Skip to content

Octopuses have hundreds of suckers, each one equipped with its own ganglion with thousands of neurons. These 'mini-brains' are interconnected, making for a widely distributed nervous system. That is why a severed octopus arm may crawl on its own and even pick up food.

— Frans de Waal

Another quote →

More quotes by Frans de Waal

I think if we study the primates, we notice that a lot of these things that we value in ourselves, such as human morality, have a connection with primate behavior.

The Bonobo in All of Us (2007)

I've argued that many of what philosophers call moral sentiments can be seen in other species.

They give up trusting others, and conversely others give up trusting them.

Our Inner Ape: A Leading Primatologist Explains Why We Are Who We Are (2005)

To endow animals with human emotions has long been a scientific taboo. But if we do not, we risk missing something fundamental, about both animals and us.

The possibility that empathy resides in parts of the brain so ancient that we share them with rats should give pause to anyone comparing politicians with those poor, underestimated creatures.

All Frans de Waal quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Frans de Waal (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.