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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.

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
Call
Mechanical
Wrong
Apparent
Way
Functions
Particularly
Instinct
Organization
Function
Blindly
Goes
Physiological

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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.
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Man appears to be the missing link between anthropoid apes and human beings.
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Few animals display their mood via facial expressions as distinctly as cats.
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I believe that present day civilized man suffers from insufficient discharge of his aggressive drive
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In science, new ideas are at first completely neglected, later fiercely attacked, and finally regarded as well known.
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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.
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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.
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Hatred of humanity and love of animals make a very bad combination.
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Barking dogs may occasionally bite, but laughing men hardly ever shoot!
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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.
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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.
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The human soul is very much older than the human mind.
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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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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.
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Just thinking that my dog loves me more than I love him, I feel shame.
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We do not take humor seriously enough.
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Most of the vices and mortal sins condemned today correspond to inclinations that were purely adaptive or at least harmless in primitive man
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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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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.
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