Jim Samuels Quotes

The wolf asketh not how many the sheep may be.

Now I know why tigers eat their young.

We're interested in things that have big teeth, and you can see the evolutionary value of that, and you can also see the practical consequences by watching 'Animal Planet.' You notice they make very few programs about gerbils. It's mostly about things that have big teeth.

It is unfair to blame man too fiercely for being pugnacious; he learned the habit from Nature.

Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them.

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.

I have seen Tasmanian devils battle over a carcass. I have seen lionesses crowding a kill, dingoes on the trail of a feral piglet, and adult croc thrashing its prey to pieces. But never, in all the animal world, have I witnessed anything to match the casual cruelty of the human being.

That is the rule of the Wilds: You must be bigger and stronger and tougher. You must hurt or be hurt.

What is the Law of the Jungle? Strike first and then give tongue.

There are good reasons why natural selection has become widely accepted as an explanation of evolutionary development. When applied to mammals and other large animals, it fits perfectly. But we cannot assume that all evolutionary steps arise from selection, particularly when looking at smaller animals.

Life is a zoo in a jungle.

Take, for example, the African jungle, the home of the cheetah. On whom does the cheetah prey? The old, the sick, the wounded, the weak, the very young, but never the strong. Lesson: If you would not be prey, you had better be strong.

If you watch animals objectively for any length of time, you're driven to the conclusion that their main aim in life is to pass on their genes to the next generation.

Our animal origins are constantly lurking behind, even if they are filtered through complicated social evolution.

We do not just fear our predators, we are transfixed by them. We are prone to weave stories and fables and chat endlessly about them.

Many foxes grow gray but few grow good.

If worms carried pistols, birds wouldn't eat 'em.

Biologically speaking, if something bites you it's more likely to be female.

Wherever there is a design that is highly successful in a broad range of similar environments, it is apt to emerge again and again, independently - the phenomenon known in biology as convergent evolution. I call these designs 'good tricks.'

These are the animals that are the reason why you don't see old animals in the wild. You don't see sick animals in the wild. You don't see lame animals in the wild, and its all because of the predator: the lion, the tiger, the leopard, all the cats.

I don't think anyone can be more of a predator than a human being.

I think that's still the most primal fear of all humans: to be eaten.

There's no such thing as good or bad dinosaurs. There are predators and prey. The T-Rex in 'Jurassic Park' took human lives and saved them. No one interpreted her as good or bad.

Man is to man either a god or a wolf.

Lions, wolves, and vultures don't live together in herds, droves or flocks. Of all animals of prey, man is the only sociable one. Every one of us preys upon his neighbor, and yet we herd together.