"This growth in the number, speed of formation, permanence, delicacy and complexity of associations possible for an animal reaches its acme in the case of man"
- Edward Thorndike
About this Quote
This quote by Edward Thorndike speaks to the one-of-a-kind capabilities of human beings in contrast to various other animals. Thorndike is stressing the growth in the number, rate of formation, durability, special and also complexity of organizations that human beings are capable of making. He is recommending that human beings have the ability to create more associations than various other pets, and that these organizations are formed quicker, are more irreversible, and are much more elaborate and fragile. This quote is suggesting that people have an unique capability to form organizations that pets do not have, which this capability goes to its peak in people. Thorndike is highlighting the significance of the organizations that humans are capable of making, as well as exactly how this establishes us apart from other animals.
"Often and often afterwards, the beloved Aunt would ask me why I had never told anyone how I was being treated. Children tell little more than animals, for what comes to them they accept as eternally established"
"Certainly it is wrong to be cruel to animals and the destruction of a whole species can be a great evil. The capacity for feelings of pleasure and pain and for the form of life of which animals are capable clearly impose duties of compassion and humanity in their case"
"Independence is all very well, but we animals never allow our friends to make fools of themselves beyond a certain limit; and that limit you've reached"
