Jane Goodall: there have been too many events in my life, and in the l...

If you look into their [chimpanzees] eyes, you know you're looking into a thinking mind. They teach us that we are not the only beings with personalities, minds capable of rational thought, altruism and a sense of humor. That leads to new respect for other animals, respect for the environment and respect for all life.

Jane Goodall

eye animal science

I think the most important thing is to keep active, and to hope that your mind stays active.

Jane Goodall

important mind thinking

I got to Africa. I got the opportunity to go and learn, not about any animal, but chimpanzees. I was living in my dream world, the forest in Gombe National Park in Tanzania. It was Tanganyika when I began.

Jane Goodall

dream opportunity animal

I've learned that if you want people to join in any kind of conservation effort, you have to help them to care with their hearts, not just their heads.

Jane Goodall

effort heart people

There are many animal-welfare groups that sometimes seem to forget that human beings are animals too, that we need to include them in our sphere of compassion.

Jane Goodall

groups compassion animal

Some humans are mathematicians-others aren't.

Jane Goodall

mathematician humans science

Chimps taught us we're not separated from the animal kingdom, we're a part of it.

Jane Goodall

taught-us kingdoms animal

In what terms should we think of these beings, nonhuman yet possessing so very many human-like characteristics? How should we treat them? Surely we should treat them with the same consideration and kindness as we show to other humans; and as we recognize human rights, so too should we recognize the rights of the great apes? Yes.

Jane Goodall

rights kindness thinking

Chimpanzees have given me so much. The long hours spent with them in the forest have enriched my life beyond measure. What I have learned from them has shaped my understanding of human behavior, of our place in nature.

Jane Goodall

understanding forests long

Just remember--if you are really and truly determined to work with animals, somehow, either now or later, you will find a way to do it. But you have to want it desperately, work hard, take advantage of an opportunity--and never give up.

Jane Goodall

giving-up hard-work animal

The least I can do is speak out for the hundreds of chimpanzees who, right now, sit hunched, miserable and without hope, staring out with dead eyes from their metal prisons. They cannot speak for themselves.

Jane Goodall

speaks-out prison eye

It's not that humans and non-humans are identical... but the lack of understanding that led to the slave trade is the same lack of understanding many people have about animals today. When slaves were brought over from Africa, many people believed they were not humans, that they didn't have feelings. Many people believe that primates and other animals don't have feelings, too, but they do.

Jane Goodall

animal believe people

We find animals doing things that we, in our arrogance, used to think was "just human".

Jane Goodall

arrogance animal thinking

I cannot remember a time when I did not want to go to Africa to study animals.

Jane Goodall

study want animal

The Soul of Money is an inspired and utterly fascinating book. It will change the way you think about money. ... It is a book for everyone who would like to make the world a better place.

Jane Goodall

soul book thinking

When I began in 1960, individuality wasn't an accepted thing to look for; it was about species-specific behaviour. But animal behaviour is not hard science. There's room for intuition.

Jane Goodall

intuition individuality animal

If we could just stop building up armies and things like that, we would have all the money we need for wildlife and poverty.

Jane Goodall

wildlife building-up army

My hope for the future is that we learn wisdom again.

Jane Goodall

hope-for-the-future

Researchers find it very necessary to keep blinkers on. They don't want to admit that the animals they are working with have feelings. They don't want to admit that they might have minds and personalities because that would make it quite difficult for them to do what they do; so we find that within the lab communities there is a very strong resistance among the researchers to admitting that animals have minds, personalities and feelings.

Jane Goodall

strong personality animal

To me, trees are living beings and they have their own sort of personalities.

Jane Goodall

personality tree

there have been too many events in my life, and in the lives of my friends, which have defied any kind of scientific explanation. Science does not have appropriate tools for the dissection of the spirit.