Frans de Waal Quotes About Animals

Quotes about: Animals

• To endow animals with human emotions has long been a scientific taboo. But if we do not, we risk missing something fundamental, about both animals and us.

  Frans de Waal

  Nature, Science, Animal

  "Are We in Anthropodenial?" by Frans de Waal, discovermagazine.com. July 1, 1997.

• If we look straight and deep into a chimpanzee's eyes, an intelligent self-assured personality looks back at us. If they are animals, what must we be?

  Frans de Waal

  Inspirational, Motivational, Eye

  Frans de Waal (2007). “Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex Among Apes”, p.3, JHU Press

• The intuitive connection children feel with animals can be a tremendous source of joy. The unconditional love received from pets, and the lack of artifice in the relationship, contrast sharply with the much trickier dealings with members of their own species.

  Frans de Waal

  Children, Unconditional Love, Animal

• I am personally not against keeping animals at zoos, as they serve a huge educational purpose, but treating them well and with respect seems the least we could do, and with 'we' I mean not just zoo staff, but most certainly also the public.

  Frans de Waal

  Zoos, Educational, Mean

  "Jump, Tiger, Jump!" by Frans de Waal, www.huffingtonpost.com. December 27, 2007.

• Future benefits rarely figure in the minds of animals.

  Frans de Waal

  Animal, Mind, Benefits

  "Morals Without God?" by Frans de Waal, opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com. October 17, 2010.

• There's actually a lot of evidence in primates and other animals that they return favors.

  Frans de Waal

  Inspirational, Motivational, Animal

• The evolutionary struggle for survival is really a self-serving series of blows and stabs, and yet it can lead to extremely social animals like dolphins, wolves or, for that matter, primates.

  Frans de Waal

  Struggle, Animal, Blow

• The more self-aware an animal is, the more empathetic it tends to be.

  Frans de Waal

  Animal, Self, Empathetic

  "My bright idea: humans found a nicer way to evolve". Interview with Robin McKie, www.theguardian.com. September 18, 2010.

• We, who think like animals living in small groups, must structure a global world. We believe in universal human rights and believe racism and war are wrong. On the other hand, it is our nature to be cooperative and loving almost exclusively with the members of the group to which we feel we belong.

  Frans de Waal

  War, Believe, Animal

• It is not only visitors to the zoo who are fascinated but uneasy in the presence of chimpanzees; the same is true of scientists. The more they learn about these great apes, the deeper our identity crisis seems to become. The resemblance between humans and chimpanzees is not only external. If we look straight and deep into a chimpanzee’s eyes, an intelligent, self-assured personality looks back at us. If they are animals, what must we be?

  Frans de Waal

  Zoos, Eye, Animal

  Frans de Waal (2007). “Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex Among Apes”, p.3, JHU Press

• We are by far the most contradictory of all primates. An animal with this much internal conflict has never lived on this earth.

  Frans de Waal

  Animal, Earth, Conflict

• In Africa, we have the bush meat trade, which means that, on a very large scale, animals are being killed in the forests and sold in the cities as a luxury food.

  Frans de Waal

  Mean, Animal, Cities

• I've argued that many of what philosophers call moral sentiments can be seen in other species. In chimpanzees and other animals, you see examples of sympathy, empathy, reciprocity, a willingness to follow social rules. Dogs are a good example of a species that have and obey social rules; that's why we like them so much, even though they're large carnivores.

  Frans de Waal

  Dog, Animal, Empathy

  "Confessions of a Lonely Atheist" by Natalie Angier, partners.nytimes.com. January 14, 2001.

• Most exotic animals are not particularly interested in people, which makes it hard to provoke them. Human-rearing gets them used to and sometimes imprinted on humans, which makes them potentially dangerous.

  Frans de Waal

  Animal, People, Exotic

  "Jump, Tiger, Jump!" by Frans de Waal, www.huffingtonpost.com. December 27, 2007.

• If you want to design a successful human society you need to know what kind of animal we are. Are we a social animal or a selfish animal? Do we respond better when we're solitary or living in a group?

  Frans de Waal

  Selfish, Successful, Animal

  "Frans de Waal on Political Apes, Science Communication, and Building a Cooperative Society". Interview with Eric Michael Johnson, blogs.scientificamerican.com. July 11, 2011.

• 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

  Animal, Ducks, Example

• You should know as much as you can about the human species if you have a hand in designing human society. Of course, I'm not saying that you can derive moral rules from nature - that's deriving an ought from an is, as the philosophers say - but you do need to know what kind of animals we are if you want to design a stable society.

  Frans de Waal

  Animal, Hands, Design

  "Frans de Waal on Political Apes, Science Communication, and Building a Cooperative Society". Interview with Eric Michael Johnson, blogs.scientificamerican.com. July 11, 2011.

• There is little evidence that other animals judge the appropriateness of actions that do not directly affect themselves.

  Frans de Waal

  Animal, Judging, Littles

  Frans de Waal (2013). “The Bonobo and the Atheist: In Search of Humanism Among the Primates”, p.17, W. W. Norton & Company

• Unlike the primate hand, the elephant's grasping organ is also its nose. Elephants use their trunks not only to reach food but also to sniff and touch it. With their unparalleled sense of smell, the animals know exactly what they are going for. Vision is secondary.

  Frans de Waal

  Animal, Hands, Elephants

• If you are a cooperative animal you need to watch what you get. If you, or even a whole community, invest in something but then a few individuals receive a much larger return, it's not a good arrangement. If it happens consistently, it's time to look for an arrangement that is more beneficial. That's why we're so sensitive to how rewards are being divided.

  Frans de Waal

  Animal, Community, Needs

  "Frans de Waal on Political Apes, Science Communication, and Building a Cooperative Society". Interview with Eric Michael Johnson, blogs.scientificamerican.com. July 11, 2011.

• It is hard to get animals which normally pay little attention to each other to do things together. One can teach dolphins to jump simultaneously out of the water precisely because they show similar behavior spontaneously, but try to make two domestic cats jump together and you will fail.

  Frans de Waal

  Cat, Animal, Two

  "Elephants Trump Magic Goldfish" by Frans de Waal, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 8, 2011.

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