Mark Kurlansky Quotes

• Man wants to see nature and evolution as separate from human activities. There is a natural world, and there is man. But man also belongs to the natural world. If he is a ferocious predator, that too is part of evolution. If cod and haddock and other species cannot survive because man kills them, something more adaptable will take their place. Nature, the ultimate pragmatist, doggedly searches for something that works. But as the cockroach demonstrates, what works best in nature does not always appeal to us.

  Mark Kurlansky

  Men, Cockroaches, Doe

  45 Copy quote

• Food is a central activity of mankind and one of the single most significant trademarks of a culture.

  Mark Kurlansky

  Food, Cooking, Culture

  31 Copy quote

• If ever there was a fish made to endure, it is the Atlantic cod... But it has among its predators - man, an openmouthed species greedier than cod.

  Mark Kurlansky

  Men, Lakes, Sea

  Mark Kurlansky (1998). “Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World”, p.35, Penguin

  10 Copy quote

• The history of the Americas is one of constant warfare over salt.

  Mark Kurlansky

  Warfare, Salt, Constant

  Mark Kurlansky (2003). “Salt: A World History”, p.136, Penguin

  7 Copy quote

• Food is about agriculture, about ecology, about man's relationship with nature, about the climate, about nation-building, cultural struggles, friends and enemies, alliances, wars, religion. It is about memory and tradition and, at times, even about sex.

  Mark Kurlansky

  Sex, Memories, War

  Mark Kurlansky (2013). “Choice Cuts”, p.10, Random House

  13 Copy quote

• modern people have seen too many chemicals and are ready to go back to eating dirt.

  Mark Kurlansky

  People, Dirt, Eating

  Mark Kurlansky (2003). “Salt: A World History”, p.294, Penguin

  7 Copy quote

• In nineteenth-century Russia, sauerkraut was valued more than caviar.

  Mark Kurlansky

  Russia, Caviar, Century

  Mark Kurlansky (2003). “Salt: A World History”, p.272, Penguin

  10 Copy quote

• In every age, people are certain that only the things they have deemed valuable have true value. The search for love and the search for wealth are always the two best stories. But while a love story is timeless, the story of a quest for wealth, given enough time, will always seem like the vain pursuit of a mirage.

  Mark Kurlansky

  Love, Two, People

  Mark Kurlansky (2003). “Salt: A World History”, p.15, Penguin

  7 Copy quote

• Judging foods without regard to price is a rich mans game, and yet poor people can be gourmets able to discern a good potato from a bad one.

  Mark Kurlansky

  Food, Games, People

  Mark Kurlansky (2013). “Choice Cuts”, p.26, Random House

  10 Copy quote

• Fate likes to tease paranoids.'

  Mark Kurlansky

  Fate, Likes, Tease

  8 Copy quote

• Chloride is essential for digestion and in respiration. Without sodium, which the body cannot manufacture, the body would be unable to transport nutrients or oxygen, transmit nerve impulses, or move muscles, including the heart.

  Mark Kurlansky

  Moving, Heart, Oxygen

  Mark Kurlansky (2003). “Salt: A World History”, p.11, Penguin

  16 Copy quote

• THE ROMANS SALTED their greens, believing this to counteract the natural bitterness, which is the origin of the word salad, salted.

  Mark Kurlansky

  Believe, Salad, Bitterness

  Mark Kurlansky (2003). “Salt: A World History”, p.48, Penguin

  7 Copy quote

• I did not realize at the time, as I have discovered since, that anyone who attempts any thing original in this world must expect a bit of ridicule. Clarence Birdseye

  Mark Kurlansky

  Bird, World, Realizing

  Mark Kurlansky (2012). “Birdseye: The Adventures of a Curious Man”, p.42, Anchor

  7 Copy quote

• There is a dreamlike quality to the 1936 Basque government, the fulfillment of a historic longing that was to be crushed only nine months later in carnage the scale of which had never before been seen on earth.

  Mark Kurlansky

  Government, Quality, Earth

  6 Copy quote

• The egg creams of Avenue A in New York and the root beer float....are among the high points of American gastronomic inventiveness.

  Mark Kurlansky

  New York, Food, Beer

  16 Copy quote

• A gourmet knows that the best part is not always the expensive part, and he will find that part, and then he will share it. A gourmet should want to share.

  Mark Kurlansky

  Food, Gourmet, Want

  Mark Kurlansky (2013). “Choice Cuts”, p.26, Random House

  16 Copy quote

• In 'The Republic' he [Plato] states that the enjoyment of food is not a true pleasure because the purpose of eating is to relieve pain - hunger.

  Mark Kurlansky

  Pain, Plato, Food

  Mark Kurlansky (2013). “Choice Cuts”, p.24, Random House

  6 Copy quote

• A superpower that no longer stands for anything, that no one believes in anymore, that is seen only as a bully, will fall despite its military might. If the Bush administration ever wanted to reflect on history, it might think about this.

  Mark Kurlansky

  Military, Believe, Fall

  8 Copy quote

• Nature, the ultimate pragmatist, doggedly searches for something that works. But as the cockroach demonstrates, what works best in nature does not always appeal to us.

  Mark Kurlansky

  Cockroaches, Doe, Pragmatists

  Mark Kurlansky (2011). “Cod”, p.204, Random House

  4 Copy quote

• Whenever I was called a gourmet, I suspected I was being accused of something at least slightly unpleasant. But that was before I heard the term "foodie." I am still not sure that a gourmet is a good thing to be, but it must be better than a foodie.

  Mark Kurlansky

  Food, Gourmet, Good Things

  Mark Kurlansky (2013). “Choice Cuts”, p.23, Random House

  6 Copy quote

• In spite of muzzling the press, imprisoning thousands, and engaging in torture, kidnapping and murder, the Socialist government was still vulnerable to the accusation of being "soft on Basques.

  Mark Kurlansky

  Socialist Government, Murder, Vulnerable

  Mark Kurlansky (2010). “The Basque History of the World”, p.294, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

  6 Copy quote

• A true gourmet - a judge - has the wisdom to know when to stop eating.

  Mark Kurlansky

  Food, Judging, Gourmet

  6 Copy quote

• A Wedding In Haiti is a great experience and its unaffected prose is as true a portrait of complex Haiti as you will find.

  Mark Kurlansky

  Portraits, Haiti, Great Experiences

  4 Copy quote

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