Paul Stamets Quotes

It's interesting to try to imagine how early humans discovered what was edible and what wasn't. Who figured out that when you cooked stinging nettles, the sting would go away completely? How many people had to die before the relative toxicity of wild mushrooms became widely known?

All experiment is made on a basis of tradition; all tradition is the crystallization of experiment.

You take the healthiest diet in the world, if you gave those people vitamins, they would be twice as healthy. So vitamins are valuable.

Studies perfect nature and are perfected still by experience.

Storytelling is a very old human skill that gives us an evolutionary advantage. If you can tell young people how you kill an emu, acted out in song or dance, or that Uncle George was eaten by a croc over there, don't go there to swim, then those young people don't have to find out by trial and error.

Of all mushrooms commonly consumed, oyster mushrooms in the genus Pleurotus stand out as exceptional allies for improving human and environmental health. These mushrooms enjoy a terrific reputation as the easiest to cultivate, richly nutritious and medicinally supportive.

Swiss chard is undervalued in Britain. It's a great substitute for spinach and keeps its shape well.

I think sometimes with the parsnip, people are maybe a little afraid and don't use it as often.

Ounce for ounce, herbs and spices have more antioxidants than any other food group.

There are a lot of nuts out there.

The term "whole grain" is not largely meaningless.

People underestimate the power of the root vegetable.

Chickweed is regarded by most gardeners as just that - a weed - but is excellent in sandwiches or salads.

They say breast milk helps just about everything - I'm surprised you can't run a car on it.

An ounce of breast milk is even more potent than the finest tequila.

Beer is amazing. Nutritional. Medicinal. A beverage, but also a meal.

It'd be a shame to stop now that I've started to make really good mistakes

I'm not focused on being perfect. I like trial and error. You learn through uncomfortable experiences. And now I know what doesn't work for me, and I know what does.

If everything you try works, you aren't trying hard enough.

Humans test their brand new wings and invent new possibilities using new-fangled things not with grim determination, but with play.

(I) try new things and give myself permission to fail and experiment because only that way can you get really successful.

It's to be expected that you make mistakes when you're breaking new ground.

Conformity can be costly in a world of uncertainty which requires innovative institutional creation because no one can know the right path to survival. Over time, the richer the cultural context in terms of providing multiple experimentation and creative competition, the more likely the successful survival of the society

To do something that you feel in your heart that's great, you need to make a lot of mistakes. Anything that's successful is a series of mistakes.

An old Apache storyteller reminds us