9 Quotes & Sayings By Robert Ardrey

Robert Ardrey was born in London, Ontario, Canada on May 12, 1908. He received his B.A. degree from the University of Western Ontario in 1929, and his M.A., M.D., and Ph.D. degrees from McGill University in 1934, 1937, and 1940 Read more

He also studied at Cambridge University (1940-41). His first teaching position was at McGill (1939-41), followed by appointments as Professor of Zoology at McMaster University (1942-45) and as Head of the Department of Anatomy at the University of British Columbia (1945-58). He joined the staff of the National Institute of Mental Health in Washington, D.C., in 1958 as Chief Science Advisor to the Director.

Dr. Ardrey was one of the founders of behavioural biology, a theory that postulates that complex social behaviour arises not by instinct but rather by learning during individual interactions with conspecifics (other individuals). For more than thirty years he was actively engaged in research on animal behaviour and sexual selection, leading to numerous publications on topics ranging from textbook chapters to scientific articles to popular books on human evolution.

His most significant early theoretical contribution was The Social Contract, published in 1960 with Aylmer Maude under the pseudonym Robin Horton, which became a classic among anthropological works on human society and culture.

1
But we were born of risen apes, not fallen angels, and the apes were armed killers besides. And so what shall we wonder at? Our murders and massacres and missiles, and our irreconcilable regiments? Or our treaties whatever they may be worth; our symphonies however seldom they may be played; our peaceful acres, however frequently they may be converted into battlefields; our dreams however rarely they may be accomplished. The miracle of man is not how far he has sunk but how magnificently he has risen. We are known among the stars by our poems, not our corpses. . Robert Ardrey
We were born of risen apes, not fallen angels, and...
2
We were born of risen apes, not fallen angels, and the apes were armed killers besides. And so what shall we wonder at? Our murders and massacres and missiles, and our irreconcilable regiments? Robert Ardrey
3
Art is an adventure. When it ceases to be an adventure, it ceases to be art. Not all of us pursue the inaccessible landscapes of the twelve-tone scale, just as not all of us strive for inaccessible mountain-tops, or glory in storms at sea. But the human incidence is there. Could it be that these two impractical pursuits – of beauty and of adventure’s embrace – are simply two differing profiles of the same uniquely human reality? . Robert Ardrey
4
There is nothing so moving - not even acts of love or hate - as the discovery that one is not alone. Robert Ardrey
5
There is a virtue, I must presume, in shamelessness, since by placing on parade the things one does not know, one discovers that no one else knows either. Robert Ardrey
6
What we call patriotism, in other words, is a calculable force which, released by a predictable situation, will animate man in a manner no different from other territorial species. Robert Ardrey
7
The city is a cultural invention enforcing on the citizen knowledge of his own nature. And this we do not like. That we are aggressive beings easily given to violence that we get along together because we must more than because we want to and that the brotherhood of man is about as far from reality today as it was two thousand years ago that reason's realm is small that we never have been and never shall be created equal that if the human being is perfectible he has so far exhibited few symptoms - all are considerations of man from which space tends to protect us. Robert Ardrey
8
Human war has been the most successful of all our cultural traditions. Robert Ardrey