Quotes by Temple Grandin

The world needs all types of minds.

But my favorite of Einsteins words on religion is Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind. I like this because both science and religion are needed to answer lifes great questions.

Unfortunately, most people never observe the natural cycle of birth and death. They do not realize that for one living thing to survive, another living thing must die.

I think using animals for food is an ethical thing to do, but weve got to do it right. Weve got to give those animals a decent life and weve got to give them a painless death. We owe the animal respect.

I believe there is a reason such as autism, severe manic-depression, and schizophrenia remain in our gene pool even though there is much suffering as a result.

It is human nature to strive.

If language naturally evolves to serve the needs of tiny rodents with tiny rodent brains, then whats unique about language isnt the brilliant humans who invented it to communicate high-level abstract thoughts. Whats unique about language is that the creatures who develop it are highly vulnerable to being eaten.

I believe that the best way to create good living conditions for any animal, whether its a captive animal living in a zoo, a farm animal or a pet, is to base animal welfare programs on the core emotion systems in the brain. My theory is that the environment animals live in should activate their positive emotions as much as possible, and not activate their negative emotions any more than necessary. If we get the animals emotions rights, we will have fewer problem behaviors... All animals and people have the same core emotion systems in the brain.

I believe that the place where an animal dies is a sacred one. There is a need to bring ritual into the conventional slaughter plants and use as a means to shape peoples behavior. It would help prevent people from becoming numbed, callous, or cruel. The ritual could be something very simple, such as a moment of silence. In addition to developing better designs and making equipment to insure the humane treatments of all animals, that would be my contribution.

Label-locked thinking can affect treatment. For instance, I heard a doctor say about a kid with gastrointestinal issues, “Oh, he has autism. That’s the problem”—and then he didn’t treat the GI problem.

Autism is a neurological disorder. Its not caused by bad parenting. Its caused by, you know, abnormal development in the brain. The emotional circuits in the brain are abnormal. And there also are differences in the white matter, which is the brains computer cables that hook up the different brain departments.

Im a visual thinker, really bad at algebra. Theres others that are a pattern thinker. These are the music and math minds. They think in patterns instead of pictures. Then theres another type thats not a visual thinker at all, and theyre the ones that memorize all of the sports statistics, all of the weather statistics.

If you have autism in the family history, you still vaccinate. Delay it a bit, space them out.

I think that autistic brains tend to be specialized brains. Autistic people tend to be less social. It takes a ton of processor space in the brain to have all the social circuits.

Mild autism can give you a genius like Einstein. If you have severe autism, you could remain nonverbal. You dont want people to be on the severe end of the spectrum. But if you got rid of all the autism genetics, you wouldnt have science or art. All you would have is a bunch of social yak yaks.

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of a good teacher.

Research is starting to show that a child should be engaged at least 20 hours a week. I do not think it matters which program you choose as long as it keeps the child actively engaged with the therapist, teacher, or parent for at least 20 hours a week.

I had people in my life who didnt give up on me: my mother, my aunt, my science teacher. I had one-on-one speech therapy. I had a nanny who spent all day playing turn-taking games with me.

The thing about being autistic is that you gradually get less and less autistic, because you keep learning, you keep learning how to behave. Its like being in a play; Im always in a play.

Computerized medical records will enable statistical analysis to be used to determine which treatments are most effective.