110+ Helen Fisher Quotes On Attraction, Biology And Brain

Helen Fisher is an anthropologist, human behavior researcher, and self-help author. She is best known for her research on the nature of romantic love and the concept of personality types. She has done extensive research on the biology of love, and her work has been featured in major media outlets like the New York Times and Time Magazine. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Helen Fisher on love, love, attraction.

Top 10 Helen Fisher Quotes

1. A Rolex watch or an expensive car are the things guys often use to show status, wealth, and basic desirability.
2. Keep an open heart. We are wired to find love.
3. A world without love is a deadly place.
4. We're not very dangerous animals; we don't have a horn like a rhino or quills like a porcupine.
5. I think romantic love evolved to enable you to focus your mating energy on just one individual at a time, thereby conserving mating time and energy.
6. Men and women are like two feet; they can help each other get ahead.
7. Women have never been as interesting as they are now. Not at any time on this planet have women been so educated, so interesting, so capable.
8. Nobody gets out of love alive. You turn into a menace or a pest when you've been rejected.
9. As a group, anthropologists are not too fond of people who work in the business world.
10. Saliva has testosterone and estrogen. When you kiss, you're having a chemical experience.

Helen Fisher Short Quotes

• Throughout evolution, ostracism was death indeed.
• A woman of 40 or 50 or 60 can take estrogen replacements, get facelifts, spend her money in bars.
• Globalization requires taking a broad contextual and long-term view.
• Real competition can drive up testosterone, which boosts libido.
• There's biology in everything, even when you're feeling spiritual.
• It's in our genes, we were built to wander.
• When you fight, anger drives up testosterone in both men and women.
• People have been looking for love potions since hunter-gatherer societies.
• There is more and more data indicating that there is a biological basis to your political views.
• We all have restlessness in long-term relationships.

Helen Fisher Quotes About Love

You fall in love with somebody who fits within what I call your 'love map,' an unconscious list of traits that you build in childhood as you grow up. And I also think that you gravitate to certain people, actually, with somewhat complementary brain systems. — Helen Fisher

Romantic love is not an emotion. ... It's a drive. It comes from the motor of the mind, the wanting part of the mind, the craving part of the mind. — Helen Fisher

The reason you take antidepressants is to feel calm. And romantic love is not calm -it's elation, it's mood swings, and you're killing all that when you take the drug. — Helen Fisher

Psychologists maintain that the dizzy feeling of intense romantic love lasts only about 18 months to-at best-three years — Helen Fisher

There were real reasons that you were attracted to somebody originally. The brain doesn't pick willy-nilly. Unless you part ways hating each other for some reason, that mechanism could get triggered again. You can literally fall in love again. — Helen Fisher

Anthropologists have found evidence of romantic love in 170 societies. They've never found a society that did not have it. — Helen Fisher

love is like Someone is camping in your head — Helen Fisher

People have often asked me whether what I know about love has spoiled it for me. And I just simply say, 'Hardly.' You can know every single ingredient in a piece of chocolate cake, and then when you sit down and eat that cake, you can still feel that joy. — Helen Fisher

Men have a psychological need to show off their courage and strength. When he sees you talking to another guy, that instinct kicks in and he jumps to protect you and prove he's worthy of your love. — Helen Fisher

Romantic love is an obsession. It possesses you. You lose your sense of self. You can't stop thinking about another human being. — Helen Fisher

Helen Fisher Quotes About Attraction

Blushing is thought to be linked to increased levels of norepinephrine in the brain, which may be associated with romantic feelings. It signals that we are interested and excited, which is attractive to men. — Helen Fisher

Women are very attracted to a low voice because it's linked to testosterone, which for millions of years was a sign that men had very good spacial skills and would have been very good at hunting and finding their way back home. — Helen Fisher

Barriers tend to intensify romance. It's called the 'Romeo and Juliet effect.' I call it 'frustration attraction.' — Helen Fisher

Women have a better sense of smell than men do, and it's even sharper in the middle of their menstrual cycle, when estrogen levels peak and women are more likely to be deciding whether a man's attractive. — Helen Fisher

