"

Perhaps the locale of the subjunctive mood willone day be found. Will Latins turn out to be extravagantly endowed and English-speaking peoples signifi...more

"

The entire evolutionary record on our planet, particularly the record contained in fossil endocasts, illustrates a progressive tendency toward intelli...more

"

The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good. Understanding is joyous.

"

Both [P. T.] Barnum and H. L. Mencken are said to have made the depressing observation that no one ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence...more

"

Evolution is adventitious and not foresighted. Only through the deaths of an immense number of slightly maladapted organisms are we, brains and all, h...more

"

Somewhere in the steaming jungles of the Carboniferous Period there emerged an organism that for the first time in the history of the world had more i...more

"

a typical chromosomal DNA molecule in a human being is composed of about five billion pairs of nucleotides… But since there are four different kinds o...more

"

As in all such technological nightmares, the principal task is to foresee what is possible; to educate use and misuse; and to prevent its organization...more

"

This sort of information gathering is precisely what we call play. And the important function of play is thus revealed: it permits us to gain, without...more

"

with rare exceptions (chiefly the social insects), mammals and birds are the only organisms to devote substantial attention to the care of their young...more

"

Once intelligent beings achieve technology and the capacity for self-destruction of their species, the selective advantage of intelligence becomes mor...more

"

Do dogs feel for humans something akin to religious ecstasy? What other strong or subtle emotions are felt by animals that do not communicate with us?

"

Natural selection has served as a kind of intellectual sieve, producing brains and intelligences increasingly competent to deal with the laws of natur...more

"

It is precisely our plasticity, our long childhood, that prevents a slavish adherence to genetically preprogrammed behavior in human beings more than ...more

"

Our difficulties in understanding or effectuatingcommunication with other animals may arise from our reluctance to grasp unfamiliar ways of dealing wi...more