is a twin of the idea that the entire universe was created in order to produce this planet. We would smile patronizingly if the Gebusi boasted that humanity was divinely destined to become Gebusi, but we are perfectly satisfied humanity was divinely destined to become us.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What appears to be kind and is meant to be kind can be the reverse of kind.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The religions I just mentioned—the revealed religions—are fundamentally wed to our cultural vision, and I use the word wed advisedly. These religions are like a harem of sanctimonious wives married to a greedy, loutish sensualist of a husband.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So, this is the Taker vision: The world was made for Man, and Man was made to conquer and rule it.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It has happened that a species has tried to live in violation of the Law of Limited Competition. Or rather it has happened one time, in one human culture—ours. That’s what our agricultural revolution is all about. That’s the whole point of totalitarian agriculture: We hunt our competitors down, we destroy their food, and we deny them access to food. That’s what makes it totalitarian.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Pursuing an evolutionarily unstable strategy doesn’t eliminate you instantly, Jared, it eliminates you eventually.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If the world is saved, it will not be saved by people with the old vision and new programs. If the world is saved, it will be saved by people with a new vision and no programs.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The important thing to note is that the vision grew out of the lifestyle, the lifestyle didn’t grow out of the vision.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If I were someone else, I’d try to console you with a fairy tale like the one they tell about Santa Claus every Christmas. I’d tell you that Mommy’s going to be taken up to heaven to live with God and the angels, and from there I’ll look down and watch over you. The truth is better than this—partly because it is the truth.”
Daniel Quinn (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source