After World War II it was decided that, in order to prevent the Germans and the French from having another war, it would be better to tie them together into one economic pact so they would invest in each other and have mutual stakes. Until now, that has worked to prevent warfare between the two.

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.

There's actually a lot of evidence in primates and other animals that they return favors.

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

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.

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

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.