Dan Mueller

“Judging from the evolutionary history of the brain, it seemed clear that feelings had entered the picture in prehuman species, as part of social behaviors. Sympathy, attachment, embarrassment, pride, submission, censure and recompense, disgust (at cheaters), altruism, compassion: these were social feelings, and arrived early on, before language. And they were perhaps more important than conscious thought, as overall cognitive strategy was formed by unconscious mentation in regions such as the ventromedial frontal lobe (right behind the nose). Life was feeling one’s way toward a goal, which goal ultimately equated to achieving and maintaining certain feelings.”
― Kim Stanley Robinson, Green Earth