The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness

by Sy Montgomery

animals “are not brethren, they are not underlings” but beings “gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear.”

Yet a bite is proof of a kind of contact that—even when it goes wrong—at a time when most people are increasingly isolated from the natural world, we are privileged to experience.

For who would want to leave this vast, teeming blue world? Surely its waters could wash away all sorrows, heal all brokenness, restore all souls.

Love is that ancient, that pure, that lasting. It has persisted through billions of species, through millions of years. No wonder the sages say that love never dies.