“The truth is that running in shoes is high impact, heel-centric, promotes bad form, is relatively unstable and inflexible, tends to weaken rather than strengthen your feet, and dampens your connection to the world around you. In contrast, barefoot running is low-impact, toe-centric, promotes good form, enhances stability and adaptability, strengthens your feet in miraculous ways, and provides delightful sensory and spiritual connections to the earth.”

“According to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, in 2006, one out of six people or 43.1 million Americans suffered foot ailments. Among cultures that don’t wear shoes, approximately 2 percent of the population has foot-related injuries, compared to 70 percent among shoe-wearing societies.”

“You need to be willing to wipe the slate clean and admit that you may not know everything about running. This is the best advice I can give for staying injury-free”

“To the barefoot man, happiness is a pair of shoes. To the man with old shoes, it's a pair of new shoes. To the man with new shoes, it's stylish shoes. And of course, the fellow with no feet would be happy to be barefoot. Measure your life by what you have not by what you don't.”

“There’s nothing in the mechanical world that matches the sophistication, complexity, and multi-tasking ability of the foot”

“Shoes block pain, not impact! Pain teaches us to run comfortably! From the moment you start going barefoot, you will change the way you run.”

“I think one of the prophets stuttered when he dictated your specs,” Jal said, snickering. “Or the gene-splicer was daydreaming about his high-status trueborn love and he botched your programming.”