34 Quotes by Edward Thorndike

Dogs get lost hundreds of times and no one ever notices it or sends an account of it to a scientific magazine.

Human folk are as a matter of fact eager to find intelligence in animals.

From the lowest animals of which we can affirm intelligence up to man this type of intellect is found.

The function of intellect is to provide a means of modifying our reactions to the circumstances of life, so that we may secure pleasure, the symptom of welfare.

Amongst the minds of animals that of man leads, not as a demigod from another planet, but as a king from the same race.

The dog, on the other hand, has few or no ideas because his brain acts in coarse fashion and because there are few connections with each single process.

The real difference between a man's scientific judgments about himself and the judgment of others about him is he has added sources of knowledge.

So the animal finally performs in that situation only the fitting act.

It will, of course, be understood that directly or indirectly, soon or late, every advance in the sciences of human nature will contribute to our success in controlling human nature and changing it to the advantage of the common weal.