Taggen Frans Quotes

To broaden your horizon, take a step forward. ~ Frans Hiddema

We need falsifications to make the past inhabitable. ~ Frans Kellendonk

[ ... ] the best guarantee for world peace would be an extraterrestrial enemy. ~ Frans De Waal

Animals should be given a chance to express their natural behavior. ~ Frans De Waal

Ernst Mayr characterized the Cartesian view of animals as dumb automatons.2 ~ Frans De Waal

This suggests that for our species, too, the cerebellum is critically important.63 ~ Frans De Waal

Would we have evolved the same technical skills and intelligence without these supremely versatile appendages? ~ Frans De Waal

One aspect we might focus on during this moratorium is an alternative to overly cerebral approaches. ~ Frans De Waal

Ethology's focus was on behavior that develops naturally in all members of a given species. ~ Frans De Waal

Rather than reflecting an immutable human nature, morals are closely tied to the way we organize ourselves. ~ Frans De Waal

Charles Darwin himself had written a whole tome about the parallels between human and animal emotional expressions. ~ Frans De Waal

Food-deprived chickens that were not particularly good at noticing the finer distinctions of a maze task.5 ~ Frans De Waal

I consider dogmatism a far greater threat than religion per se. ~ Frans De Waal

A species's cognition is generally as good as what it needs for its survival. ~ Frans De Waal

En route to such trees and get up before dawn, something they normally hate to do. ~ Frans De Waal

Denmark has incredibly low crime rates, and parents feel that what a child needs most is frisk luft, or fresh air. The ~ Frans De Waal

What is the largest land mammal doing with three times as many neurons as our own species? ~ Frans De Waal

Drosophila has long been our main workhorse in genetics, yielding insight in the relation between chromosomes and genes. ~ Frans De Waal

American naturalist William Morton Wheeler made the English term popular as the study of "habits and instincts."11 ~ Frans De Waal

The best ideas emerge when very different perspectives meet. ~ Frans Johansson

Sociobiology, E. O. Wilson ~ Frans De Waal

Conventions are often surrounded with the solemn language of morality, but in fact they have little to do with it. ~ Frans De Waal

It's up to us as photographers to give voice to the natural world. ~ Frans Lanting

In other words, both macaques and rats volunteer for tests only when they feel confident, suggesting that they know their own knowledge. ~ Frans De Waal

If I were God, I'd work on the reach of empathy. ~ Frans De Waal

We are so logic-driven that we can't stand the absence of it. ~ Frans De Waal

Would anyone test the memory of human children by throwing them into a swimming pool to see if they remember where to get out? Yet ~ Frans De Waal

The common argument that men are naturally polygamous and women naturally monogamous is as full of holes as Swiss cheese. ~ Frans De Waal

Studies of reconciliation in primates have demonstrated that if the relationship value increases between two parties they are more willing to make peace. ~ Frans De Waal

Lorenz was the charismatic, flamboyant thinker - he didn't conduct a single statistical analysis in his life - while Tinbergen did the nitty-gritty of actual data collection. ~ Frans De Waal

They were generally run by young men who mocked authority and preached egalitarianism yet had no qualms about ordering everyone else around and stealing their comrades' girlfriends. ~ Frans De Waal

Man is always so," said Father Willibald, "be he heathen or baptized; content with his lot only as long as he meets no neighbor who possesses more. ~ Frans G. Bengtsson

The hamadryas baboon is a harem holder where one male mates with multiple females. ~ Frans De Waal

It is said that man is wolf to man. I find this very unfair to wolves. ~ Frans De Waal

Humanity is actually much more cooperative and empathic than [it's] given credit for. ~ Frans De Waal

In other words, what is salient to us - such as our own facial features - may not be salient to other species. ~ Frans De Waal

Their earlier poor performance had had more to do with the way they were tested than with their mental powers. Elephants ~ Frans De Waal

This is more like the scientists I know. Authority outweighs evidence, at least for as long as the authority lives. ~ Frans De Waal

Socialism cannot function, because its economic reward structure is contrary to human nature. ~ Frans De Waal

Nearly every major breakthrough innovation has been preceded by a string of failed or misguided executions. ~ Frans Johansson

