Religions have a strong binding function and a cohesive element. They emphasize the primacy of the community as opposed to the individual, and they also help set one community apart from another that doesn’t share their beliefs. – Frans de Waal
Our brains have been designed to blur the line between self and other. It is an ancient neural circuitry that marks every mammal, from mouse to elephant. – Frans de Waal
People want to work with somebody who feels shame, who worries about the perceptions of others. Dishonesty is something we don’t like in others. – Frans de Waal
Chimps cannot tell us anything about peaceful relations, because chimps have only different degrees of hostility between communities. Whereas bonobos do tell us something; they tell us about the possibility of having peaceful relationships. – Frans de Waal
Darwin wasn’t just provocative in saying that we descend from the apes – he didn’t go far enough. We are apes in every way, from our long arms and tailless bodies to our habits and temperament. – Frans de Waal
After World War II it was decided that, in order to prevent the Germans and the French from having another war, it would be better to tie them together into one economic pact so they would invest in each other and have mutual stakes. Until now, that has worked to prevent warfare between the two. – Frans de Waal
It is hard to get animals which normally pay little attention to each other to do things together. One can teach dolphins to jump simultaneously out of the water precisely because they show similar behavior spontaneously, but try to make two domestic cats jump together and you will fail. – Frans de Waal
Chimpanzees, typically, kiss and embrace after fights. They first make eye contact from a distance to see the mood of the others. Then they approach and kiss and embrace. – Frans de Waal
There is little evidence that other animals judge the appropriateness of actions that do not directly affect themselves. – Frans de Waal
Personally, I think it is possible to build a society that is moral on a nonreligious basis, but the jury is still out on that. – Frans de Waal
Very long ago our ancestors had moral systems. Our current institutions are only a couple of thousand years old, which is really not old in the eyes of a biologist. – Frans de Waal
The primate laugh is given in playful contexts, and as such has a strong similarity to the human laugh. – Frans de Waal
Religion may have become a codification of morality, and it may fortify it, but it’s not the origin of it. – Frans de Waal
You should know as much as you can about the human species if you have a hand in designing human society. – Frans de Waal
If you look at national economies today, for example, the American economy, the European economy, the Indians, the Chinese, we’re all tied together. If one of them sinks, the rest are going to sink with them and if one floats, the rest are lifted up. I find that very interesting. – Frans de Waal
If you look at human society, it is very easy, of course, to compare our warfare and territoriality with the chimpanzee. But that’s only one side of what we do. We also trade, we intermarry, we allow each other to travel through our territory. There’s an enormous amount of cooperation. – Frans de Waal
Empathy probably started out as a mechanism to improve maternal care. Mammalian mothers who were attentive to their young’s needs were more likely to rear successful offspring. – Frans de Waal