400 Quotes by Jane Goodall

If I were a bird that needs feathers to fly higher, my mother would be my strongest feather. She was extremely supportive. When I was one and a half, I took a whole handful of earthworms to bed with me. My mother said very quietly, “Jane, they will die if they leave the earth.” And so, together, we put them back into the garden.

Even chimps understand the concept – if a troop of chimps enters a fruit tree, they will only pick the fruits that are ripe and leave the others growing. That is sustainability.

I don’t care two hoots about civilization. I want to wander in the wild.

I think anything is better than war. The extent to which one can negotiate with fanatics, I have no idea. I don’t know.

It’s not Africa that is destroying the African rainforest, it’s selling concessions to timber companies that are not African, they are from the developed world – Japan, America, Germany, Britain.

Change happens by listening and then starting a dialogue with the people who are doing something you don’t believe is right.

Only when our clever brain and our human heart work together in harmony can we achieve our true potential.

Mainly because as women’s education increases all around the planet, we find that family size tends to drop.

There would be very little point in my exhausting myself and other conservationists themselves in trying to protect animals and habitats if we weren’t at the same time raising young people to be better stewards.