There are many reasons for kindness, and religion is just one of them. ~ Frans De Waal

When you step into an intersection of fields, disciplines, or cultures, you can combine existing concepts into a large number of extraordinary ideas. ~ Frans Johansson

Very ancient parts of the brain are involved in moral decision making. ~ Frans De Waal

Everyone we regard as brilliant has endured an enormous amount of failure. ~ Frans Johansson

Chimps don't have language. Humans actively instruct others about how things should be done. Chimpanzees probably pick up cultural traditions by observation. ~ Frans De Waal

Cognition is the mental transformation of sensory input into knowledge about the environment and the flexible application of this knowledge. ~ Frans De Waal

One of the risks related to an environment marked by high rates of unemployment, low rates of economic growth, and poor education is that it may serve as a breeding ground for radical sentiment. ~ Frans Cronje

Jolted by a twentyfold increase in testosterone, a bull changes into a sort of spinach-eating Popeye, a self-confident jerk ready to fight anyone in his path. ~ Frans De Waal

A wise man, once he is past fifty, does not befuddle his senses with strong drink, nor make violent love in the cool spring night, nor dance on his hands. ~ Frans G. Bengtsson

When we see a disciplined society, there is often a social hierarchy behind it. This hierarchy, which determines who can eat or mate first, is ultimately rooted in violence. ~ Frans De Waal

Aristotle's scala naturae, which runs from God, the angels, and humans at the top, downward to other mammals, birds, fish, insects, and mollusks at the bottom. ~ Frans De Waal

It was not even necessary for people to know how to sing to be considered rock musicians. Bob Dylan had no clue, but that did not stop him from becoming one of the greatest artists ever. ~ Frans Johansson

There's a long tradition in Western thought that humans are not shackled by biology, whereas animals are pure instinct machines. ~ Frans De Waal

There's actually a lot of evidence in primates and other animals that they return favors. ~ Frans De Waal

Male chimpanzees have an extraordinarily strong drive for dominance. They're constantly jockeying for position. ~ Frans De Waal

There has been so much underestimating of animal cognition that to perhaps overestimate it, as I probably do, is probably a healthy reaction. ~ Frans De Waal

The thinking is that we started evolving language not by speaking but by gesturing. ~ Frans De Waal

I'm personally a nonbeliever, so I'm struggling with if we really need religion. ~ Frans De Waal

The sturdiest pillars of human morality are compassion and a sense of justice. ~ Frans De Waal

Future benefits rarely figure in the minds of animals. ~ Frans De Waal

We would much rather blame nature for what we don't like in ourselves than credit it for what we do like. ~ Frans De Waal

Our brains have been designed to blur the line between self and other. It is an ancient neural circuitry that marks every mammal, from mouse to elephant. ~ Frans De Waal

In every language, labels for adulterous women are far worse than those for similarly adventurous men. When a woman is a "a slut," a man is merely a skirt chaser. ~ Frans De Waal

The enemy of science is not religion ... The true enemy is the substitution of thought, reflection, and curiosity with dogma. ~ Frans De Waal

Status competition and the opportunistic making and breaking of alliances that marks political strife. For this, we have to go to the males, also in the elephant. For ~ Frans De Waal

Armies are a purely human invention. Most soldiers who go to war nowadays don't even do it because they're inherently aggressive. ~ Frans De Waal

Male bonobos really don't fit the human male ideal. ~ Frans De Waal

The Galapagos Islands provide a window on time. In a geologic sense, the islands are young, yet they appear ancient. ~ Frans Lanting

In a world divided by chimpophiles and bonobophiles, we all had a good laugh when Stephen peeled his banana. (62) ~ Frans De Waal

Biodiversity starts in the distant past and it points toward the future. ~ Frans Lanting

The role of inequity in society is grossly underestimated. Inequity is not good for your health, basically. ~ Frans De Waal

Experiments with animals have long been handicapped by our anthropocentric attitude: We often test them in ways that work fine with humans but not so well with other species. ~ Frans De Waal

Such cases deserve attention since they show that apes do not have to be prompted by experimental conditions concocted by us humans to plan for the future. They do so of their own accord. ~ Frans De Waal

