Quote

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

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Help
Sufficiently
Helping
Flattering
Cannot
Gifted
Become
Delusion
Would
Ass
Succumbing
Men
Danger
Perceiving
Humor
Delusions
Small
Pompous

More quotes by Konrad Lorenz

Image
The human soul is very much older than the human mind.
Konrad Lorenz
Image
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.
Konrad Lorenz
Image
Scientific truth is universal, because it is only discovered by the human brain and not made by it, as art is.
Konrad Lorenz
Image
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
Image
...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
Image
The neuro-physiological organization which we call instinct functions in a blindly mechanical way, particularly apparent when its function goes wrong.
Konrad Lorenz
Image
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.
Konrad Lorenz
Image
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.
Konrad Lorenz
Image
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.
Konrad Lorenz
Image
Most of the vices and mortal sins condemned today correspond to inclinations that were purely adaptive or at least harmless in primitive man
Konrad Lorenz
Image
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
Image
The cat is a wild animal that inhabits the homes of humans.
Konrad Lorenz
Image
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
Image
The scientist knows very well that he is approaching ultimate truth only in an asymptotic curve and is barred from ever reaching it but at the same time he is proudly aware of being indeed able to determine whether a statement is a nearer or a less near approach to the truth.
Konrad Lorenz
Image
Man appears to be the missing link between anthropoid apes and human beings.
Konrad Lorenz
Image
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
Image
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
Image
I believe that present day civilized man suffers from insufficient discharge of his aggressive drive
Konrad Lorenz
Image
In science, new ideas are at first completely neglected, later fiercely attacked, and finally regarded as well known.
Konrad Lorenz
Image
Man has been driven out of the paradise in which he could trust his instincts.
Konrad Lorenz