Desmond Morris
Scientist
1928-01-24
Quotes by Desmond Morris
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Artists like cats; soldiers like dogs.
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I viewed my fellow man not as a fallen angel, but as a risen ape.
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Biologically speaking, if something bites you it's more likely to be female.
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Clearly, then, the city is not a concrete jungle, it is a human zoo.
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The city is not a concrete jungle, it is a human zoo.
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The age of a child is inversely correlated with the size of the animals it prefers.
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Sexual behavior in our species goes through three characteristic phases: pair formation, precopulatory activity, and copulation, usually but not always in that order. The pair-formation stage, usually referred to as courtship, is remarkably prolonged by animal standards.
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Under crowded conditions the friendly social interactions between members of a group become reduced, and the destructive and aggressive patterns show a marked rise in frequency and intensity.
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With us, the infantile inquisitiveness is strengthened and stretched out into our mature years. We never stop investigation. We are never satisfied that we know enough to get by. Every question we answer leads on the another question. This has become the greatest survival trick of our species.
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There is nothing biologically unusual about a homosexual act of pseudocopulation. Many species indulge in this, under a variety of circumstances.
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The female covers her breasts, and then proceeds to redefine their shape with a brassiere. This sexual signaling device may be padded or inflatable, so that it not only reinstates the concealed shape, but also enlarges it, imitating in this way the breast swelling that occurs during sexual arousal.
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We are, to put it mildly, in a mess, and there is a strong chance that we shall have exterminated ourselves but the end of the century. Our only consolation will have to be that, as a species, we have had an exciting term of office.
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Monks, nuns, long-term spinsters and bachelors and permanent homosexuals are all, in a reproductive sense, aberrant. Society has bred them, but they have failed to return the compliment.
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Looking back now on the whole sexual scene we can see that our species has remained much more loyal to its basic biological urges than we might at first imagine. Its primate sexual system with carnivore modifications has survived all the fantastic technological advances remarkably well.
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It is interesting that amongst children of preschool age, the more intelligent ones tend to sleep less than the dull ones. After the age of seven this relationship is reversed, the more intelligent schoolchildren sleeping more than the dull ones.
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The response of teenagers to their idols is relevant. As an audience, they enjoy themselves, not by screaming with laughter, but screaming with screams.
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