Morality, after all, has nothing to do with selflessness. On the contrary, self-interest is precisely the basis of the categorical imperative. ~ Frans De Waal

We need to separate the process of evolution - which is, indeed, a self-serving process - and the actual motivations of animals. ~ Frans De Waal

He prefers to point with a stick and will go out of his way to bring one with him, thus anticipating our test and his self-invented need for a tool. But ~ Frans De Waal

Chimpanzees have very strong preferences and aversions that are completely personality-linked. The people who are unsuccessful in working with chimpanzees are those who take this personally. ~ Frans De Waal

Orm always afterwards used to say that, after good luck, strength, and skill at arms, nothing was so useful to a man who found himself among foreigners as the ability to learn a language. ~ Frans G. Bengtsson

Sultan would first jump or throw things at the banana or drag humans by the hand toward it in the hope that they'd help him out, or at least be willing to serve as a footstool. ~ Frans De Waal

The more self-aware an animal is, the more empathetic it tends to be. ~ Frans De Waal

The label derives from comparative psychology, the name of a field that traditionally has viewed animals as mere stand-ins for humans: a monkey is a simplified human, a rat a simplified monkey, and so ~ Frans De Waal

Moreover, not unlike presidential candidates who hold babies up in the air as soon as the cameras are rolling, male chimps vying for power develop a sudden interest in infants, which they hold and tickle in order ~ Frans De Waal

Dog owners who stare into their pet's eyes experience a rapid increase in oxytocin - a neuropeptide involved in attachment and bonding. Exchanging gazes full of empathy and trust, we enjoy a special relationship with the dog.42 ~ Frans De Waal

Exclusive homosexuality is not very common in nature. ~ Frans De Waal

Ultimately these battles are about females, which means that the fundamental difference between our two closest relatives is that one resolves sexual issues with power, while the other resolves power issues with sex. ~ Frans De Waal

I think we need to start thinking about grounding our moral systems in our biology. ~ Frans De Waal

Competitiveness is just as much a part of our nature as empathy. The ideal, in my view, is a democratic system with a social market economy, because it takes both tendencies into account. ~ Frans De Waal

I heard word
Of bellied sailcloth,
Creak of oars,
And gold in Eastland.
Then I smelled
A smell remembered:
Salt of spray
And black-pitched boat's keel. ~ Frans G. Bengtsson

Without agreement on rank and a certain respect for authority there can be no great sensitivity to social rules, as anyone who has tried to teach simple house rules to a cat will agree. ~ Frans De Waal

Innovation comes ultimately from a diversity of perspectives. So when you combine ideas from different industries or different cultures, that's when you have the best sense of developing groundbreaking ideas. ~ Frans Johansson

The bonobo would first of all urge the atheist to stop "sleeping furiously." There is no point getting all worked up about the absence of something, especially something as open to interpretation as God. ~ Frans De Waal

Sometimes I read about someone saying with great authority that animals have no intentions and no feelings, and I wonder, 'Doesn't this guy have a dog?' ~ Frans De Waal

Very long ago our ancestors had moral systems. Our current institutions are only a couple of thousand years old, which is really not old in the eyes of a biologist. ~ Frans De Waal

Nature's my muse and it's been my passion. ~ Frans Lanting

Not unlike Lorenz's emphasis on knowing the whole animal, Imanishi urged us to empathize with the species under study. We need to get under its skin, he said, or as we would nowadays put it, try to enter its Umwelt. ~ Frans De Waal

Religion may have become a codification of morality, and it may fortify it, but it's not the origin of it. ~ Frans De Waal

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. ~ Frans De Waal

Of amazing intelligence, they learn quickly and remember easily with few repetitions. There is often an uncanny understanding of what is wanted and needed of them at any given time. Bred to love people, they bond very tightly to their owners.24 Instead ~ Frans De Waal

If you ask anyone, what is morality based on? These are the two factors that always come out: One is reciprocity, ... a sense of fairness, and the other one is empathy and compassion. ~ Frans De Waal

I describe in 'Chimpanzee Politics' how the alpha male needs broad support to reach the top spot. He needs some close allies and he needs many group members to be on his side. ~ Frans De Waal