60 Mushroom Quotes About the Sometimes Edible Fungus

These mushroom quotes will help you learn everything you ever wanted to know about the versatile fungi!

Humans have used mushrooms as a food source, a healing property, and even a psychedelic drug.

According to the Mushroom Council, mushrooms are the second-highest selling food in the United States, indicating their widespread popularity and culinary versatility. This underscores the significance of mushrooms in our diets and food culture

So, one of the biggest questions you might have is, are mushrooms a vegetable?

The answer is no, although they are commonly considered as one.

They are not plant or animal-based food. They are a type of fungus. 

While that may not sound very appealing, any chef will tell you they add richness and flavor to various dishes.

Mushrooms are also great to just through on a salad! Aside from making a dish taste better, there are several health reasons to eat mushrooms.

Mushrooms contain ergosterol, which transforms into Vitamin D when exposed to UV light.

They are also a source of phosphorus, B vitamins, and Potassium.

Besides these benefits, mushrooms also demonstrate antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancer properties. 

This explains why they have been used for medicinal purposes!

However, not every shroom is good for you, as you will see if you keep reading through these mushroom quotes.

If you love this quote collection, read out our most popular quote article about short inspirational quotes for daily motivation. 

If you need more inspirational quotes, check out our motivational quotes category page.

Short mushroom quotes

According to a survey by the Mushroom Growers of North America, over 90% of American households consume mushrooms regularly, indicating the widespread popularity and familiarity of mushrooms in American culture.

This underscores the cultural significance of mushrooms and their role in culinary traditions.

Mushrooms are usually pretty short—with the average length of a mushroom ranging from 2 to 12 inches. These mushroom quotes are also pretty short, coming in at 19 words or fewer!

1. “Life is too short to stuff a mushroom.” — Shirley Conran

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2. “A meal without mushrooms is like a day without rain.” — John Cage

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3. “You must grow like a tree, not like a mushroom.” — Janet Erskine Stuart

4. “Nature alone is antique, and the oldest art a mushroom.” — Thomas Carlyle

5. “Mushrooms are fungus, and fungus reminds me of feet, and I don’t eat feet.” — Soman Chainani

6. “Mushrooms grow in damp places. That’s why they are shaped like an umbrella.” — Alphonse Allias

7. “The rain increases and umbrellas sprout like mushrooms amongst the graves.” — Erin Morgenstern

8. “Fungi constitute the most poorly understood and underappreciated kingdom of life on Earth.” — Michael Pollan

9. “If only one could tell true love from false love as one can tell mushrooms from toadstools.” — Katherine Mansfield

10. “Well, a peach has a lovely taste and so does a mushroom, but you can’t put the two together.” — Arthur Golden

Things that are ‘like mushrooms’ quotes

According to a study by the University of Pennsylvania, mushrooms have been used for medicinal purposes in traditional Chinese and Japanese medicine for centuries, indicating the longstanding cultural and historical significance of mushrooms as a source of health and wellness.

This underscores the cultural and historical importance of mushrooms.

Who knew there were so many things you could compare with a mushroom! Some of these are funny, while others are actually rather insightful.

11. “Advice is like mushrooms. The wrong kind can prove fatal.” — Charles E. McKenzie

12. “Marriage is like mushrooms: we notice too late if they are good or bad.” — Woody Allen

13. “But love, like a mushroom high compared with the buzz from cheap weed, outlasts grief.” — Miriam Toews

14. “Falling in love is like eating mushrooms; you never know if it’s the real thing until it’s too late.” — Bill Ballance

15. “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

16. “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

17. “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

18. “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

19. “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

20. “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

Getting high on mushroom quotes

There are over 100 species of mushrooms that contain psilocybin, a psychedelic prodrug compound. Your body converts it to psilocin, which can mimic the effects of LSD and DMT. 

