[Daniel Quinn] Ishmael (Fave Quotes)

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daniel quinn
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I haven’t read Daniel Quinn’s books and I can’t say that I totally agree with all of the opinions I’ve found online so far (maybe I need to read the books.. and I intend to), but he certainly has some good quotes that I really resonate with…

But why? Why do you need prophets to tell you how you ought to live? Why do you need anyone to tell you how you ought to liveDaniel Quinn, Ishmael
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
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, Ishmael
You’re captives of a civilization system that more or less compels you to go on destroying the world in order to live. … You are captives—and you have made a captive of the world itself. That’s what’s at stake, isn’t it?—your captivity and the captivity of the world.Daniel Quinn, Ishmael
The world doesn’t belong to us, we belong to it. Always have, always will. We belong to the world. We belong to the community of life on this planet–it doesn’t belong to us. We got confused about that, now it’s time to set the record straightDaniel Quinn, Ishmael
If 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 great difference indeed.Daniel Quinn, Ishmael
You’re captives of a civilization system that more or less compels you to go on destroying the world in order to live… I think there are many among you who would be glad to release the world from captivity… This is what prevents them: They’re unable to find the bars of the cage.Daniel Quinn, Ishmael
To you, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism look very different, but to me they look the same. Many of you would say that something like Buddhism doesn’t even belong on the list, since it doesn’t link salvation to divine worship, but to me this is just a quibble. Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism all perceive human beings as flawed, wounded creatures in need of salvation, and all rely fundamentally on revelations that spell out how salvation is to be attained, either by departing from this life or rising above it.Daniel Quinn
How easy it is first to leap to a false conclusion about someone and then to view everything he does in light of that conclusion.Daniel Quinn, Ishmael
But we’re not humanity, we’re just one culture – one culture out of hundreds of thousands that have lived their vision on this planet and sung their song. If it were humanity that needed changing, then we’d be out of luck. But it isn’t humanity that needs changing, it’s just…us.Daniel Quinn
They put their shoulders to the wheel during the day, stupefy themselves with drugs or television at night, and try not to think too searchingly about the world they’re leaving their children to cope with.Daniel Quinn, Ishmael

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Penny (PennyButler.com)
Penny (PennyButler.com)

Truth-seeker, ever-questioning, ever-learning, ever-researching, ever delving further and deeper, ever trying to 'figure it out'. This site is a legacy of sorts, a place to collect thoughts, notes, book summaries, & random points of interests.