Desmond Morris Quotes

#1. I viewed my fellow man not as a fallen angel, but as a risen ape.

Desmond Morris

#2. This unusual and highly successful species spends a great deal of time examining his higher motives and an equal amount of time ignoring his fundamental ones.

Desmond Morris

#3. There are one hundred and ninety-three living species of monkeys and apes. One hundred and ninety-two of them are covered with hair. The exception is a naked ape self-named Homo sapiens. The zoologist now has to start making comparisons. Where else is nudity at a premium.

Desmond Morris

#4. The age of a child is inversely correlated with the size of the animals it prefers.

Desmond Morris

#5. 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.

Desmond Morris

#6. We may prefer to think of ourselves as fallen angels, but in reality we are rising apes.

Desmond Morris

#7. 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.

Desmond Morris

#8. 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.

Desmond Morris

#9. The response of teenagers to their idols is relevant. As an audience, they enjoy themselves, not by screaming with laughter, but screaming with screams.

Desmond Morris

#10. No matter how old we become, we can still call them 'Holy Mother' and 'Father' and put a child-like trust in them.

Desmond Morris

#11. 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.

Desmond Morris

#12. 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.

Desmond Morris

#13. We are to put it mildly, in a mess, and there is a strong chance that we shall have exterminated ourselves by the end of the century. Our only consolation will be that as a species, we have had an exciting term of office.

Desmond Morris

#14. 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.

Desmond Morris

#15. Biologically speaking, if something bites you it's more likely to be female.

Desmond Morris

#16. Life is like a very short visit to a toyshop between birth and death.

Desmond Morris

#17. We never stop investigating. We are never satisfied that we know enough to get by. Every question we answer leads on to another question. This has become the greatest survival trick of our species.

Desmond Morris

#18. As long as the human race is able to concern itself with more than mere survival, soccer will have its place.

Desmond Morris

#19. Clearly, then, the city is not a concrete jungle, it is a human zoo.

Desmond Morris

#20. I think like the species I am studying, whatever it is. If I am watching a lizard, I become the lizard. Gazing ath the water at a pike, I become the pike.

Desmond Morris

#21. Aquatic animals suffer from the disadvantage that they cannot scream when in pain, so we find it hard to gauge the degree of their agony. If fish could scream, angling purely for sport would be outlawed without delay.

Desmond Morris

#22. There is nothing biologically unusual about a homosexual act of pseudocopulation. Many species indulge in this, under a variety of circumstances.

Desmond Morris

#23. In a social environment that is ever crowded and impersonal, it is becoming increasingly important to reconsider the value of close personal relationships before we are driven to ask the forlorn question, 'Whatever happened to love?'

Desmond Morris

#24. People who keep dogs live longer on average than those who do not. This is not some kind of pro-canine campaigning fantasy. It is a simple medical fact that the calming influence of the company of a friendly pet animal reduces blood pressure and therefore
the risk of heart attack.

Desmond Morris

#25. Artists like cats; soldiers like dogs.

Desmond Morris