Adam Leith Gollner > Quotes

“The playwright Edward Albee has characterized [the suddenness of the appearance of fruits and flowers in evolutionary history] as 'that heartbreaking second when it all got together: the sugars and the acids and the ultraviolets, and the next thing you knew there were tangerines and string quartets.”
― Adam Leith Gollner, The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce, and Obsession

“As Marshall McLuhan pointed out, we've become so removed from reality that we're starting to prefer artificiality.”
― Adam Leith Gollner, The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce, and Obsession

“To experience biophilia is to love a diversity that, as limitless as it is fragile, both haunts us and fills us with hope. ”
― Adam Leith Gollner, The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce, and Obsession

“Psychologist Erich Fromm coined the term ["biophilia"] in 1964 as a way of describing the innate attraction to processes of life and growth.”
― Adam Leith Gollner, The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce, and Obsession

“...avacados, prickly pears and papayas used to be gulped down whole, seeds and all, by fridge-sized armadillos called glyptodonts.”
― Adam Leith Gollner, The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce, and Obsession

“I can think of no sadder example of our food paradigm than two posters taped to the window of a California IHOP. One is a colorful photo of pancakes heaped with bananas, strawberries, nuts, syrups and whipped cream with the caption, 'Welcome to Paradise.' Lower down, an 8x10 photocopy states: 'Chemicals known to cause cancer or birth defects or other reproductive harm may be present in food or beverages sold here.' Such signs are posted on many fast-food outlets. Heaven isn't a place on earth, at least not at these drive-throughs.”
― Adam Leith Gollner, The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce, and Obsession

“Of all the wars that have taken place wince then, none has endured so long as the conflict between knowledge and belief. For centuries now, knowledge has attempted, unsuccessfully, to supersede belief. But the entire clash stems from a misapprehension of the nature of belief. We can't not believe; and we won't ever know everything. We know this much: knowledge remains an endless advance toward an end point that endlessly recedes.”
― Adam Leith Gollner, The Book of Immortality: The Science, Belief, and Magic Behind Living Forever

“...I came across a Haida saying that had etched itself into my memory banks: 'Joy is a well-made object, equaled only to the joy of making it.”
― Adam Leith Gollner, The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce, and Obsession

“Progress has not brought about universal happiness...”
― Adam Leith Gollner, The Book of Immortality: The Science, Belief, and Magic Behind Living Forever

“Having commodified nature, we're eating the shrapnel of a worldwide homogeneity bomb.”
― Adam Leith Gollner, The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce, and Obsession

“The finest peculiarity of belief is that believers do not recognize themselves as believers.”
― Adam Leith Gollner, The Book of Immortality: The Science, Belief, and Magic Behind Living Forever

“Every time we eat a fruit, we engage in a reproductive act.”
― Adam Leith Gollner, The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Obsession, Commerce, and Adventure

“The twentieth century prided itself on invalidating the metaphysical. Doubts about the afterlife arose even as so-called nonbelievers attempted to locate surrogates for the loss of meaning atheism occasioned. Enraptured with progress, we deepened our collective worship of science. As incredulity to metanarratives rose, so did a massive publicity campaign to convince us of the omnipotence of science.”
― Adam Leith Gollner, The Book of Immortality: The Science, Belief, and Magic Behind Living Forever

“When we parted, on the Boulevard du Montparnasse, I leaned over to give her a kiss on the cheek. ‘If you do find paradise,’ she said, turning to leave, ‘send me a grape.”
― Adam Leith Gollner

“I look down at my list of fruits and recite the names under my breath, syncing into the rhythms of nearby batucada drummers. Softly chanting, I close my eyes, and feel a sense of peace. For a moment, I forget everything. I forget my name. I forget why I came here. All I know is abacaxí, açai, ameixa, cupuaçu, graviola, maracujá, taperebá, uva, umbu.”
― Adam Leith Gollner, The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Obsession, Commerce, and Adventure