E. O. Wilson - Beings Quotes

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Early human beings... filled a special ecological niche: they were carnivorous primates of the African plains.... When agriculture permitted the increase of population density, game was no longer abundant... carnivorism remained a basic dietary impulse, with cultural aftereffects that varied according to the special conditions of the environment in which the society evolved.

E. O. Wilson
Cultural change is the statistical product of the separate behavioral responses of large numbers of human beings who cope as best they can with social existence.

E. O. Wilson
Are human beings innately aggressive?... The answer to it is yes.... Only by redefining the words "innateness" and "aggression" to the point of uselessness might we correctly say that human aggressiveness is not innate.

E. O. Wilson
True spite is a commonplace in human societies, undoubtedly because human beings are keenly aware of their own blood lines and have the intelligence to plot intrigue. Human beings are unique in the degree of their capacity to lie to other members of their own species.

E. O. Wilson
The truth is that we need invertebrates but they don't need us. If human beings were to disappear tomorrow, the world would go on with little change.... But if invertebrates were to disappear, I doubt that the human species could last more than a few months.

E. O. Wilson
Whether fully aware of it or not, we human beings are immersed in a world of insects.

E. O. Wilson