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A man sufficiently gifted with humor is in small danger of succumbing to flattering delusions about himself, because he cannot help perceiving what a pompous ass he would become if he did.

Konrad Lorenz

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Konrad Lorenz
Age: 85 †
Born: 1903
Born: November 7
Died: 1989
Died: February 27
Biologist
Ethologist
Naturalist
Philosopher
Physician
Psychologist
University Teacher
Writer
Zoologist
Vienna
Austria
Konrad Z. Lorenz
Konrad Zacharias Lorenz
Danger
Perceiving
Men
Humor
Delusions
Small
Pompous
Help
Sufficiently
Flattering
Helping
Gifted
Cannot
Delusion
Become
Ass
Succumbing
Would

More quotes by Konrad Lorenz

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I would rather have a Scot come from Scotland togovern the people of this kingdom well and justly, than that you should govern them ill in the sight of all the world.
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I see the creative accomplishments of which highly gifted humans are capable as special cases of the universal creative process, that game played by everyone against everyone else, from which wells up all that has never been before.
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The fidelity of a dog is a precious gift.
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I believe that present day civilized man suffers from insufficient discharge of his aggressive drive
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All too willingly man sees himself as the centre of the universe, as something not belonging to the rest of nature but standing apart as a different and higher being. Many people cling to this error and remain deaf to the wisest command ever given by a sage, the famous Know thyself inscribed in the temple of Delphi.
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Hatred of humanity and love of animals make a very bad combination.
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Historians will have to face the fact that natural selection determined the evolution of cultures in the same manner as it did that of species.
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Scientific truth is universal, because it is only discovered by the human brain and not made by it, as art is.
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We do not take humor seriously enough.
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The neuro-physiological organization which we call instinct functions in a blindly mechanical way, particularly apparent when its function goes wrong.
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All the advantages that man has gained from his ever-deepening understanding of the natural world that surrounds him, his technological, chemical and medical progress, all of which should seem to alleviate human suffering... tends instead to favor humanity's destruction.
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The instinctive need to be the member of a closely knit group fighting for common ideals may grow so strong that it becomes inessential what these ideals are.
Konrad Lorenz
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The cat is a wild animal that inhabits the homes of humans.
Konrad Lorenz
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Every mutation through a new combination of genetic factors that provides the organism with a new opportunity for coming to terms with the conditions of its environment signifies no more and no less than that new information about this environment has got into that organic system. Adaptation is essentially a cognitive process.
Konrad Lorenz
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Few animals display their mood via facial expressions as distinctly as cats.
Konrad Lorenz
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Just thinking that my dog loves me more than I love him, I feel shame.
Konrad Lorenz
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Philosophers are people who know less and less about more and more, until they know nothing about everything. Scientists are people who know more and more about less and less, until they know everything about nothing.
Konrad Lorenz
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I believe that both art and the human striving for cognitive comprehension are manifest forms of the grand game in which nothing more is stipulated than the game's rules both art and actively solicited perceptions are but special cases of the recurring creative act to which we owe our existence.
Konrad Lorenz
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It ought to be realized by all dog owners that obesity shortens a dog's life quite considerably, a life which is much too short anyhow.
Konrad Lorenz
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...he who has seen the intimate beauty of nature cannot tear himself away from it again. He must become either a poet or a naturalist and, if his eyes are keen and his powers of observation sharp enough, he may well become both.
Konrad Lorenz