Chimpanzees Quotes - Page 2

• But let us not forget that human love and compassion are equally deeply rooted in our primate heritage, and in this sphere too our sensibilities are of a higher order of magnitude than those of chimpanzees.

  Jane Goodall

  Compassion, Order, Heritage

  Jane Goodall (2010). “Through a Window: My Thirty Years with the Chimpanzees of Gombe”, p.245, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• We think we know that chimpanzees are higher animals and earthworms are lower, we think we've always known what that means, and we think evolution makes it even clearer. But it doesn't. It is by no means clear that it means anything at all. Or if it means anything, it means so many different things to be misleading, even pernicious.

  Richard Dawkins

  Mean, Animal, Thinking

  Richard Dawkins (2009). “The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution”, p.156, Simon and Schuster

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• Visualize yourself confronted with the task of killing, one after the other, a cabbage, a fly, a fish, a lizard, a guinea pig, a cat, a dog, a monkey and a baby chimpanzee. In the unlikely case that you should experience no greater inhibitions in killing the chimpanzee than in destroying the cabbage or the fly, my advice to you is to commit suicide at your earliest possible convenience, because you are a weird monstrosity and a public danger.

  Konrad Lorenz

  Suicide, Dog, Baby

  Richard Isadore Evans, Konrad Lorenz (1975). “Konrad Lorenz: The Man and His Ideas”, Harcourt

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• From my perspective, I absolutely believe in a greater spiritual power, far greater than I am, from which I have derived strength in moments of sadness or fear. That's what I believe, and it was very, very strong in the forest.

  Jane Goodall

  Spiritual, Strong, Believe

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• In what terms should we think of these beings, nonhuman yet possessing so very many human-like characteristics? How should we treat them? Surely we should treat them with the same consideration and kindness as we show to other humans; and as we recognize human rights, so too should we recognize the rights of the great apes? Yes.

  Jane Goodall

  Kindness, Thinking, Rights

  "The Great Ape Project: Equality Beyond Humanity". Book by Paola Cavalieri, Peter Singer, 1996.

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• I have but nothing to say to young girls. They're fine to look at, in the way I would look at a case filled with Shang dynasty glazes, but expecting to carry on a conversation with the average teen-aged young lady is akin to reading Voltaire to a cage filled with chimpanzees. I'm certain they would feel the same alienation for me. I can live with that knowledge.

  Harlan Ellison

  Girl, Women, Reading

  Harlan Ellison (2014). “Love Ain't Nothing But Sex Misspelled”, p.278, Open Road Media

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• We've no use for intellectuals in this outfit. What we need is chimpanzees. Let me give you a word of advice: never say a word to us about being intelligent. We will think for you, my friend. Don't forget it.

  Louis-Ferdinand Celine

  Thinking, Intelligent, Giving

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• Our social life is literally primal, in the sense that chimpanzees and gorillas, our closest relatives among the primates, are also social.

  Clay Shirky

  Gorillas, Life Is, Social

  Clay Shirky (2009). “Here Comes Everybody: How Change Happens when People Come Together”, p.19, Penguin UK

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• We now know that the structure of the DNA in humans and chimpanzees differs by only just over one percent. You could even have a blood transfusion from a chimp, provided you have the same blood group.

  Jane Goodall

  Dna, Blood, Groups

  Source: www.egonzehnder.com

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• We are territorial, power-hungry and even more brutal than chimpanzees.

  Frans de Waal

  Hungry, Brutal, Territorial

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• Shave a gorilla and it would be almost impossible, at twenty paces, to distinguish him from a heavyweight champion of the world. Skin a chimpanzee, and it would take an autopsy to prove he was not a theologian.

  H. L. Mencken

  Funny, Humor, Champion

  Baltimore Evening Sun, April 4, 1927.

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• We are part of the world creation, and we ourselves create nothing. Our knowledge allows us to make use of all the forces already in existence, our art to interpret emotions already felt. One big war, an epidemic, and we collapse into ignorance and darkness, fit sons of chimpanzees.

  Arshile Gorky

  Art, War, Ignorance

  Arshile Gorky, Matthew Spender (2009). “Arshile Gorky: goats on the roof : a life in letters and documents”

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• I suspect there could be life and intelligence out there in forms that we can't conceive. And there could, of course, be forms of intelligence beyond human capacity-beyond as much as we are beyond a chimpanzee.

  Martin Rees

  Life, Science, Intelligent

  "Aliens can't hear us, says astronomer" by Robin McKie, www.theguardian.com. January 27, 2010.

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• I sometimes try to imagine what would have happened if we’d known the bonobo first and the chimpanzee only later—or not at all. The discussion about human evolution might not revolve as much around violence, warfare and male dominance, but rather around sexuality, empathy, caring and cooperation. What a different intellectual landscape we would occupy!

  Frans de Waal

  Caring, Empathy, Intellectual

  Frans de Waal (2006). “Our Inner Ape: A Leading Primatologist Explains Why We Are Who We Are”, p.41, Penguin

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• The oldest form of the Choral Dance is the circle. Even the chimpanzees dance in a circle, and people of every continent still do it.

  Curt Sachs

  Dance, Circles, People

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• It is hardly an exaggeration to say that a chimpanzee kept in solitude is not a real chimpanzee at all.

  Wolfgang Kohler

  Real, Solitude, Exaggeration

  "The Mentality of Apes". Book by Wolfgang Kohler (p. 293), 1925.

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• Wild groups of chimpanzees attack their enemies like gangs. What they completely lack, precisely because of their strong territorial behavior, is a friendly relationship with their neighbors.

  Frans de Waal

  Strong, Enemy, Friendly

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• Some years ago I wrote a book called The House on Eccles Street. To write this book I had to think my way into the existence of Marion Bloom...Marion Bloom was a figment of James Joyce's imagination. If I can think my way into the existence of a being who has never existed, then I can think my way into the existence of a bat or a chimpanzee or an oyster, any being with whom I share the substrate of life.

  J. M. Coetzee

  Book, Writing, Thinking

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• Chimpanzees, more than any other living creature, have helped us to understand that there is no sharp line between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom. It's a very blurry line, and it's getting more blurry all the time.

  Jane Goodall

  Motivation, Inspiration, Animal

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• Law Number L: The average regulation has a life span one-fifth as long as a chimpanzee's and one-tenth as long as a human's, but four times as long as the official's who created it.

  Norman Ralph Augustine

  Average, Law, Numbers

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• It was both fascinating and appalling to learn that chimpanzees were capable of hostile and territorial behavior that was not unlike certain forms of primitive human warfare.

  Jane Goodall

  Warfare, Behavior, Form

  Jane Goodall, Phillip Berman (1999). “Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey”, p.86, Hachette UK

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• I still write in long hand. I type like a chimpanzee.

  Pat Conroy

  Writing, Hands, Long

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• 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.

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• Certainly the first true humans were unique by virtue of their large brains. It was because the human brain is so large when compared with that of a chimpanzee that paleontologists for years hunted for a half-ape, half-human skeleton that would provide a fossil link between the human and the ape.

  Jane Goodall

  Unique, Years, Skeletons

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• Louis [Leakey] was anxious to initiate a scientific study of these chimpanzees. It would be difficult, he emphasized, for nothing was known; there were no guidelines for such a field study; and the habitat was remote and rugged. Dangerous wild animals would be living there, and chimpanzees themselves were considered at least four times stronger than humans. I remember wondering what kind of scientist he would find for such a herculean task.

  Jane Goodall

  Science, Animal, Stronger

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