Kaitlin Van

“Famine isn’t unique to humans. All species are subject to it everywhere in the world. When the population of any species outstrips its food resources, that population declines until it’s once again in balance with its resources. Mother Culture says that humans should be exempt from that process, so when she finds a population that has outstripped its resources, she rushes in food from the outside, thus making it a certainty that there will be even more of them to starve in the next generation. Because the population is never allowed to decline to the point at which it can be supported by its own resources, famine becomes a chronic feature of their lives.”
― Daniel Quinn, Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

“[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 farmers in the Near East has been carried forward from one generation to the next without a single break, right into the present moment. It's the foundation of your vast civilization today in exactly the same way that it was the foundation of the very first farming village.”
― Daniel Quinn, Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

“I have amazing news for you. Man is not alone on this planet. He is part of a community, upon which he depends absolutely.”
― Daniel Quinn, Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

“The obvious can sometimes be illuminating when perceived in an unhabitual way.”
― Daniel Quinn, Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit