Inspiration and beauty can be found in the most unlikely of sources.
I’ve found it in the world of mushrooms and I’m going to share it with you!
The following mushroom quotes that I collected from various online sources will show you that fungi are not just nature’s wonders, but also symbols of growth, transformation, and hidden wisdom.
Let’s get down to business!
Top 10 Mushroom Quotes
1. “Falling in love is like eating mushrooms, you never know if it’s the real thing until it’s too late.” — Bill Ballance
2. “On the subject of wild mushrooms, it is easy to tell who is an expert and who is not: The expert is the one who is still alive.” — Donal Henahan
3. “Thou fool! Nature alone is antique, and the oldest art a mushroom; that idle crag thou sittest on is six thousand years of age.” — Thomas Carlyle
4. “I am… a mushroom; On whom the dew of heaven drops now and then.” — John Ford
5. “But love, like a mushroom high compared with the buzz from cheap weed, outlasts grief.” — Miriam Toews
6. “The rain increases and umbrellas sprout like mushrooms amongst the graves.” — Erin Morgenstern
See also: 200 Best Rain Captions For Instagram To Rock Your Post!
7. “Money isn’t like mushrooms in a forest — it doesn’t just pop up on its own, you know.” — Haruki Murakami
8. “If you do not know where the mushroom products you are consuming are grown, think twice before eating them.” — Paul Stamets
9. “From dead plant matter to nematodes to bacteria, never underestimate the cleverness of mushrooms to find new food!” — Paul Stamets
10. “I thought a forest was made up entirely of trees, but now I know that the foundation lies below ground, in the fungi.” — Derrick Jensen
Inspirational Quotes About Mushrooms
1. “You have to treat yourself like a mushroom to some degree, in order to keep on discovering things.” — Christian Bale
2. “A meal without mushrooms is like a day without rain.” — John Cage
3, “September is different from all other months. It is more magical. I feel the strange chemical change in the earth which produces mushrooms is the cause, too, of the extra ‘life’ in the air – a resilience, a sparkle.” — Katherine Mansfield
See also: 90 Inspiring September Quotes On The Magic Of Early Fall
4. “You must grow like a tree, not like a mushroom” — Janet Erskine Stuart
5. “The world is a skyscraper! Don’t always stay on the same floor! Go upstairs, go downstairs; visit the lives of other tenants! Visit eagles; visit mushrooms!” ― Mehmet Murat ildan
6. “If a healthy soil is full of death, it is also full of life: worms, fungi, microorganisms of all kinds — Given only the health of the soil, nothing that dies is dead for very long.” — Wendell Berry
7. “A truly good book is something as wildly natural and primitive, mysterious and marvelous, ambrosial and fertile as a fungus or a lichen.” — Henry David Thoreau
8. “Fungi constitute the most poorly understood and underappreciated kingdom of life on Earth.” — Michael Pollan
9. “But time in only another liar, so go along the wall a little further: if blackberries prove bitter there’ll be mushrooms, fairy-ring mushrooms in the grass, sweetest of all fungi.” — William Carlos Williams
10. “The sudden appearance of mushrooms after a summer rain is one of the more impressive spectacles of the plant world.” — John Tyler Bonner
11. “Never crowd a pan with too many mushrooms. They give off an enormous amount of moisture. And there’s nothing worse than a braised mushroom, other than a lot of braised mushrooms.” — Simon Schama
12. “I look forward to the spring vegetables because the season is so short. Mushrooms, edible foraged herbs, wild leeks, early season asparagus.” — David Chang
13. “Maitake mushrooms are known in Japan as “the dancing mushroom.” According to a Japanese legend, a group of Buddhist nuns and woodcutters met on a mountain trail, where they discovered a fruiting of maitake mushrooms emerging from the forest floor. Rejoicing at their discovery of this delicious mushroom, they danced to celebrate.” — Paul Stamets
14. “I look at trees, hunt mushrooms, and watch animals. Fishing is what gets me out into the woods so I can notice these things.” — John D. Voelker
15. “But surprises were nothing new to her. Like opening a can of mushroom soup and finding tomato instead; be grateful and eat it anyway.” — Sarah Addison Allen
16. “The cookery books will give you a thousand finicky devices, mushrooms in this, mushrooms in that, but there is only one way — to fry them, simply with bacon, until they swim in their black fragrant juice.” ― H.E. Bates
