Vervroegen Frans Quotes

If you look at national economies today, for example, the American economy, the European economy, the Indians, the Chinese, we're all tied together. If one of them sinks, the rest are going to sink with them and if one floats, the rest are lifted up. I find that very interesting. ~ Frans De Waal

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

We start out postulating sharp boundaries, such as between humans and apes, or between apes and monkeys, but are in fact dealing with sand castles that lose much of their structure when the sea of knowledge washes over them. They turn into hills, leveled ever more, until we are back to where evolutionary theory always leads us: a gently sloping beach. ~ Frans De Waal

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

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 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

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

Popular culture bombards us with examples of animals being humanized for all sorts of purposes, ranging from education to entertainment to satire to propaganda. Walt Disney, for example, made us forget that Mickey is a mouse, and Donald a duck. George Orwell laid a cover of human societal ills over a population of livestock. ~ 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

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

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

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

Darwin wasn't just provocative in saying that we descend from the apes - he didn't go far enough. We are apes in every way, from our long arms and tailless bodies to our habits and temperament. ~ 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

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

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

What my eyes seek in these encounters is not just the beauty traditionally revered by wildlife photographers. The perfection I seek in my photographic composition is a means to show the strength and dignity of animals in nature. ~ Frans Lanting

The development of family entities enables men to cooperate far more effectively. Instead of constantly competing for the women with other men, each man essentially has a partner assigned to him, one with whom he can establish a family. ~ Frans De Waal

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

As in a Russian doll, however, the outer layers always contain an inner core. Instead of evolution having replaced simpler forms of empathy with more advanced ones, the latter are merely elaborations on the former and remain dependent on them. This also means that empathy comes naturally to us. It is not something we only learn later in life, or that is culturally constructed. ~ 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

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

As far as the environment is concerned, I am becoming pessimistic because I do not see anybody stepping up and taking the long view approach. It seems like we're stuck in a tragedy of the commons where everyone is trying to contribute as little as possible to get out of this situation. ~ 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

Life is a force in its own right. It is a new element. And it has altered the Earth. It covers Earth like a skin. ~ Frans Lanting

Being both more systematically brutal than chimps and more empathetic than
bonobos, we are by far the most bipolar ape. Our societies are never completely peaceful, never completely competitive, never ruled by sheer selfishness, and never perfectly moral. ~ Frans De Waal

Harold Laswell's famous definition of politics as a social process determining "who gets what, when, and how," there can be little doubt that chimpanzees engage in it. Since in both humans and their closest relatives the process involves bluff, coalitions, and isolation tactics, a common terminology is warranted. ~ Frans De Waal

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

My wife says that I become different once I start to work with animals. My movements become different, my mood is different. It involves letting everything fall behind you, becoming intuitive in your dealings with wild creatures in a way that bypasses reason. Sometimes it's more like a dance than anything else. ~ Frans Lanting

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

Typically, the young male spreads his legs to show his erection - a sexual invitation - making sure that his back is turned to the other males or that, with his underarm leaning on his knee, one of his hands loosely dangles right next to his penis so that only the wooed female can see ~ Frans De Waal

While the matriarch operates on the basis of knowledge, the rest of the herd operates on the basis of trust. ~ Frans De Waal

Most men probably wouldn't want to live the lives of bonobos. They're constantly clinging to their mothers' apron strings. They lack the ability to make decisions about their own fates, something that we and male chimpanzees practically consider our birthright. ~ Frans De Waal

Friedrich Nietzsche, who famously gave us the 'God is dead' phrase was interested in the sources of morality. He warned that the emergence of something (whether an organ, a legal institution, or a religious ritual) is never to be confused with its acquired purpose: 'Anything in existence, having somehow come about, is continually interpreted anew, requisitioned anew, transformed and redirected to a new purpose.'

This is a liberating thought, which teaches us to never hold the history of something against its possible applications. Even if computers started out as calculators, that doesn't prevent us from playing games on them. (47) (quoting Nietzsche, the Genealogy of Morals) ~ Frans De Waal

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

What is the evolutionary value of blushing? It seems not to be to our advantage to do it, to involuntarily reveal our inner emotions. If we're trying to manipulate or lie, actions in furtherance of individual goals as opposed to the goals of others, blushing would not seem to be helpful. And yet everyone blushes, except the psychopath. ~ Frans De Waal

Those who exclaim that "animals are not people" tend to forget that, while true, it is equally true that people are animals. To minimize the complexity of animal behavior without doing the same for human behavior erects an artificial barrier. ~ Frans De Waal