An open book with blank golden pages lies beside a small closed dark book on blue ground.

Original artwork, not a still

Otto

Apes don't read philosophy.

— A Fish Called Wanda • 1988

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

The speaker flatly declares that apes do not read philosophy. It draws a blunt line between creatures of instinct and those who reflect, and it can work as a dismissive put-down aimed at someone treated as brutish. The confident, sweeping tone makes it sound like settled fact in the speaker's view.

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