Helen Fisher Quotes About Brain

From my studies of genetics and neuroscience I have come to believe that people fall into four broad personality types - each influenced by a different brain chemical: I call them the Explorer, Builder, Director, and Negotiator. — Helen Fisher

When you massage someone, the levels of oxytocin go up in the brain, and oxytocin is one of the chemicals that drives attachment. — Helen Fisher

[Women] tend to collect more pieces of data when they think, put them into more complex patterns, see more options and outcomes. They tend to be contextual, holistic thinkers. — Helen Fisher

People live for love. They kill for love. They die for love. They have songs, poems, novels, sculptures, paintings, myths, legends. It's one of the most powerful brain systems on Earth for both great joy and great sorrow. — Helen Fisher

The brain was not built to walk into a bar, where you know nobody, and start a conversation. That's not the way humanity has courted. — Helen Fisher

Experiences shape the brain, but the brain shapes the way we view experiences, too. — Helen Fisher

With orgasm, you get a real rush of oxytocin and vasopressin - those are associated with attachment. This is why you can feel such a sense of cosmic union with somebody after you've made love to them. — Helen Fisher

There are cognitive processes and limbic reactions associated with basic emotions. And you can change brain chemistry, but you're still not going to change memories and experiences in a human being. — Helen Fisher

The human brain is built to compare; it's Darwinian to consider an alternative when one presents itself. — Helen Fisher

Any kind of novelty or excitement drives up dopamine in the brain, and dopamine is associated with romantic love. — Helen Fisher

Helen Fisher Quotes About Happiness

I think the happiness we find, we make. — Helen Fisher

I don't think we're an animal that was built to be happy; we are an animal that was built to reproduce. — Helen Fisher

Romantic love is an addiction. — Helen Fisher

Romantic love allows you to focus mating energy. Attachment sustains that relationship as long as necessary to raise your baby. — Helen Fisher

Helen Fisher Famous Quotes And Sayings

Why do we feel jealousy? Therapists often regard the demon as a scar of childhood trauma or a symptom of a psychological problem. And it's true that people who feel inadequate, insecure, or overly dependent tend to be more jealous than others. — Helen Fisher

That "ol' black magic" is a fickle force. The chemistry of romantic love can trigger the chemistry of sexual desire and the fuel of sexual desire can trigger the fuel of romance. This is why it is dangerous to copulate with someone with whom you don't wish to become involved. Although you intend to have casual sex, you might just fall in love. — Helen Fisher

There's magic to love... Millions of years ago we evolved three basic drives: the sex love, romantic love, and attachment to a long-term partner. These circuits are deeply embedded in the human brian. They're going to survive as long as our species survive on what Shakespeare called, this "mortal coil." — Helen Fisher

There's all kinds of reasons that you fall in love with one person rather than another: Timing is important. Proximity is important. Mystery is important. You fall in love with somebody who's somewhat mysterious, in part because mystery elevates dopamine in the brain, probably pushes you over that threshold to fall in love. — Helen Fisher

Your sweetheart calls you by another's name. His eyes linger too long on your best friend. He talks with excitement about a girl at work. And the fire catches. Jealousy - that sickening combination of possessiveness, suspicion, rage, and humiliation - can overtake your mind and threaten your very core as you contemplate your rival. — Helen Fisher

Games are the way we keep romance alive. They're based in human hardwiring. Playing hard-to-get or leaving a little to the imagination allows the woman to be wooed and appreciated and the man to be challenged and intrigued. — Helen Fisher

Today, most women are surrounded by ingenious gadgets. They don't grow the peas or raise the chicken that they serve for dinner; instead they hunt and gather in the grocery store. They go through catalogs or department stores to buy clothes instead of shearing sheep, carding wool, and weaving cloth for skirts and coats and blankets. — Helen Fisher

Mothers really were not built to raise babies not only by themselves, but with only a partner. For millions of years, a woman had much more than just her husband to help rear her young... This whole idea of 'it takes a village to raise a child' is exactly how we're supposed to live. — Helen Fisher

