Quote

This unusual and highly successful species spends a great deal of time examining his higher motives and an equal amount of time ignoring his fundamental ones.

Desmond Morris

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Desmond Morris
Age: 96
Born: 1928
Born: January 24
Artist
Ethnologist
Ethologist
Illustrator
Painter
Primatologist
Television Presenter
Writer
Zoologist
Desmond John Morris
Deals
Motive
Higher
Fundamental
Successful
Fundamentals
Ignoring
Great
Species
Spends
Time
Equal
Examining
Deal
Motives
Ones
Unusual
Amount
Highly

More quotes by Desmond Morris

Image
I think like the species I am studying, whatever it is. If I am watching a lizard, I become the lizard. Gazing ath the water at a pike, I become the pike.
Desmond Morris
Image
Sexual behavior in our species goes through three characteristic phases: pair formation, precopulatory activity, and copulation, usually but not always in that order. The pair-formation stage, usually referred to as courtship, is remarkably prolonged by animal standards.
Desmond Morris
Image
No matter how old we become, we can still call them 'Holy Mother' and 'Father' and put a child-like trust in them.
Desmond Morris
Image
This gives the agents of the gods a powerful area of support. All they need to do is to remind their followers constantly of their mortality and to convince them that the afterlife itself is under the personal management of the particular gods they are promoting. The self-protective urges of their worshippers will do the rest.
Desmond Morris
Image
Monks, nuns, long-term spinsters and bachelors and permanent homosexuals are all, in a reproductive sense, aberrant. Society has bred them, but they have failed to return the compliment.
Desmond Morris
Image
Looking back now on the whole sexual scene we can see that our species has remained much more loyal to its basic biological urges than we might at first imagine. Its primate sexual system with carnivore modifications has survived all the fantastic technological advances remarkably well.
Desmond Morris
Image
There are one hundred and ninety-three living species of monkeys and apes. One hundred and ninety-two of them are covered with hair. The exception is a naked ape self-named Homo sapiens. The zoologist now has to start making comparisons. Where else is nudity at a premium.
Desmond Morris
Image
The city is not a concrete jungle, it is a human zoo.
Desmond Morris
Image
Life is like a very short visit to a toy shop between birth and death.
Desmond Morris
Image
Biologically speaking, if something bites you it's more likely to be female.
Desmond Morris
Image
I viewed my fellow man not as a fallen angel, but as a risen ape.
Desmond Morris
Image
The response of teenagers to their idols is relevant. As an audience, they enjoy themselves, not by screaming with laughter, but screaming with screams.
Desmond Morris
Image
Artists like cats soldiers like dogs.
Desmond Morris
Image
We never stop investigating. We are never satisfied that we know enough to get by. Every question we answer leads on to another question. This has become the greatest survival trick of our species.
Desmond Morris
Image
People who keep dogs live longer on average than those who do not. This is not some kind of pro-canine campaigning fantasy. It is a simple medical fact that the calming influence of the company of a friendly pet animal reduces blood pressure and therefore the risk of heart attack.
Desmond Morris
Image
The roots of our Soccer Tribe lie deep in our primeval past.
Desmond Morris
Image
Under crowded conditions the friendly social interactions between members of a group become reduced, and the destructive and aggressive patterns show a marked rise in frequency and intensity.
Desmond Morris
Image
In a social environment that is ever crowded and impersonal, it is becoming increasingly important to reconsider the value of close personal relationships before we are driven to ask the forlorn question, 'Whatever happened to love?'
Desmond Morris
Image
There is nothing biologically unusual about a homosexual act of pseudocopulation. Many species indulge in this, under a variety of circumstances.
Desmond Morris
Image
As long as the human race is able to concern itself with more than mere survival, soccer will have its place.
Desmond Morris