Daniel QuinnThere'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 enac… ▶363DeathHumanityReading
Daniel QuinnTEACHER seeks pupil. Must have an earnest desire to save the world. Apply in person. ✨ Daniel Quinn (2009). My Ishmael, p.3, Bantam353Sadness
Daniel QuinnChildren don't need learning. They need access to what they want to learn outside the home.331Truth
Daniel QuinnMost beginning writers - and I was the same - are like chefs trying to cook great dishes that they've never tasted themselves. How can you make a great - or even an adequate - bou… ▶364HumanityLovePhilosophy
Daniel QuinnYes,I'm afraid you're right. Trial and error isn't a bad way to learn how to build an aircraft,but it can be a disastrous way to learn how to build a civilization. ✨ Daniel … ▶321HumanityReading
Daniel QuinnIncreasing food production to feed an increased population results in yet another increase in population. ✨ Daniel Quinn (2009). Ishmael: A Novel, p.136, Bantam321Reading
Daniel QuinnThere is a difference between the inmates of your criminal prisons and the inmates of your cultural prison: The former understand that the distribution of wealth and power inside … ▶344Politics
Daniel QuinnThe 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. ✨ … ▶355Reading
Daniel QuinnWith man gone, will there be hope for gorilla? ✨ Daniel Quinn (2009). My Ishmael, p.7, Bantam377Hope
Daniel QuinnDiversity 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 milli… ▶323ReadingTruth
Daniel QuinnDo 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 th… ▶367Reading
Daniel QuinnThe 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 (2009). Ishmael: A Novel, p.239… ▶379Reading
Daniel QuinnThinkers aren't limited by what they know, because they can always increase what they know. Rather they're limited by what puzzles them, because there's no way to become curious a… ▶346Thought
Daniel QuinnPity is always twinged with disgust.324Philosophy
Daniel QuinnIf you alone found out what the lie was, then you're probably right—it would make no great difference. But if you ALL found out what the lie was, it might conceivably make a very … ▶358Reading
Daniel QuinnNo one species shall make the life of the world its own.' … That's one expression of the law. Here's another: 'The world was not made for any one species. ✨ Daniel Quinn (20… ▶293LifePoliticsReading
Daniel Quinn....he began to speak to me, not in the jocular way of visitors to the menagerie but rather as one speaks to the wind or to the waves crashing on a beach, uttering that which must… ▶359Reading
Daniel QuinnDon't try to drive the homeless into places we find suitable. Help them survive in places they find suitable. ✨ Daniel Quinn (1999). Beyond Civilization: Humanity's Next Gre… ▶294Humanity
Daniel QuinnIt'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 neighb… ▶251HumanityLifeThought
Daniel QuinnIn effect, you're saying that if you knew how you oughtt to live, then the flaw is man could be controlled. If you knew how you ought to live, you wouldn't be forever screwing up … ▶262PoliticsTruth
Daniel QuinnFrom infancy onward, children are the most fantastic learners in the world.307Love
Daniel QuinnYou've been in love with someone for a decade - someone who barely knows you're alive. You've done everything, tried everything to make this person see that you're a valuable, est… ▶307LifeLove
Daniel QuinnIf the world is saved, it will not be saved by old minds with new programs but by new minds with no programs at all. ✨ Daniel Quinn (2009). Beyond Civilization: Humanity's N… ▶307HumanityReadingThought
Daniel QuinnPeople will listen when they're ready to listen and not before. Don't waste time with people who want to argue. They'll keep you immobilized forever. Look for people who are alrea… ▶329HumanityReadingTime
Daniel Quinn[Y]our agricultural revolution is not an event like the Trojan War, isolated in the distant past and without relevance to your lives today. The work begun by those neolithic farme… ▶221HumanityTime
Daniel QuinnThere are indeed times when one should TRUST blindly, just as there are times when one should not. WISDOM consists in being able to tell one from the other. ✨ Daniel Quinn (… ▶309PhilosophyTime
Daniel QuinnBlessed are those who do whatever they can wherever they are, for no one is devoid of resources or opportunities.221Life
Daniel QuinnThere is no one right way to live.211Humanity
Daniel QuinnThat evening I went for a walk. To walk for the sake of walking is something I seldom do. Inside my apartment I'd felt inexplicably anxious. I needed to talk to someone. to be rea… ▶222ReadingThought
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 … ▶245HumanityReading
