“A hunter-gatherer familly shares what it has, whether that is information or food. To give to others is to be able to receive from others. Knowledge and food are stored, as it were, by being shared.”

“The disorders that psychology associates with the dissonance between what parents say to children and what children know to be reality - from deep insecurities to chronic anxiety to depression - are not to be found among the hunter-gatherers I have known. This is not to claim that they are people who know nothing of mental illness. Rather, it is to look at the absence of a particular kind of illness, one that in my own society is somewhere between common and the norm. The apparent sturdiness of the hunter-gatherer personality, the virtual universality of self-confidence and equanimity, the absence of anxiety disorders and most depressive illnesses - these may well be the benefits of using words to tell the truth.”

“all human beings have control over their own destiny. that is, after all, our purpose on this planet. not to interfere with the lives of others but to shape our own experiences.”

“Generations of people staying close to home, there for each other, doing what they knew best, enjoying being a burden to each other.”

“But Andrew was right about one thing. Human beings need to tell stories. Historically, it's the quickest way we have for transmitting useful information to other members of our species. Stories are not simply nice things to have; they are essential survival tools. And yes, the stories we tell ourselves are just as important as the stories we tell other people.”

“We've been so focused on the concept of punishing those who have caused us pain that we've completely disregarded the entire other half of what Karma is.”

“When food came in, the human beings were quiet and trusting and beautiful. They shared.”