“The premise of the Taker story is 'the world belongs to man'. … The premise of the Leaver story is 'man belongs to the world'.”
— Daniel Quinn“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.”
— Daniel Quinn“[T]he price you've paid is not the price of becoming human. It's not even the price of having the things you just mentioned. It's the price of enacting a story that casts mankind as the enemy of the world.”
— Daniel Quinn“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.”
— Daniel Quinn“If the world was made for us, then it BELONGS to us and we can do what we damn well please with it.”
— Daniel Quinn“[N]ow we have a clearer idea what this story is all about: The world was made for man, and man was made to rule it.”
— Daniel Quinn