Frans de Waal Quotes & Sayings (Page 5)

“I think we need to start thinking about grounding our moral systems in our biology.”

“There are beautiful examples of art done by chimpanzees in human care.”

“There are many reasons for kindness, and religion is just one of them.”

“Understanding the need for religion is a far superior goal to bashing it.”

“Although elephants are far more distantly related to us than the great apes, they seem to have evolved similar social and cognitive capacities.”

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

“War is evitable if conditions are such that the costs of making war are higher than the benefits.”

“We need to separate the process of evolution - which is, indeed, a self-serving process - and the actual motivations of animals.”

“You should know as much as you can about the human species if you have a hand in designing human society.”

“Chimps cannot tell us anything about peaceful relations, because chimps have only different degrees of hostility between communities. Whereas bonobos do tell us something; they tell us about the possibility of having peaceful relationships.”