Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Only if we understand, can we care. Only if we care, we will help. Only if we help, we shall be saved.
The primate laugh is given in playful contexts, and as such has a strong similarity to the human laugh.
Well, in some ways we're not successful at all. We're destroying our home. That's not a bit successful.
We would much rather blame nature for what we don't like in ourselves than credit it for what we do like.
You should know as much as you can about the human species if you have a hand in designing human society.
Lasting change is a series of compromises. And compromise is all right, as long your values don't change.
Religion may have become a codification of morality, and it may fortify it, but it's not the origin of it.
If both parties have a stake in the other, the chances of them killing each other are going to be reduced.
One thing I had learned from watching chimpanzees with their infants is that having a child should be fun.
Science demands objective factual evidence - proof; spiritual experience is subjective and leads to faith.
The role of inequity in society is grossly underestimated. Inequity is not good for your health, basically.
Other people have talked about chimpanzees being a window into the past, which I suppose is true, in a way.
Certainly, if you look at human behavior around the world, you have to admit that we can be very aggressive.
Mainly because as women's education increases all around the planet, we find that family size tends to drop.
Here we are, the most clever species ever to have lived. So how is it we can destroy the only planet we have?
We could change the world tomorrow if all the millions of people around the world acted the way they believe.
Male chimpanzees have an extraordinarily strong drive for dominance. They're constantly jockeying for position.
Never be arrogant or abrasive. Treat your opponent respectfully if they really and truly believe they are right.
Chimps act the way they feel unless they are afraid of reprisal if they do so. But that doesn't apply to humans.
In a very unscientific statement, I feel that there's been a disconnect between this clever brain and the heart.
What makes us human, I think, is an ability to ask questions, a consequence of our sophisticated spoken language.
We, as humans, have actually developed a sense of social responsibility. We have gone beyond our basic instincts.
I love to write - it is a great source of reflection, especially as I continue to meet many new inspiring people.
Chimps are very quick to have a sudden fight or aggressive episode, but they're equally as good at reconciliation.
A chimpanzee who is really gearing up for a fight doesn't waste time with gestures but just goes ahead and attacks.
We are unique. Chimpanzees are unique. Dogs are unique. But we humans are just not as different as we used to think.
Of course we're all programmed genetically to some extent. But the "selfish gene" thesis doesn't explain everything.
It was because the chimps are so eye-catching, so like us and teach us so much that my work was recognised worldwide.
Animals were my passion from even before I could speak apparently. When I was about 10, 11 I fell in love with Tarzan.
You're thinking about putting scientists into small cages and doing research on them. I wish it could happen sometimes.
I think anything is better than war. The extent to which one can negotiate with fanatics, I have no idea. I don't know.
You can't do everything. You can't do health and forestry and agriculture. You've got to focus and do one or the other.
There is little evidence that other animals judge the appropriateness of actions that do not directly affect themselves.
Primates are very territorial. It is in their nature to protect their food resources as well as their females and young.
When you borrow you plan to pay back. We're stealing from our children - so many people have no intention of paying back.
At some point, my body will collapse. But I hope that my brain will still be working so that I can carry on with writing.
I was even accused of teaching the chimps how to fish for termites which I mean that would have been such a brilliant coup.
Change happens by listening and then starting a dialogue with the people who are doing something you don't believe is right.
If we could just stop building up armies and things like that, we would have all the money we need for wildlife and poverty.
I always loved animals. And when I was ten, I decided I had to go to Africa and live with animals and write books about them.
The enemy of science is not religion... . The true enemy is the substitution of thought, reflection, and curiosity with dogma.
We are by far the most contradictory of all primates. An animal with this much internal conflict has never lived on this earth.
Personally, I think it is possible to build a society that is moral on a nonreligious basis, but the jury is still out on that.
When someone brutally kills someone else, we call him "animalistic." But we consider ourselves "human" when we give to the poor.
We need to separate the process of evolution - which is, indeed, a self-serving process - and the actual motivations of animals.
There's a long tradition in Western thought that humans are not shackled by biology, whereas animals are pure instinct machines.
Armies are a purely human invention. Most soldiers who go to war nowadays don't even do it because they're inherently aggressive.
As a child, we couldn't afford holidays overseas, so instead I travelled through books. I was inspired by Dr Dolittle and Tarzan.
I had a wonderful teacher about animal behavior - my dog Rusty. He taught me that animals have personalities, minds, and feelings.
I think we're still in a muddle with our language, because once you get words and a spoken language it gets harder to communicate.