“Humans! They lived in a world where the grass continued to be green and the sun rose every day and flowers regularly turned into fruit, and what impressed them? Weeping statues. And wine made out of water! A mere quantum-mechanistic tunnel effect, that'd happen anyway if you were prepared to wait zillions of years. As if the turning of sunlight into wine, by means of vines and grapes and time and enzymes, wasn't a thousand times more impressive and happened all the time...”
― Small Gods
― Small Gods
“Science isn’t an exercise in cold-blooded rationality. Scientists are—and have always been—emotional, creative, intuitive, whole human beings, asking questions about a world that was never made to be catalogued and systematized.”
― Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures
― Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures
“Just because you can explain it doesn't mean it's not still a miracle.”
― Small Gods
― Small Gods
“In my mind are all the tides, their seasons, their ebbs and their flows. In my mind are all the halls, the endless procession of them, the intricate pathways. When this world becomes too much for me, when I grow tired of the noise and the dirt and the people, I close my eyes and I name a particular vestibule to myself; then I name a hall.”
― Piranesi
― Piranesi
“Fungi make worlds. They also unmake them. There are lots of ways to catch them in the act. When you cook mushroom soup, or just eat it. When you go out gathering mushrooms, or buy them. When you ferment alcohol, plant a plant, or just bury your hands in the soil; and whether you let a fungus into your mind, or marvel at the way that it might enter the mind of another. Whether you’re cured by a fungus, or watch it cure someone else; whether you build your home from fungi, or start growing mushrooms in your home, fungi will catch you in the act.
If you’re alive, they already have.”
― Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures
If you’re alive, they already have.”
― Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures
Basil’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Basil’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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