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Desmond Morris Biography

Desmond John Morris (born 24 January 1928) is an English zoologist, ethologist and surrealist painter, as well as a popular author in human sociobiology. He is known for his 1967 book The Naked Ape, and for his television programmes such as Zoo Time.

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Desmond Morris Quotes

We read off the many signals that our companions' clothes transmit to us in every social encounter. In this way, clothing is as much a part of human body language as gestures, facial expressions and postures. Even those people who insist that they despise attention to clothing, and dress as casually as possible, are making quite specific comments on their social roles and their attitudes towards the culture in which they live.

Attitude, Casually, Clothes, Clothing, Fashion, Possible

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.

Answers, Enough, Investigating, Satisfied, Survival

The city is not a concrete jungle, it is a human zoo.

City, Concrete, Concrete Jungle, Funny, Human, Zoos

The roots of our Soccer Tribe lie deep in our primeval past.

Lying, Past, Primeval, Roots, Soccer, Tribe

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.

Bred, Compliment, Long, Return, Sense

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.

Arousal, Concealed, Device, Female, Reinstates, Shapes

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.

Animal, Characteristic, Order, Three, Usually

A true bond of friendship is usually only possible between people of roughly equal status. This equality is demonstrated in many indirect ways, but it is reinforced in face-to-face encounters by a matching of the posture of relaxation or alertness.

Alertness, Friendship, People, Reinforced, Relaxation

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

Angel, Angels, Apes, Prefer, Reality, Thinking

It must be stressed that there is nothing insulting about looking at people as animals. We are animals, after all. Homo sapiens is a species of primate, a biological phenomenon dominated by biological rules, like any other species. Human nature is no more than one particular kind of animal nature. Agreed, the human species is an extraordinary animal; but all other species are also extraordinary animals, each in their own way, and the scientific man-watcher can bring many fresh insights to the study of human affairs if he can retain this basic attitude of evolutionary humility.

Attitude, Humility, Looking, Men, Nothing, People

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.

Mildly, Office, Strong, Term, World

. . . In little more than a single century from 1820 to 19450, no less than fifty-nine million human animals were killed in inter-group clashes of one sort or another. . . . We describe these killings as men behaving "like animals," but if we could find a wild animal that showed signs of acting this way, it would be more precise to describe it as behaving like men.

Acting, Animal, Killings, Men, Showed, Way

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

Biologically, Homosexuality, Indulge, Indulge In, Species, Unusual

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?'

Becoming, Driven, Environment, Forlorn, Important, Personal

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.

Children, Intelligent, Schoolchildren, Seven, Sleep

The idea that it is funny to see wild animals coerced into acting like clumsy humans, or thrilling to see powerful beasts reduced to cringing cowards by a whip-cracking trainer is primitive and medieval. It stems from the old idea that we are superior to other species and have the right to hold dominion over them.

Animal, Animals, Ideas, Powerful, Primitive, Reduced

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

Biologically, Bites, Funny, Science, Speaking, Talking

This gives the agents of the gods a powerful area of support. All they need to do is to remind their followers constantly of their mortality and to convince them that the afterlife itself is under the personal management of the particular gods they are promoting. The self-protective urges of their worshippers will do the rest.

Afterlife, Gives, Mortality, Powerful, Self

Life is like a very short visit to a toy shop between birth and death.

Journey, Life, Shop, Toy, Toys, Visit

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

Age, Animal, Child, Children, Inversely

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