“Diversity 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 million will be thousands that could survive a global temperature drop of twenty degrees—which would be a lot more devastating than it sounds. Within that hundred million will be thousands that could survive a global temperature rise of twenty degrees. But a community of a hundred species or a thousand species has almost no survival value at all.”
― Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit
― Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit
“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.”
― Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit
because we are, in a very literal and deliberate way, at war with it.”
― Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit
“Men really do need sea-monsters in their personal oceans”
― The Log from the Sea of Cortez
― The Log from the Sea of Cortez
“Adults, in their dealing with children, are insane," he [Ed Ricketts] said. "And children know it too. Adults lay down rules they would not think of following, speak truths they do not believe. And yet they expect children to obey the rules, believe the truths, and admire and respect their parents for this nonsense. Children must be very wise and secret to tolerate adults at all. And the greatest nonsense of all that adults expect children to believe is that people learn by experience. No greater lie was ever revered. And its falseness is immediately discerned by children since their parents obviously have not learned anything by experience. Far from learning, adults simply become set in a maze of prejudices and dreams and sets of rules whose origins they do not know and would not dare inspect for fear the whole structure might topple over on them. I think children instinctively know this," Ed said. "Intelligent children learn to conceal their knowledge and keep free of this howling mania.”
― The Log from the Sea of Cortez
― The Log from the Sea of Cortez
“You're captives of a civilizational 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.”
― Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit
― Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit
Claudio’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Claudio’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
More friends…
Polls voted on by Claudio
Lists liked by Claudio