What our grandmothers told us about playing hard to get is true. The whole point of the game is to impress and capture. It's not about honesty. Many men and women, when they're playing the courtship game, deceive so they can win. Novelty, excitement and danger drive up dopamine in the brain. And both sexes brag. — Helen Fisher

Research shows that couples who have a lot of similarities, including intellectual compatibility, end up staying together. — Helen Fisher

Women are better at reading body language everywhere in the world. As a matter of fact, it's associated with the female hormone estrogen. Women are better at figuring out of tone of voice, reading your face and posture and gesture. — Helen Fisher

You can get into a very fancy car and know everything about the engine, but when you drive in that car, you feel that rush. In the same way, I think the more you know about love, the more you can enjoy it. And knowing about your personality type, who you are and what kind of person you're dealing with gives you a great leg up. — Helen Fisher

Whether you're married or not, relationships - and the satisfaction tied to them - are extremely important for increasing men's and women's quality of life. — Helen Fisher

The Great Depression of the 1930s saw more American unmarried women working from nine to five, mostly in repetitive, boring, subordinate, dead-end jobs. But the number of working women doubled between 1870 and 1940. During World War II it doubled once again. — Helen Fisher

It certainly would have been adaptive for ancestral man to have a chubby wife during stressful times of famine. Not only would she have had more calories to burn, and thus more energy and endurance, but since fat stores estrogen, she would have remained fertile for longer. — Helen Fisher

Most of us make up our minds in the first three minutes of meeting someone whether there's a potential for a relationship. — Helen Fisher

Kissing is not just kissing. It is a major escalation or de-escalation point in a powerful process of mate choice. — Helen Fisher

As women in industrial societies join the paid workforce, they gain the economic means to depart unhappy marriages more easily. — Helen Fisher

Jealousy can even be good for love. One partner may feel secretly flattered when the other is mildly jealous. And catching someone flirting with your beloved can spark the kind of lust and romance that reignites a relationship. — Helen Fisher

Men want to think women don't cheat, and women want men to think they don't cheat, and therefore the sexes have been playing a little psychological game with each other. — Helen Fisher

Men are so visual, they see a woman who appeals to them physically, and it will trigger the romantic love system faster. — Helen Fisher

Natural beauty really entices men. They will tell you this time and time again, and studies consistently prove it. — Helen Fisher

There exists no culture in which adultery is unknown, no cultural device or code that extinguishes philandering. — Helen Fisher

We evolved in a tropical climate where the smells of plants and flowers were all around us. We spent a lot of time in the trees with a lot of sunlight and no clothes. — Helen Fisher

Sometimes we fall in love with somebody who will probably never love us, for reasons having nothing to do with us but with their own mindset, their chemistry. — Helen Fisher

Touch is the mother of the senses. Not only are women more sensitive when they touch, but they're also more sensitive to being touched. — Helen Fisher

At first I assumed hate was the opposite of love. But it isn't. The opposite of love is indifference. — Helen Fisher

My hypothesis is that conservative Republicans have very clear values, and when you have that, you're simply more relaxed. — Helen Fisher

When people tell you to walk a certain way, it's like not thinking of a purple tomato. You can't not do it. — Helen Fisher

Young women today do not marry the men they met in high school, or even the one they go out with at college, because they do not need to. — Helen Fisher

A lot of people have been romantically in love with somebody who they feel wasn't appropriate to marry. — Helen Fisher

We're apt to fall in love with those who are mysterious and challenging to us. — Helen Fisher

Ninety-one percent of American women and 86 percent of American men would not marry somebody who had every single quality they were looking for in a partner, if they were not in love with that person. — Helen Fisher

If we remained perpetually infatuated, we couldn't eat, sleep or work. — Helen Fisher

Along with our many human propensities, we evolved a huge cerebral cortex with which we make decisions. — Helen Fisher

Scientists know that women gravitate to men who have a different immune system from theirs. — Helen Fisher

For so many generations, a woman's only career path was to marry well and to marry up. Those days have changed. — Helen Fisher

We spend our lives trying to get along with people so we can keep our jobs, keep our marriages together, so that we can raise our kids properly. — Helen Fisher

It's almost as if men who get tribal tattoos are trying to signal that they are dangerous, they're to be respected, and they're powerful. — Helen Fisher

