We would much rather blame nature for what we don't like in ourselves than credit it for what we do like.

As far as the environment is concerned, I am becoming pessimistic because I do not see anybody stepping up and taking the long view approach. It seems like we're stuck in a tragedy of the commons where everyone is trying to contribute as little as possible to get out of this situation.

You need to indoctrinate empathy out of people in order to arrive at extreme capitalist positions.

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.

Competitiveness is just as much a part of our nature as empathy. The ideal, in my view, is a democratic system with a social market economy, because it takes both tendencies into account.

Personally, I think it is possible to build a society that is moral on a nonreligious basis, but the jury is still out on that.

Perhaps it's just me, but I am wary of any persons whose belief system is the only thing standing between them and repulsive behavior.