# Quote — Daniel Quinn, Ishmael

> “Whenever a Taker couple talk about how wonderful it would be to have a big family, they’re reenacting the scene beside the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They’re saying to themselves, ‘Of course it’s our right to apportion life on this planet as we please. Why stop at four kids or six? We can have fifteen if we like. All we have to do is plow under another few hundred acres of rain forest—and who cares if a dozen other species disappear as a result?’”

- Author: [Daniel Quinn](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-quinn.md)
- Book: [Ishmael](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-quinn/ishmael.md)
- Page: 181
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Daniel_Quinn#Ishmael_(1992)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-quinn/ishmael/whenever-a-taker

## More from this book

> Of course it’s not enough. But if you begin anywhere else, there’s no hope at all.

p. 248 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-quinn/ishmael/of-course-its.md)

> If the will is there, the method will be found.

p. 140 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-quinn/ishmael/if-the-will.md)

> “One thing I know people will say to me is ‘Are you suggesting we go back to being hunter-gatherers?’”
>
> “That of course is an inane idea,” Ishmael said. “The Leaver life-style isn’t about hunting and gathering, it’s about letting the rest of the community live—and agriculturalists can do that as well as hunter-gatherers.”

p. 250 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-quinn/ishmael/one-thing-i-know.md)