William Cullen Bryant Quotes

When men organize themselves into groups, and they make rules based on common or self-interest, it's always tangled and political.

We're the only species who follow unstable leaders. This is true - it has little to do with America - around the world, pack leaders are unstable. Animals don't follow that.

If you're a baboon on the Serengeti, and you're miserable, it's almost certainly because some other baboon has had the free time and energy to devote to making you miserable.

Human beings are a social species. We like to hang together in groups, just like wildebeests, just like lions. Wildebeests don't hang with lions because lions eat wildebeests. Human beings are like that. We do what that group does that we're trying to identify with.

But if two's company, three's a crowd - and that demands the omniscient point of view.

Russia will occupy most of the good food lands of central Europe while we have the industrial portions. We must find some way of persuading Russia to play ball.

I was a pretty scrappy, tough kid; I got in all sorts of fights at school. I defended myself - boys didn't mess with me. But as one of seven children, you have to fight for everything anyway.

If you live among dogs, keep a stick. After all, this is what a hound has teeth for-to bite when he feels like it!

I describe in 'Chimpanzee Politics' how the alpha male needs broad support to reach the top spot. He needs some close allies and he needs many group members to be on his side.

We're highly social animals - I'm told by scientists that what makes us different from other animals is an acute social awareness, which is what has made us so successful.

Not only the bull attacks his enemies with curved horn, but also the sheep, when harmed fights back.

Any dog, you put him in the corner, no matter if they're vicious or not, they're going to bite back.

I woke up one morning thinking about wolves and realized that wolf packs function as families. Everyone has a role, and if you act within the parameters of your role, the whole pack succeeds, and when that falls apart, so does the pack.

Fish recognize a bad leader.

What drives the separation of groups of people into subgroups is the desire to control resources. We begin with a single culture, and over time the number of individuals within that culture expands.

The only thing I learnt in high school is that people are very violent and territorial.

With animal behavior, they're all fine until you introduce some rogue element into the cage, and then they go crazy.

I’ve worked as a leader for many years and I’ve always trained myself to be prepared for the worst.

Savage bears keep at peace with one another.

One thing about a pig. He thinks he's warm if his nose is warm. I saw a bunch of pigs one time that had frozen together in a rosette, each one's nose tucked under the rump of the one in front. We have a lot of pigs in politics.

The best … Committees consist of three persons, two of whom are always absent!

Most of us are a lot more comfortable thinking about and writing about individuals than institutions.

All politicians find it hard to address with conviction more than one emergency at a time.

It is, of course, true that I have given priority to the settling of the problem of security and the problem of Irian Barat, although I knew that in order to do these things, almost three-quarters of our national product had to be spent.

When you play on a team, you learn that there will always be five guys you like, a bunch of guys who are OK, and five you despise. The trick to getting along in any system is not to worry about the five you despise.