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Quote by Frans de Waal

“Armies are a purely human invention. Most soldiers who go to war nowadays don't even do it because they're inherently aggressive.”

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Frans de Waal

Frans de Waal is a renowned primatologist, born on October 29, 1948. His research focuses on the social behavior and cognitive abilities of non-human primates, having a profound impact on human ethology and social psychology. more

“Females avoid conflict. They are afraid of violence. The males, on the other hand, are less averse to strife. But once conflict breaks out, the males are much better at reconciling. In a study done in Finland, children who had quarreled were asked how much longer they intended to be angry at one another. The boys proudly said: "Oh, at least one or two days." The girls said "forever".”

Children Said Two Done Hands Girl Boys Break Forever Study Violence Conflict Female Angry Males Strife Two Days Break Out Finland

Author:Frans de Waal

“Most men probably wouldn't want to live the lives of bonobos. They're constantly clinging to their mothers' apron strings. They lack the ability to make decisions about their own fates, something that we and male chimpanzees practically consider our birthright.”

Men Want Mother Ability Decision Fate Males Strings Clinging Birthright Chimpanzees Aprons Bonobos

Author:Frans de Waal

“In humans, the family prevents infanticide. Next to language, the core family, consisting of a mother, a father and children, is the greatest difference between us and other primates.”

Humans Children Mother Next Father Language Differences Core Primates Infanticide

Author:Frans de Waal

“Humans became easy prey when they moved from the forest to the savanna, which deprived them of the option of climbing trees to flee predators. This shift made it necessary for the men to actively protect the women and their babies. Only as a result of this protection were women able to give birth in shorter intervals, perhaps once every two or three years. This meant that they could produce offspring about twice as frequently as apes. I would be willing to bet that this rapid reproduction is one of the reasons why we dominate the world today, and not the apes.”

“The development of family entities enables men to cooperate far more effectively. Instead of constantly competing for the women with other men, each man essentially has a partner assigned to him, one with whom he can establish a family.”

Men Development Partners Entity Competing

Author:Frans de Waal

“When someone brutally kills someone else, we call him "animalistic." But we consider ourselves "human" when we give to the poor.”

Giving Humans Poor Animalistic

Author:Frans de Waal

“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.”

Self Matter Social Animal Struggle Survival Series Blow Serving Dolphins Self Serving Primates Struggle For Survival

Author:Frans de Waal

“I call the notion that we are nothing but killer apes the Beethoven fallacy. Beethoven was disorganized and messy, and yet his music is the epitome of order.”

Order Music Is Notion Killers Messy Apes Fallacy Epitome Disorganized

Author:Frans de Waal

“Socialism cannot function, because its economic reward structure is contrary to human nature.”

Humans Economic Human Nature Function Structure Rewards Contrary Socialism

Author:Frans de Waal

Quote by Frans de Waal

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