Dominance Hierarchy Quotes

This world… belongs to the strong, my friend! The ritual of our existence is based on the strong getting stronger by devouring the weak.

The will-to-live becomes the will-to-power.

People with leverage have dominance over people with less leverage. In other words, just as humans gained advantages over animals by creating leveraged tools, similarly, humans who use these tools of leverage have more power over humans that do not. Saying it more simply, 'leverage is power'.

Civilization is based on a clearly defined and widely accepted yet often unarticulated hierarchy. Violence done by those higher on the hierarchy to those lower is nearly always invisible, that is, unnoticed. When it is noticed, it is fully rationalized. Violence done by those lower on the hierarchy to those higher is unthinkable, and when it does occur is regarded with shock, horror, and the fetishization of the victims.

Power is what calls the shots, and power is a white male game.

American society is very like a fish society. . . . Among certain species of fish, the only thing which determines order of dominance is length of time in the fishbowl. The oldest resident picks on the newest resident, and if the newest resident is removed to a new bowl, he, as oldest resident, will pick on the newcomers.

...the most common cause of death among alpha males was ego.

A lioness has got a lot more power than the lion likes to think she has.

Violence arises not out of superfluity of power but out of powerlessness.

When humans invented inequality and socioeconomic status, they came up with a dominance hierarchy that subordinates like nothing the primate world has ever seen before.

Any dog can be aggressive; it's basically the way they're raised.

I'm scared of people with power making the decision.

Bill Gates can't control a high-level-energy dog, because his energy is very low, very calm. Very intellectual. A dog doesn't see that as leadership.

When one group rules another, the relationship between the two is political. When such an arrangement is carried out over a long period of time it develops an ideology (feudalism, racism, etc.). All historical civilizations are patriarchies: their ideology is male supremacy.

We are a naturally hierarchical species.

You are hierarchical. That's the older and more entrenched characteristic. We saw it in your closest animal relatives and in your most distant ones. It's a terrestrial characteristic. When human intelligence served it instead of guiding it, when human intelligence did not even acknowledge it as a problem, but took pride in it or did not notice it at all... That was like ignoring cancer.

A dominant wolf's desire to protect was a strong instinct- Samuel was very dominant. Give him an inch, and he's take over the world- my life, if I let him. Mercy

We are territorial, power-hungry and even more brutal than chimpanzees.

People without leverage work for those with leverage.

So the horns of the stag are sharp to offend his adversary, but are branched for the purpose of parrying or receiving the thrusts of horns similar to his own, and have therefore been formed for the purpose of combating other stags for the exclusive possession of the females; who are observed, like the ladies in the times of chivalry, to attend to the car of the victor... The final cause of this contest amongst the males seems to be, that the strongest and most active animal should propagate the species, which should thence become improved.

The method of authority will always govern the mass of mankind; and those who wield the various forms of organized force in the state will never be convinced that dangerous reasoning ought not to be suppressed in some way.

Power is America's last dirty word. It is easier to talk about money - and much easier to talk about sex - than it is to talk about power.

But remember, this power of the people on top depends on the obedience of the people below. When people stop obeying, they have no power.

I didn't like men because they were so physically competitive. Men are always making a pecking order. "I can beat you up and you can beat him up ..."

At a certain point, even if the one alpha male is dominant, at a certain point there's a younger lion that is stronger, and everyone knows it.