[1] The book begins and ends with this double proposition: (a) We hold the world captive, and (b) We are captives also: domesticated animals. (Pg 25)
             Ishmael is, according to Quinn, the textbook of escape (Pg 26-26)
             [2] There is some small thing we are all being lied to about, but how can we tell what it is? We are enacting a story, the story told by Mother Culture. (Pg 27-36)
             [3] "Once you learn to discern the voice of Mother Culture humming in the background, telling her story over and over again to the people of your culture, you'll never stop being conscious of it. Wherever you go for the rest of your life, you'll be tempted to say to the people around you, 'How can you listen to this stuff and not recognize it for what it is?' And if you do this, people will look at you oddly and wonder what the devil you are talking about...you're going to find yourself alienated from the people around you-friends, family, past associates, and so on," (Pg 37)
             [4] Two fundamentally different stories have been enacted here during the lifetime of man: The story of the Leavers began to be enacted here some two or three million years ago and is still being enacted today as successfully as ever, and the story of the Takers began to be enacted here some ten or twelve thousand years ago and is apparently about to end in catastrophe. (Pg 41)
             [5] The story of man is a myth. (Pg 58)
             [6] According to the Taker creation myth, the world was made for man to conquer and rule, and under human rule it was meant to become a paradise, but tragically he was born flawed so his paradise has always been spoiled by stupidity, greed, destructiveness, and shortsightedness. He might be able to do something about this if he knew how he ought to live, but he doesn't-and he never will, because no knowledge about that is obtainable. So, however hard man might labor to turn the world into a paradise, he's probably just go...