Men, unlike mockingbirds, have the capacity for systematic self-delusion. We echo each other with equal precision, equal eloquence, equal assurance.

Human war has been the most successful of our cultural traditions.

Animal language is a contagious expression of mood effecting communication between social partners.

For the soundest of evolutionary reasons man appears at his best when times are worst.

If you watch lizards and lions copulating, then you will see that in 200 million years the male has not had a single new idea.

Men, unlike mockingbirds, have the capacity for systematic self-delusion. We echo each other with equal precision, equal eloquence, equal assurance.

We were born of risen apes, not fallen angels, and the apes were armed killers besides. And so what shall we wonder at? Our murders and massacres and missiles, and our irreconcilable regiments?