17. “Rodin picks a mushroom delighted, and shows it to Madame Rodin… “Look,” he says excitedly, “and that takes but a single night! In one night all these are made, all these lamellas. That is good work.”” — Juan Ramon Jimenez
18. “In love, if you can say things that give the magical air and the beauty of the forest mushrooms, then what you say will definitely fascinate the person you love!” ― Mehmet Murat ildan
19. “I love portobello mushrooms. I often say that if I were a vegetarian, I would live off of these. Now, it would never happen, but it’s still nice to know that they exist. So meaty, so flavorful.” — Chrissy Teigen
20. “If you feel all damp and lonely like a mushroom, find the thick, creamy soup of joyfulness and just dive into it in order to make life tastier.” ― Munia Khan
Short Mushroom Quotes
1. “Life is too short to stuff a mushroom.” — Shirley Conran
2. “You’re not a man, you’re a mushroom!” — Antoine de Saint-Exupery
3. “Mushrooms can be very fancy. It’s the closest you can get to eating dirt.” — Tom Colicchio
4. “Fungi are the interface organisms between life and death.” — Paul Stamets
5. “Existence has overpowered Books. Today I slew a Mushroom.” — Emily Dickinson
6. “We don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.” — Condoleezza Rice
7. “I’m just some lunatic macaroni mushroom, is that it?” — Joe Pesci
8. “Mycelium is Earth’s natural Internet.” — Paul Stamets
9. “Wherever there were horses or ponies the mushrooms always sprang up.” — Edna O’Brien
10. “Attend to mushrooms and all other things will answer up.” — A. R. Ammons
Thought-Provoking Mushroom Quotes
1. “I’ve always thought fairies are like mushrooms, you trip over them when you’re not thinking about them, but they’re hard to spot when you’re searching for them.” — Jo Walton
2. “Advice is like mushrooms. The wrong kind can prove fatal.” — Charles E. McKenzie
3. “When God wants to make a mushroom, he does it overnight, but when He wants to make a giant oak, He takes a hundred years. Great souls are grown through struggles and storms and seasons of suffering. Be patient with the process.” — Rick Warren
4. “Look around when you have got your first mushroom or made your first discovery: they grow in clusters.” — George Polya
5. “But one day we shall be rich, and the next poor. One day we shall dine in a palace and the next we’ll sit in a forest and toast mushrooms on a hatpin.” — Katherine Mansfield
6. “If you treat your employees like mushrooms (keep them in the dark and regularly throw crap on them), it’s entirely likely you will get precisely the work you deserve in return.” — Seth Godin
7. “…but I also can’t prove that mushrooms could not be intergalactic spaceships spying on us.” — Daniel Dennett
8. “Can you understand your own dreams, which arise with mushrooms’ rank richness in the night forests within your skull?” — William T. Vollmann
9. “It’s interesting to try to imagine how early humans discovered what was edible and what wasn’t. How many people had to die before the relative toxicity of wild mushrooms became widely known?” — Kate Christensen
10. “People like to keep their little secrets to themselves. It’s like growing mushrooms in the cellar and running down to take a look at them now and then.” — Marjorie Kellogg
11. “Could any symbol be any more appropriate of the ambiguity of human transformation? What mushroom is it that grows at the end of history? Is it Stropharia cubensis, or is it the creation of Edward Teller? This is an unresolved problem.” — Terence McKenna
12. “Chaga is one of the weirdest mushrooms you may ever see. A fungal parasite found on birch trees, Chaga is a hardened, blackened, crusty formation that looks like a bursting tumor.” — Paul Stamets
13. “Well, a peach has a lovely taste and so does a mushroom, but you can’t put the two together.” — Arthur Golden
14. “The TSA must think we’re mushrooms. You know, the way they are trying to keep us in the dark, and the way they keep feeding us a fertilizing agent that comes from the south end of a north-bound cow.” — Douglas Wilson
15. “The very idea of true patriotism is lost, and the term has been prostituted to the very worst of purposes. A patriot, sir! Why, patriots spring up like mushrooms!” — Robert Walpole
16. “If only one could tell true love from false love as one can tell mushrooms from toadstools. With mushrooms it is so simple – you salt them well, put them aside and have patience. But with love, you have no sooner lighted on anything that bears even the remotest resemblance to it than you are perfectly certain it is not only a genuine specimen, but perhaps the only genuine mushroom ungathered.” — Katherine Mansfield
17. “In all institutions from which the cold wind of open criticism is excluded, an innocent corruption begins to grow like a mushroom — for example, in senates and learned societies” — Friedrich Nietzsche
18. “I know a planet where there is a certain red-faced gentleman. He has never smelled a flower. He has never looked at a star. He has never loved anyone. He has never done anything in his life but add up figures. And all day he says over and over, just like you: ‘I am busy with matters of consequence!’ And that makes him swell up with pride. But he is not a man — he is a mushroom!” — Antoine de Saint-Exupery
19. “I see America spreading disaster. I see America as a black curse upon the world. I see a long night settling in and that mushroom which has poisoned the world withering at the roots.” — Henry Miller
20. “It’s as though a certain level of intoxication with the mushroom is the precondition for being able to communicate, but is not itself enough.” — Terence McKenna
21. “Nature delights in the most plain and simple diet. Every animal but man keeps to one dish. Herbs are the food of this species, fish of that, and flesh of a third. Man falls upon everything that comes in his way; not the smallest fruit or excrescence of the earth, scarce a berry or a mushroom can escape him.” — Joseph Addison
22. “Not being ambitious of martyrdom, even in the cause of gastronomical enterprise, especially if the instrument is to be a contemptible, rank-smelling fungus, I never eat or cook mushrooms.” — Mary Virginia Terhune
23. “Mushrooms were the roses in the garden of that unseen world because the real mushroom plant was underground. The parts you could see — what most people called a mushroom — was just a brief apparition. A cloud flower.” ― Margaret Atwood
24. “I have the same opinion of dances that physicians have of mushrooms: the best of them are good for nothing.” — Saint Francis de Sales
25. “Mushrooms grow in damp places. That’s why they are shaped like an umbrella.” — Alphonse Allias
Mushroom Madness Quotes
1. “If our mushrooms make you hallucinate, please inform us immediately so we can overcharge you.” — Scott Adams
2. “I’m glad mushrooms are against the law, because I took them one time, and you know what happened to me? I laid in a field of green grass for four hours going, “My God! I love everything.” — Bill Hicks
3. “One can only guess the amount of magic mushrooms a sane person would have to consume to believe that a frisbee constituted a genuine threat to roughly 3,000 police officers.” — Mark Thomas
4. “As many of you know, I came from San Francisco. We don’t have a lot of farms there. Well, we do have one — it’s a mushroom farm, so you know what that means.” — Nancy Pelosi
5. “If those dried-up little scraps of fungus taught me anything, it is that there are other stranger forms of consciousness available to us.” — Michael Pollan
6. “I learned more about psychology in the five hours after taking these mushrooms than in the preceding 15 years of studying and doing research in psychology.” — Timothy Leary
7. “Raising a child is like taking care of someone who’s on way too many shrooms, while you yourself are on a moderate amount of shrooms. I am not confident in my decisions, but I know you should not be eating a mousepad.” — Ron Funches
8. “I suppose the old natural stuff would be ok, the old mushroom, but I wouldn’t advise anyone to do it.” — Noel Redding
9. “I’ve never been a religious person. I’ve been a spiritual person since I was about 15, 16, when I was first introduced to Psilocybin [mushrooms]. That really opened me up to thinking about the universe in a different way, and coming to significant realizations about my connection to something greater than me.” — Macklemore
See also: 120 Best Spiritual Universe Quotes To Contemplate Life
10. “The only evil that associates itself with mushrooms is taking too little.” — Terence McKenna
11. “Do you think it’s possible that when we’re on something like marijuana or mushrooms and we believe we’re having a really spiritual experience that we’re just high?” — Bill Maher
12. “It’s interesting, isn’t it?… The chandelier… it reminds me of mushroom soup.” — Tennessee Williams
13. “This wasn’t Weirdville; this was fricking Wonderland. Alice here was all grown up, but she was still chowing down on too much of that psychedelic mushroom.” — Suzanne Brockmann
14. “I don’t like alcohol, but I still like to mess around with other stuff occasionally. I think it’s important I take mushrooms and acid. They’re certainly not addictive, so I can’t rule that out.” — Evan Dando
15. “Psilocybin can offer a means to reconnect to our true nature — our authentic self — and thereby help find meaning in our lives.” — Mary Cosimano
16. “The potential of the psychedelic drugs to provide access to the interior universe is, I believe, their most valuable property.” — Alexander Shulgin
17. “The history of human use of plants, mushrooms, and animals for their psychedelic effects is far older than written history, and probably predates the appearance of the modern human species.” — Rick Strassman
18. “I remember taking mushrooms at the wrap party, it was like the first and last time I took that.” — Pauly Shore
19. “What if, through responsible exploration with psychedelics, we free our minds? Free-thinkers are more difficult to manipulate and control, which begs the question: Why are psychedelics illegal?” — Zoe Helene
20. “Mushrooms grow on cow turds. I love that. I think that’s why you giggle the first hour.” — Bill Hicks
Quotes On Mushroom Health Benefits
1. “Consuming mushrooms regularly has been associated with decreased risk of breast, stomach, and colorectal cancers.” — Joel Fuhrman
2. “Vitamin D from mushrooms is not only vegan and vegetarian friendly, but you can prepare your own by exposing mushrooms to the summer sun.” — Paul Stamets
3. “Today, reishi stands out as one the most valuable of all polypore mushrooms in nature for the benefit of our health. Many naturopaths and doctors prefer organically-grown reishi from pristine environments because they are more pure.” — Paul Stamets
4. “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.” — Paul Stamets
5. “Through the genius of evolution, the Earth has selected fungal networks as a governing force managing ecosystems.” — Paul Stamets
6. “The very foundation of our ecosystems are directly dependent upon fungi, which ultimately create the foundation of soils.” — Paul Stamets
7. “Mushrooms have many helpful nutrients, including beta-glucans for immune enhancement, ergothioneines for antioxidative potentiation, nerve growth stimulators for helping brain function, and antimicrobial compounds for limiting viruses.” — Paul Stamets
8. “Lion’s Mane may be our first smart mushroom. It is a safe, edible fungus that appears to confer cognitive benefits on our aging population.” — Paul Stamets
9. “People are going to start realizing, why take those antibiotics that are extracts of mushrooms? Why not just have the mushrooms?” — David Wolfe
10. “The world depends on fungi because they are major players in the cycling of materials and energy around the world.” — E. O. Wilson
11. “Mushrooms are miniature pharmaceutical factories, and of the thousands of mushroom species in nature, our ancestors and modern scientists have identified several dozen that have a unique combination of talents that improve our health.” — Paul Stamets
12. “DNA ties us all together; we share ancestry with barracuda and bacteria and mushrooms, if you go far enough back.” — Spencer Wells
13. “The virus-to-cancer connection is where medicinal mushrooms offer unique opportunities for medical research.” — Paul Stamets
14. “Growing the mycelium of the Chaga mushroom under laboratory conditions provides an ecologically friendly alternative supply of this unique medicinal mushroom.” — Paul Stamets
15. “Enoki mushrooms, a tasty variety commonly sold in grocery stores, were one of the first mushrooms studied for preventing cancer.” — Paul Stamets
Funny Mushroom Quotes
1. “Don’t eat a mushroom stem and see colors, eat the whole bag and see GOD.” — Doug Stanhope
2. “Why did the mushroom go to the party? Because he’s a fungi!” — Louis Tomlinson
3. “Mushrooms are fungus, and fungus reminds me of feet, and I don’t eat feet.” — Soman Chainani
4. “Other kids are brought up nice and sent to Harvard and Yale. Me? I was brought up like a mushroom.” — Frank Costello
5. “I’m hoping that the more you see me, the more I’ll grow on you. Like a fungus?” — Charlaine Harris
6. “While appearing stern, mushrooms are really fun guys.” — Unknown
7. “All fungi are edible. Some fungi are only edible once.” — Terry Pratchett
8. “Kids are now eating things like edamame and sushi. I didn’t know what shiitake mushrooms were when I was 10 — most kids today do.” — Emeril Lagasse
9. “Marriage is like mushrooms: we notice too late if they are good or bad.” — Woody Allen
10. “I’m growing mushrooms… because I can’t kill them. They just keep multiplying…and it’s like…I’m in service to them.” ― Sharon Weil
Summing Up
As you could see in this collection of mushroom quotes, seeking inspiration from unexpected sources can leave you impressed and enlightened.
So, never underestimate the power of the natural world and the magic its organisms hold!
