I used to very politely say that if there is free will then it's in all sorts of boring places, like whether you're going to pick up this or that fork as you begin your meal. There really is none: It's all biology.
Robert SapolskyRead
Baboons have the exact physiology as humans do. They also get the same stress-related illnesses, such as ulcers and heart disease.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Baboons share similar physiological traits with humans, making them susceptible to the same stress-related health issues.
This quote by Robert Sapolsky illustrates the close physiological similarities between baboons and humans, particularly in how both species experience stress and its associated health problems. It emphasizes the biological connections between us and our primate relatives, highlighting that like humans, baboons can suffer from stress-induced conditions such as ulcers and heart disease, which serves as a reminder of the profound effects of stress on overall health.
Themes
BaboonsStressHealthPhysiologyIllness
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about mental health awareness, one could use this quote to illustrate the impact of stress on both humans and other primates.
More from Robert Sapolsky
All quotes βWhen you've wised up enough, there is a very clear conclusion that you have to reach after a while, which is, at the end of the day, it is really impossible for one person to make a difference.
Robert SapolskyRead
My adolescent rebellions took the form of, if anything, passive aggressively doing what was asked of me but doing it ten times more than what was asked of me, so that eventually they'd have to beg me to stop.
Robert SapolskyRead
When humans invented material inequality, they came up with a way of subjugating the low-ranking like nothing ever seen before in the primate world.
Robert SapolskyRead
Yes, genes are important for understanding our behavior. Incredibly important - after all, they code for every protein pertinent to brain function, endocrinology, etc., etc. But the regulation of genes is often more interesting than the genes themselves, and it's the environment that regulates genes.
Robert SapolskyRead
I expected social rank to be the determining factor in health, and in some ways that's true. But far more important is what sort of society that rank occurs in. Being low ranking in a benevolent troop is a hell of a lot better for your blood pressure than being low ranking in an aggressive troop.
Robert SapolskyRead
Similar quotes
If we examine the accomplishments of man in his most advanced endeavors, in theory and in practice, we find that the cell has done all this long before him, with greater resourcefulness and much greater efficiency.
Albert ClaudeRead
Human exploration is something that's been going on for thousands of years, and the models that worked 500 years ago are likely to work again today.
Peter DiamandisRead
There must be enormous numbers of planets around the stars in the many galaxies in our observable universe. We may be sure that wonderful things are happening on these planets that the human race never will observe.
Jim PeeblesRead
More than any other product of human scientific culture scientific knowledge is the collective property of all mankind.
Konrad LorenzRead
The distribution of species on islands and continents throughout the world is exactly what you'd expect if evolution was a fact. The distribution of fossils in space and in time are exactly what you would expect if evolution were a fact. There are millions of facts all pointing in the same direction and no facts pointing in the wrong direction.
Richard DawkinsRead
Some 5 billion years from now, there will be a last perfect day on Earth... then the sun will begin to die, life will be extinguished, the oceans will boil and evaporate away.
Carl SaganRead