--- title: "4 Apes Quotes By Sue Savage-Rumbaugh" description: "4 Apes quotes by Sue Savage-Rumbaugh. Plus more from Sue Savage-Rumbaugh and more Apes sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/495/sue-savage-rumbaugh-43053_ape_i-m-in-the-role-of-helping-these-apes-ne_309981.png" --- > [I'm in the role of helping these apes negotiate the human role. I'm just a temporary intermediary in what I think will…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sue-savage-rumbaugh/i-m-in-the-role-of-helping-these-apes-negotiate-the-human-role-i-m/) [Sue Savage-Rumbaugh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sue-savage-rumbaugh/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/495/sue-savage-rumbaugh-43053_ape_i-m-in-the-role-of-helping-these-apes-ne_309981.png) > [I thought if I could understand why apes get mean and horrible and aggressive when they grow up, maybe I could understand…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sue-savage-rumbaugh/i-thought-if-i-could-understand-why-apes-get-mean-and-horrible-and/) [Sue Savage-Rumbaugh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sue-savage-rumbaugh/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/72b/sue-savage-rumbaugh-43053_aggressive_i-thought-if-i-could-understand-why-apes_1021025.jpg) > [“The distinctiveness that we have so assiduously ascribed to ourselves as humans is, in reality, an accident of history. Imagine, for instance,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sue-savage-rumbaugh/the-distinctiveness-that-we-have-so-assiduously-ascribed-to-ourselves/) [Sue Savage-Rumbaugh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sue-savage-rumbaugh/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/40a/sue-savage-rumbaugh-43053_apes_the-distinctiveness-that-we-have-so-assi_2140827.png) > [There is no reason to teach an ape to become human. There are many reasons to teach some apes and some humans…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sue-savage-rumbaugh/there-is-no-reason-to-teach-an-ape-to-become-human-there-are-many/) [Sue Savage-Rumbaugh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sue-savage-rumbaugh/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/401/sue-savage-rumbaugh-43053_animal_there-is-no-reason-to-teach-an-ape-to-be_2329957.png) ## Other authors on Apes - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b009/author-frans-de-waal-35954.jpg) Frans de Waal 11 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/apes/frans-de-waal/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b004/author-andy-serkis-13212.jpg) Andy Serkis 11 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/apes/andy-serkis/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b023/author-thomas-huxley-90412.jpg) Thomas Huxley 9 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/apes/thomas-huxley/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b010/author-friedrich-nietzsche-36363.jpg) Friedrich Nietzsche 9 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/apes/friedrich-nietzsche/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b017/author-matt-reeves-65483.jpg) Matt Reeves 7 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/apes/matt-reeves/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b001/author-abhijit-naskar-99.jpg) Abhijit Naskar 7 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/apes/abhijit-naskar/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b023/author-terry-pratchett-89528.jpg) Terry Pratchett 6 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/apes/terry-pratchett/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b024/author-william-shakespeare-95899.jpg) William Shakespeare 5 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/apes/william-shakespeare/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b020/author-robert-e-howard-79683.jpg) Robert E. Howard 5 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/apes/robert-e-howard/) ## More by Sue Savage-Rumbaugh > [I'm in the role of helping these apes negotiate the human role. I'm just a temporary intermediary in what I think will be eventual…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sue-savage-rumbaugh/i-m-in-the-role-of-helping-these-apes-negotiate-the-human-role-i-m/) [Sue Savage-Rumbaugh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sue-savage-rumbaugh/) > [We do not realize how deeply our starting assumptions affect the way we go about looking for and interpreting the data we collect. We…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sue-savage-rumbaugh/we-do-not-realize-how-deeply-our-starting-assumptions-affect-the-way/) [Sue Savage-Rumbaugh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sue-savage-rumbaugh/) > [I thought if I could understand why apes get mean and horrible and aggressive when they grow up, maybe I could understand why people…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sue-savage-rumbaugh/i-thought-if-i-could-understand-why-apes-get-mean-and-horrible-and/) [Sue Savage-Rumbaugh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sue-savage-rumbaugh/) > [ We have a lot to learn from \[bonobos\], because they're a very egalitarian society and they're a very empathetic society. Sexual behavior is not… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sue-savage-rumbaugh/we-have-a-lot-to-learn-from-bonobos-because-they-re-a-very/) [Sue Savage-Rumbaugh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sue-savage-rumbaugh/) > [“Engagement, and its relationship to the accumulation and processing of information, is a little-studied phenomenon, representing as it does, individual skills rather than those…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sue-savage-rumbaugh/engagement-and-its-relationship-to-the-accumulation-and-processing-of/) [Sue Savage-Rumbaugh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sue-savage-rumbaugh/) > [“With the man/animal boundary so deep a part of the Western psyche, it is little wonder that many resist its dismantling on both a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sue-savage-rumbaugh/with-the-man-animal-boundary-so-deep-a-part-of-the-western-psyche-it/) [Sue Savage-Rumbaugh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sue-savage-rumbaugh/) > [“The distinctiveness that we have so assiduously ascribed to ourselves as humans is, in reality, an accident of history. Imagine, for instance, how much…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sue-savage-rumbaugh/the-distinctiveness-that-we-have-so-assiduously-ascribed-to-ourselves/) [Sue Savage-Rumbaugh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sue-savage-rumbaugh/) > [There is no reason to teach an ape to become human. There are many reasons to teach some apes and some humans to transition…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sue-savage-rumbaugh/there-is-no-reason-to-teach-an-ape-to-become-human-there-are-many/) [Sue Savage-Rumbaugh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sue-savage-rumbaugh/) > [“To fail to try to understand the world from the point of view of the lion or the bat is to admit that the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sue-savage-rumbaugh/to-fail-to-try-to-understand-the-world-from-the-point-of-view-of-the/) [Sue Savage-Rumbaugh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sue-savage-rumbaugh/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/apes/sue-savage-rumbaugh/#itemlist", "name": "4 Apes Quotes By Sue Savage-Rumbaugh", "numberOfItems": 4, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "I'm in the role of helping these apes negotiate the human role. 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Imagine, for instance, how much more distinct we could have claimed our species to be had all the great apes become extinct before we began pondering our position in the world of nature. If vervet monkeys were our closet relatives, humans would indeed appear to stand separate. Equally, if the species of hominid that links us to our common ancestor with the African apes had not become extinct, the gap between us and chimpanzees would be closed all the way. Gradations between human and ape would be present at every step, and our revered distinctiveness would vanish. It is simply a contingent fact of history that certain species did become extinct during the past five million years, leaving us to compare ourselves with the African apes as our closest living relatives. And it is a sobering fact of current history that the comparison between humans and apes may soon become virtually artificial, as each species of ape faces extinction in its natural populations. 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