“Along with people in other creative professions, such as artists and musicians, many scientists experience this transcendence. I do so every day.… — Frans de Waal Copy Share Image
It is not only visitors to the zoo who are fascinated but uneasy in the presence of chimpanzees; the same is true… — Frans de Waal Copy Share Image
Why not assume that our humanity, including the self-control needed for livable societies, is built into us? Does anyone truly believe that… — Frans de Waal Copy Share Image
The evolutionary struggle for survival is really a self-serving series of blows and stabs, and yet it can lead to extremely social… — Frans de Waal Copy Share Image
Our brains have been designed to blur the line between self and other. It is an ancient neural circuitry that marks every… — Frans de Waal Copy Share Image
Morality, after all, has nothing to do with selflessness. On the contrary, self-interest is precisely the basis of the categorical imperative. — Frans de Waal Copy Share Image
The more self-aware an animal is, the more empathetic it tends to be. — Frans de Waal Copy Share Image
If we look straight and deep into a chimpanzee's eyes, an intelligent self-assured personality looks back at us. If they are animals,… — Frans de Waal Copy Share Image
If both parties have a stake in the other, the chances of them killing each other are going to be reduced. — Frans de Waal Copy Share Image
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… — Frans de Waal Copy Share Image
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… — Frans de Waal Copy Share Image
The possibility that empathy resides in parts of the brain so ancient that we share them with rats should give pause to anyone comparing… — Frans de Waal Copy Share Image
“on August 16, 1996, when an eight-year-old female gorilla named Binti Jua helped a three-year-old boy who had fallen eighteen feet into the primate… — Frans de Waal Copy Share Image
We start out postulating sharp boundaries, such as between humans and apes, or between apes and monkeys, but are in fact dealing with sand… — Frans de Waal Copy Share Image
Perhaps it's just me, but I am wary of any persons whose belief system is the only thing standing between them and repulsive behavior. — Frans de Waal Copy Share Image
Personally, I think it is possible to build a society that is moral on a nonreligious basis, but the jury is still out on… — Frans de Waal Copy Share Image
“humans are a strange lot. We have the power to analyze and explore the world around us, yet panic as soon as the evidence… — Frans de Waal Copy Share Image
Armies are a purely human invention. Most soldiers who go to war nowadays don't even do it because they're inherently aggressive. — Frans de Waal Copy Share Image
