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If by some magic, autism had been eradicated from the face of the earth, then men would still be socializing in front of a wood fire at the entrance to a cave.

— Temple Grandin

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Source and credibility

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Source: Thinking in Pictures : My Life with Autism (Expanded Edition).Westminster, MD, USA: Knopf Publishing Group, 2006.
Source quality: Source identified Names the work or year, but without an exact location.

More by Temple Grandin

The popularization of the term neurodivergence and society’s growing understanding about the different ways that brains work are unquestionably positive developments for many individuals like me.

Temple Grandin: Society Is Failing Visual Thinkers, and That Hurts Us All" Guest essay, New York Times (2023)

The true measure of an education isn't what grades a student gets today, but where they are 10 years later.

Temple Grandin: Society Is Failing Visual Thinkers, and That Hurts Us All" Guest essay, New York Times (2023)

Complementary skills are the key to successful teams.

Temple Grandin: Society Is Failing Visual Thinkers, and That Hurts Us All" Guest essay, New York Times (2023)

It's OK to be an eccentric; it's not OK to be a rude and dirty eccentric.

Even today, romantic love is just not part of my life. And you know what? That's okay with me.

All people want to feel their efforts matter, and individuals with ASD are no different. (p214)

The Way I See It (2008)

Animals like novelty if they can choose to investigate it; they fear novelty if you shove it in their faces. (p287)

Animals Make Us Human: Creating the Best Life for Animals (2009)

All animals and people have the same core emotion systems in the brain. (p5)

Animals Make Us Human: Creating the Best Life for Animals (2009)

All Temple Grandin quotes →

More quotes by Temple Grandin

The meaning of life is if something that you did made something better.

(About the workplace) Tyrants who get into power make life miserable for everyone.

They may ask why nature or God created such horrible conditions as autism, manic depression, and schizophrenia. However, if the genes that caused these conditions were eliminated there might be a terrible price to pay.

I don't like radical anything; left or right. I have a radical dislike of radicals.

Nature is cruel, but we don't have to be. I wouldn't want to have my guts ripped out by a lion. I'd much rather die in a slaughterhouse, if it was done right.

Temple Grandin (2010)

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Attribution

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