Konrad Lorenz Quotes

The satirical direction I have chosen is an indication of my disappointment in man, which is the opposite way of saying that I have high expectations for the human race.

In general, the human race is still a young organism.

As humans become civilized, the survival rate of the lazy, botched and dim-witted grow in inverse proportion to the productive segment since nature can no longer remove them from the species.

Tomorrow is a satire on today, And shows its weakness.

When I realized, in 1978, that Lucy did represent a new species of human ancestor, and that I had an opportunity to name this new species, I realized this was a revolutionary step in understanding human origins.

Wyndham Lewis is basically a pessimist, thinking of human beings as doomed animals or determinist machines. His theory of satire is based on this view, and he finds plenty of evidence to support it in contemporary practice.

At some time in their careers, most good historians itch to write a history of the world, endeavor to discover what makes humanity the most destructive and creative of species.

Satire is people as they are; romanticism, people as they would like to be; realism, people as they seem with their insides left out.

I'm the product of 6 million years of evolution? Come on, man. I crawled out of a swamp yesterday.

The wit makes fun of other persons; the satirist makes fun of the world; the humorist makes fun of himself, but in so doing, he identifies himself with people - that is, people everywhere, not for the purpose of taking them apart, but simply revealing their true nature.

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

I think of myself as writing realist American fiction. 'Cynical but hopeful' wouldn't be the worst thing I've ever been called.

I am a passionate believer that comedy is a way of tackling some of the most dark and difficult aspects of being a human being.

It is disturbing to discover in oneself these curious revelations of the validity of the Darwinian theory. If it is true that we have sprung from the ape, there are occasions when my own spring appears not to have been very far.

The human comedy is always tragic, but since its ingredients are always the same - dupe, fox, straight, like burlesque skits - the repetition through the ages is comedy.

In order to satirize adequately, I think you need to bring people down to Earth and be like, 'Yeah, these people drink coffee and have tummy troubles and they go to the bathroom like anybody else, and they all have relationship problems, if they even have relationships.'

I believe that evolution is a true account of nature, but I think we should try to escape it or transcend it in our society.

You might find me outside with a can of hair spray, spraying it with the hope that the sun will burn a hole in the Earth. Another part of me hopes people will grow up and evolve and get smarter. That's the paradox of Marilyn Manson.

I particularly admire are Mark Twain and Jerome K. Jerome who wrote in a certain tone of voice which was humane and understanding of humanity, but always ready to annotate its little foibles. I think I'd lay my cards down on that, and say that it's that that I'm trying to do.

Zoo: An excellent place to study the habits of human beings.

I didn’t make him look like a chimpanzee. God made him look like a chimpanzee.

Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own.

History is the zoology of the human race.

As nine months go to the shaping an infant ripe for his birth, So many a million of ages have gone to the making of man

That which lies before the human race is a constant struggle to maintain and improve