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.

I was raised Catholic. Not just a little bit Catholic, like my wife, Catherine. When she was young, many Catholics in France already barely went to church, except for the big three: baptism, marriage, and funeral. And only the middle one was by choice.

There is little evidence that other animals judge the appropriateness of actions that do not directly affect themselves.

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

The enemy of science is not religion... . The true enemy is the substitution of thought, reflection, and curiosity with dogma.

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

If I were God, I'd work on the reach of empathy.