Women like signs of money and education - things that indicate that not only is this guy going to have some resources, but he's also willing to share them. — Helen Fisher

The Internet lets women use words, which is their natural tool. Little girls speak in more complex, grammatical sentences than little boys do, and women never lose that superiority in verbal ability. — Helen Fisher

High heels can literally raise your status because you're taller when you wear them. — Helen Fisher

You size up someone physically in less than one second - too tall, too short, too fat, too thin, too old, too young, too stuffy, too scruffy. — Helen Fisher

When you look at the brain regions associated with picking up data from the body, a huge amount of the brain is devoted to picking up information from the lips and tongue. — Helen Fisher

I've always maintained that men were more romantic than women. — Helen Fisher

Any time you choose not to hide your tattoo, you're limiting your social sphere, because they're not popular in big business. — Helen Fisher

Neither gender is routinely more jealous - although women are more willing to work to win back a lover, while men tend to flaunt their money and status and are more likely to walk out to protect their self-esteem or save face. — Helen Fisher

Of all the foods we share, there is nothing more primordial than meat. It's no surprise that meat-eaters still want a partner who will give, receive and share this primordial symbol of a budding partnership. — Helen Fisher

When chimps threaten, they open their mouth and show their teeth. It's a little like waving a knife in front of you. It's very primitive, and therefore bizarre. — Helen Fisher

Romantic love is one of the most addictive substances on Earth. — Helen Fisher

Despite the myth that men are less committed, they are predisposed to desire marriage. — Helen Fisher

We are lied to by our love songs. — Helen Fisher

In America, we are demanding everything from our marriage. — Helen Fisher

As social animals, we need to exchange juicy tales about someone - to connect with one another. For millions of years our forebears must have sat around the campfire, whispering about everyone they knew. — Helen Fisher

Women's worst invention was the plow. With the beginning of plow agriculture, men's roles became extremely powerful. Women lost their ancient jobs as collectors. — Helen Fisher

Liberals and conservatives are looking for entirely different things. Their attitudes toward romance and how they court are really dramatically different. There's almost no overlap. — Helen Fisher

Women spend their lives trying to look good for men. So a woman who feels she's sending the right visual signals is pleased with herself. — Helen Fisher

Millions of years ago, we evolved three basic drives: the sex drive, romantic love and attachment to a long-term partner. These circuits are deeply embedded in the human brain. They're going to survive as long as our species survives. — Helen Fisher

Men couldn't care less if your strands are perfectly styled and neat. In fact, he might like you more with some wildness or bedhead, since it shows you're carefree and relaxed. — Helen Fisher

Good-looking people are always looking for other good-looking people. — Helen Fisher

Hair that gleams can send a clear sign that you're young and in your prime, whatever your actual age. — Helen Fisher

There's a lot of talk about the positive aspects of love. We as a society downplay the danger, the anxiety, and the disappointment. We romanticize romance. — Helen Fisher

Office romances are few, short, and not usually destructive. — Helen Fisher

Women, it turns out, are built to lead - particularly in the modern world. — Helen Fisher

When you're in the throes of this romantic love, it's overwhelming - you're out of control, you're irrational, you're going to the gym at 6 A.M. every day - Why? Because she's there. — Helen Fisher

You've got to remember that men are men and women are women. And although a lot of similarities, there are some real differences. — Helen Fisher

We still have community, but we don't seem to have local community. Even in a small town where you know your neighbors and your mother's down the street, they're not in arm's length. — Helen Fisher

I was married and divorced at 23. — Helen Fisher

Life Lessons by Helen Fisher

1. Helen Fisher taught us that it is important to take risks and be open to new ideas in order to make progress in our lives. She showed us that it is possible to find success through hard work and dedication, regardless of the obstacles that may arise.
2. She also demonstrated the importance of being resilient and having a positive attitude in the face of adversity. She showed us that it is possible to overcome any challenge if we stay focused and determined.
3. Finally, Helen Fisher taught us that it is important to stay curious and never stop learning. She showed us that it is possible to make a lasting impact on the world by asking questions and exploring new ideas.