Daniel Quinn Quote

The creatures who act as though they belong to the world follow the peace-keeping law, and because they follow that law, they give the creatures around them a chance to grow toward whatever it’s possible for them to become. That’s how man came into being. The creatures around Australopithecus didn’t imagine that the world belonged to them, so they let him live and grow. How does being civilized come into it? Does being civilized mean that you have to destroy the world? No. Does being civilized make you incapable of giving the creatures around you a little space in which to live? No. Does it make you incapable of living as harmlessly as sharks and tarantulas and rattlesnakes? No. Does it make you incapable of following a law that even snails and earthworms manage to follow without any difficulty? No. As I pointed out some time ago, human settlement isn’t against the law, it’s subject to the law—and the same is true of civilization.