Altruism has always been one of biology's deep mysteries. Why should any animal, off on its own, specified and labeled by all sorts of signals as its individual self, choose to give up its life in aid of someone else?

Cats - a standing rebuke to behavioural scientists . . . least human of all creatures.

All of today's DNA, strung through all the cells of the earth, is simply an extension and elaboration of [the] first molecule.

The drive to be useful is encoded in our genes. But when we gather in very large numbers, as in the modern nation-state, we seem capable of levels of folly and self-destruction to be found nowhere else in all of nature. But if we keep at it and keep alive, we are in for one surprise after another. We can build structures for human society never seen before, thoughts never heard before, music never heard before.

The gift of language is the single human trait that marks us all genetically, setting us apart from the rest of life.

Ants are so much like human beings as to be an embarrassment. They farm fungi, raise aphids as livestock, launch armies into wars, use chemical sprays to alarm and confuse enemies, capture slaves... They do everything but watch television.

Society evolves not by shouting each other down, but by the unique capacity of unique, individual human beings to comprehend each other.