"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."
"[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."
"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."
"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."
"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."