Humanity is actually much more cooperative and empathic than [it's] given credit for.

We justify the inequalities by saying some people are just better and smarter than others and the strong should survive and the poor can die off.

The thinking is that we started evolving language not by speaking but by gesturing.

We, who think like animals living in small groups, must structure a global world. We believe in universal human rights and believe racism and war are wrong. On the other hand, it is our nature to be cooperative and loving almost exclusively with the members of the group to which we feel we belong.

When it comes to social interaction, the chimpanzees appear to be just as intelligent as we are.

Bonobo studies started in the '70s and came to fruition in the '80s. Then in the '90s, all of a sudden, boom, they ended because of the warfare in the Congo. It was really bad for the bonobo and ironic that people with their warfare were preventing us from studying the hippies of the primate world.

Empathy as a complex emotion is different. It requires awareness of the other person's feelings and of one's own reactions. The appropriate reaction may not be to cry when another person cries, but to reassure them, or even to leave them alone.