1 Dwalin: I dinnae troost elementals. {translation: I don't trust elementals.}
1 Lambert: Why not?
2 Dwalin: It's nae natural for a pile o' base matter tae talk and thunk and move aroond by itself, ye ken? {translation: It's not natural for a pile of base matter to talk and think and move around by itself, you know?}
3 Lambert: You've basically described every living creature.
3 Dwalin: Not me!
4 Lambert: So you just talk and move around?
4 Dwalin: Aye! {translation: Yes!}

While searching for "base matter" within Wikipedia (it doesn't have an article on base matter itself), I stumbled across this rather interesting titbit. Cool if you like weird symbols and semi-occult symbology and stuff like that.

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2025-03-03 Rerun commentary: Doing a bit more searching on the concept of "base matter", I was surprised to find this Wikipedia page about one Georges Bataille, a French philosopher of the early 20th century. He developed a philosophy known as base materialism, which...

I'm not sure I can summarise it meaningfully in any fewer words than Wikipedia:

He argues for the concept of an active base matter that disrupts the opposition of high and low and destabilises all foundations. Inspired by Gnostic ideas, this notion of materialism defies strict definition and rationalisation.

Yeah, this is something like what Dwalin is thinking about here.