Friday 15 July 2011

Quote of the Week- Desmond Morris on Apes & Mankind


Quote of the week-

"There are one hundred and ninety-three living species of monkeys and apes. One hundred and ninety-two of them are covered with hair. The exception is a naked ape self-named Homo sapiens. This unusual and highly successful species spends a great deal of time examining his higher motives and an equal amount of time studiously ignoring his fundamental ones. He is proud that he has the biggest brain of all the primates, but attempts to conceal the fact that he also has the biggest penis, preferring to accord this honour falsely to the mighty gorilla. He is an intensely vocal, acutely exploratory, over-crowded ape and it is high time we examined his basic behaviour"

- Desmond Morris, Zoologist,
- from the Introduction to "The Naked Ape" (1967)

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