Unlike the primate hand, the elephant's grasping organ is also its nose. Elephants use their trunks not only to reach food but also to sniff and touch it. With their unparalleled sense of smell, the animals know exactly what they are going for. Vision is secondary.

The sturdiest pillars of human morality are compassion and a sense of justice.

Male chimpanzees have an extraordinarily strong drive for dominance. They're constantly jockeying for position.

I have often noticed how primate groups in their entirety enter a similar mood. All of a sudden, all of them are playful, hopping around. Or all of them are grumpy. Or all of them are sleepy and settle down. In such cases, the mood contagion serves the function of synchronizing activities.

The primate laugh is given in playful contexts, and as such has a strong similarity to the human laugh.

I call the notion that we are nothing but killer apes the Beethoven fallacy. Beethoven was disorganized and messy, and yet his music is the epitome of order.

Robin Hood had it right.Humanity's deepest wish is to spread the wealth.