"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."
"[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."
"The premise of the Taker story is 'the world belongs to man'. … The premise of the Leaver story is 'man belongs to the world'."
"[A]ny species that exempts itself from the rules of competition ends up destroying the community in order to support its own expansion."
"The obvious can sometimes be illuminating when perceived in an unhabitual way."
"[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."