Quotes from Jane Goodall

We have so far to go to realize our human potential for compassion, altruism, and love.

Every individual matters. Every individual has a role to play. Every individual makes a difference.

One thing I had learned from watching chimpanzees with their infants is that having a child should be fun.

A sense of calm came over me. More and more often I found myself thinking, "This is where I belong. This is what I came into this world to do.

Farm animals are far more aware and intelligent than we ever imagined and, despite having been bred as domestic slaves, they are individual beings in their own right. As such, they deserve our respect. And our help. Who will plead for them if we are silent? Thousands of people who say they 'love' animals sit down once or twice a day to enjoy the flesh of creatures who have been treated so with little respect and kindness just to make more meat.

If we do not do something to help these creatures, we make a mockery of the whole concept of justice.

Someday we shall look back on this dark era of agriculture and shake our heads. How could we have ever believed that it was a good idea to grow our food with poisons?

Each one of us matters, has a role to play, and makes a difference. Each one of us must take responsibility for our own lives, and above all, show respect and love for living things around us, especially each other.

We can't leave people in abject poverty, so we need to raise the standard of living for 80% of the world's people, while bringing it down considerably for the 20% who are destroying our natural resources.

Thousands of people who say they love animals sit down once or twice a day to enjoy the flesh of creatures who have been utterly deprived of everything that could make their lives worth living and who endured the awful suffering and the terror of the abattoirs.

Lasting change is a series of compromises. And compromise is all right, as long your values don't change.

It is these undeniable qualities of human love and compassion and self-sacrifice that give me hope for the future. We are, indeed, often cruel and evil. Nobody can deny this. We gang up on each one another, we torture each other, with words as well as deeds, we fight, we kill. But we are also capable of the most noble, generous, and heroic behavior.

I think the best evenings are when we have messages, things that make us think, but we can also laugh and enjoy each other's company.

We have a responsibility toward the other life-forms of our planet whose continued existence is threatened by the thoughtless behavior of our own human species. . . . Environmental responsibility – for if there is no God, then, obviously, it is up to us to put things right.

It actually doesn't take much to be considered a difficult woman. That's why there are so many of us." Jane Goodall

And always I have this feeling--which may not be true at all--that I am being used as a messenger.

Cultural speciation had been crippling to human moral and spiritual growth. It had hindered freedom of thought, limited our thinking, imprisoned us in the cultures into which we had been born. . . . These cultural mind prisons. . . . Cultural speciation was clearly a barrier to world peace. So long as we continued to attach more importance to our own narrow group membership than to the 'global village' we would propagate prejudice and ignorance.

I've watched a lot of people who became famous who completely change and I think it's because they tend to believe all the hype that's out there. I don't think there's that much hype about me.

We have turned away from the natural world. Instead, it's all about money and power.

Only if we understand, can we care. Only if we care, we will help. Only if we help, we shall be saved.

Let us develop respect for all living things. Let us try to replace violence and intolerance with understanding and compassion. And love.

Having respect for animals makes us better humans.

Your life matters. You can't live through a day without making an impact on the world. And what's most important is to think about the impact of your actions on the world around you.

My mother always taught us that if people don't agree with you, the important thing is to listen to them. But if you've listened to them carefully and you still think that you're right, then you must have the courage of your convictions.