Sam Harrelson

“That’s how it goes, you think you’re on top of the world, and suddenly they spring Armageddon on you.”
― Terry Pratchett, Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

“Let’s pause to note how peculiar this all is. The traditional view of the immune system is full of military metaphors and antagonistic lingo. We see it as a defence force that discriminates self (our own cells) from non-self (microbes and everything else), and eradicates the latter. But now we see that microbes craft and tune our immune system in the first place! Consider”
― Ed Yong, I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life

“Technology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral.” This is certainly true in the kitchen. Tools are not neutral objects. They change with changing social context. A mortar and pestle was a different thing for the Roman slave forced to pound up highly amalgamated mixtures for hours on end for his master’s enjoyment than it is for me: a pleasing object with which I make pesto for fun, on a whim.”
― Bee Wilson, Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat

“But Genesis adds one very significant extra element in its summary of civilization’s Mesopotamian dawn. The mark of Cain becomes the mark of civilization.”
― John Dominic Crossan, How to Read the Bible and Still Be a Christian: Struggling with Divine Violence from Genesis Through Revelation