21. “The only evil that associates itself with mushrooms is taking too little.” — Terence McKenna

22. “Don’t eat a mushroom stem and see colors, eat the whole bag and see GOD.” — Doug Stanhope

23. “If our mushrooms make you hallucinate, please inform us immediately so we can overcharge you.” — Scott Adams

24. “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

25. “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

26. “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

27. “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

28. “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

29. “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

30. “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.” Yeah, now, if that isn’t a hazard to our country… How are we gonna justify arms dealing when we realize that we’re all one?” — Bill Hicks

31. “It’s a weird experience when you’re just trying to talk openly about how you think psychedelic drugs and marijuana are beneficial, or a lot of different drugs, especially plant-based ones, can be beneficial. Especially those ones that have some connection to organic life, I feel like you can learn something from them, from mushrooms, from peyote, from marijuana. They can be used as a tool.” — Joe Rogan

32. “No wonder psychedelics are threatening to an authoritarian religious hierarchy. You don’t need faith to benefit from a psychedelic experience, let alone a priest or even a shaman to interpret it. What you need is courage—courage to drink the brew, eat the mushroom, or whatever it is, and then to pay attention and make of it what you will. Suddenly, the tools for direct contact with the transcendent other (whether you call it God or something else) is taken from the hands of an anointed elite and given to the individual seeker.” — Dennis McKenna

Mushroom quotes from mycologist Paul Stamets

American mycologist Paul Stamets is also an entrepreneur who sells various mushroom products. He is also an author and had significant involvement in the 2019 documentary Fantastic Fungi. 

33. “From dead plant matter to nematodes to bacteria, never underestimate the cleverness of mushrooms to find new food!” — Paul Stamets

34. “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

35. “Enoki mushrooms, a tasty variety commonly sold in grocery stores, were one of the first mushrooms studied for preventing cancer.” — Paul Stamets

36. “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

37. “Although the trends are promising and reishi mushrooms exhibit a number of interesting medicinal properties, modern scientific techniques have yet to affirm its traditional ‘panacea polypore’ status.” — Paul Stamets

38. “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

39. “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

40. “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

41. “Known colloquially as ‘winter,’ ‘golden needle,’ and ‘velvet foot’ mushrooms, enoki mushrooms grow across much of the world, inhabiting dead conifer trees and stumps and generally appearing throughout the late fall and winter months.” — Paul Stamets

42. “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

43. “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

More mushroom quotes to expand your thinking

These mushroom quotes will shed some more light on mushrooms and expand your knowledge. 

44. “All fungi are edible. Some fungi are only edible once.” — Terry Pratchett

45. “Money isn’t like mushrooms in a forest—it doesn’t just pop up on its own, you know.” — Haruki Murakami

46. “You have to treat yourself like a mushroom to some degree, in order to keep on discovering things.” — Christian Bale

47. “People are going to start realizing, why take those antibiotics that are extracts of mushrooms? Why not just have the mushrooms?” — David Wolfe

48. “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

49. “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

50. “Everything that is great in life is the product of slow growth; the newer, and greater, and higher, and nobler the work, the slower is its growth, the surer is its lasting success. Mushrooms attain their full power in a night; oaks require decades. A fad lives its life in a few weeks; a philosophy lives through generations and centuries.” — William George Jordan

51. “I experimented with weed, Ecstasy, mushrooms and mescaline for about a year and a half.” ― Melissa Joan Hart

52. “I have the same opinion of dances that physicians have of mushrooms: the best of them are good for nothing.” ― Saint Francis de Sales

53. “If you do not know where the mushroom products you are consuming are grown, think twice before eating them.” ― Paul Stamets

54. “I look forward to the spring vegetables because the season is so short. Mushrooms, edible foraged herbs, wild leeks, early season asparagus.” ― David Chang

55. “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

56. “Come on sempai, would you please stop growing mushrooms in other people’s closets? -Haruhi” ― Bisco Hatori

57. “Compared to a novel, a film is like an economy pizza where there are no olives, no ham, no anchovies, no mushrooms, and all you’ve got is the dough.” ― Louis de Bernieres

58. “One mushroom cloud would change history. My deepest fear is that this is exactly what they [Al Qaeda] intend.” ― George Tenet

59. “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

60. “The virus-to-cancer connection is where medicinal mushrooms offer unique opportunities for medical research.” ― Paul Stamets

Not all mushrooms are good for you

While some mushrooms might help you be healthier, others are poisonous and can kill you.

The Death Cap is arguably the deadliest known mushroom. It does closely resemble the straw and caesar’s mushrooms.

A good rule of thumb is never to eat a mushroom you find in the wild.

Other dangerous mushrooms include Conocybe Filaris, Webcaps, Autumn Skullcaps, Destroying Angels, Podostroma Cornu-Damae, and Deadly Dapperling. 

Make sure you know what kind of mushroom you are about to consume and if it will have any adverse effects.

Just because a mushroom might make you high (and not kill you) doesn’t mean it is legal or safe. 

If you have any other mushroom quotes you would like to share with us, you can leave them in the comment section below.