Daniel Quinn is an American writer, cultural critic, and former publisher of educational texts. With several rewards under his belt, he is known for his philosophies and environmentalism beliefs. Here is a listing to some of the best Daniel Quinn quotes.
“Blessed are those who do whatever they can wherever they are, for no one is devoid of resources or opportunities.”
“But we’re not humanity, we’re just one culture – one culture out of hundreds of thousands that have lived their vision on this planet and sung their song. If it were humanity that needed changing, then we’d be out of luck. But it isn’t humanity that needs changing, it’s just… us.”
“But why? Why do you need prophets to tell you how you ought to live? Why do you need anyone to tell you how you ought to live.”
“Don’t try to drive the homeless into places we find suitable. Help them survive in places they find suitable.”
“Everyone in your culture knows this. Man was born to turn the world into paradise, but tragically he was born flawed. And so his paradise has always been spoiled by stupidty, greed, destructiveness, and shortsightedness.”
“From infancy onward, children are the most fantastic learners in the world.”
“I have amazing news for you. Man is not alone on this planet. He is part of a community, upon which he depends absolutely.”
“If the world is saved, it will not be saved by old minds with new programs but by new minds with no programs at all.”
“If you alone found out what the lie was, then you’re probably right—it would make no great difference. But if you ALL found out what the lie was, it might conceivably make a very great difference indeed.”
“In fact, of course, there is no secret knowledge; no one knows anything that can’t be found on a shelf in the public library.”
“Indigenous people believe that Man belongs to the World; civilized people believe that the World belongs to Man.”
“It’s the idea that people living close to nature tend to be noble. It’s seeing all those sunsets that does it. You can’t watch a sunset and then go off and set fire to your neighbor’s tepee. Living close to nature is wonderful for your mental health.”
“Many of the biggest and most far-reaching investments we make in our lives are investments that have little or nothing to do with money.”
“No one species shall make the life of the world its own.’ … That’s one expression of the law. Here’s another: ‘The world was not made for any one species.”
“No story is devoid of meaning … If you know how to look for it.”
“Once you learn to discern the voice of Mother Culture humming in the background, telling her story over and over again to the people of your culture, you’ll never stop being conscious of it. Wherever you go for the rest of your life, you’ll be tempted to say to the people around you, “how can you listen to this stuff and not recognize it for what it is?”
“Our lifestyle is evolutionarily unstable–and is therefore in the process of eliminating itself in the perfectly ordinary way.”
“People will listen when they’re ready to listen and not before. Don’t waste time with people who want to argue. They’ll keep you immobilized forever. Look for people who are already open to something new.”
“The journey itself is going to change you, so you don’t have to worry about memorizing the route we took to accomplish that change.”
“The people who are horrified by the idea of children learning what they want to learn when they want to learn it have not accepted the very elementary psychological fact that people (all people, of every age) remember the things that are important to them – the things they need to know – and forget the rest.”
“The world doesn’t belong to us, we belong to it. Always have, always will. We belong to the world. We belong to the community of life on this planet–it doesn’t belong to us. We got confused about that, now it’s time to set the record straight.”
“The world must live. We are only one species among billions. The gods don’t love us any more than they love spiders or bears or whales or water lilies.”
“There is no one right way to live.”
“Thinkers aren’t limited by what they know, because they can always increase what they know. Rather they’re limited by what puzzles them, because there’s no way to become curious about something that doesn’t puzzle you.”
“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.”
“You shouldn’t have to settle for rabbits if what you want is deer.”
“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.”
Here is an up close and personal interview with Daniel Quinn, the author of several best selling books. This is a part of a feature length documentary captured in raw footage for ‘What a Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire.’
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