Ecology, like genetics, is not about equilibrium states. It is about change, change and change. Nothing stays the same forever. - Matt Ridley

Just as we underestimate the degree to which human brains rely upon instincts, so we have generally underestimated the degree to which other animals are capable of learning.

They may direct the construction of the body and brain in the womb, but then they set about dismantling and rebuilding what they have made almost at once — in response to experience.

We consciously decide whether to consider people; we fall in love despite ourselves; we entirely fail to fall in love with people who fall in love with us. It is a mightily complicated business.