Quote collection
283 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"I had been told from school onwards that the best definition of a human being was man the tool-maker - yet I had just watched a chimp tool-maker in action. I remember that day as vividly as if it was yesterday."
"I didn't want to become a professor or get tenure or teach or anything. All I wanted to do was get a degree because Louis Leakey said I needed one, which was right, and once I succeeded I could get back to the field."
"I'm highly political. I spend an awful lot of time in the U.S. trying to influence decision-makers. But I don't feel in tune with British politics."
"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."
"Even when it comes to things like wars over oil, which may seem like a whole different ball game, there are still comparisons one can draw: chimps fight for their territory; they fight for the resources within that territory, so it does relate in a way."
"They used to ask: "How will this decision that we make today affect our people in the future?" Now we make decisions based on: "How does it affect me, now? How does it affect the next shareholders meeting, three months ahead? How does it affect my next political campaign?""
"My favorite animals are dogs."
"If you do microcredit with men, they tend to quickly drink it. They don't pay you back."
"It was because the chimps are so eye-catching, so like us and teach us so much that my work was recognised worldwide."
"If everybody on the planet today had the same standard of living as the average European or American, we would need three new planets. But we don't even have one new planet. We have this one, and with the way we're polluting it, the shrinking water resources, the climate change, the experimentation with plants... the outlook is grim."
"When I was a child, the African forest sounded like a dream to me, because it was full of animals and it was wild."
"If we do not do something to help these creatures, we make a mockery of the whole concept of justice."
"...it honestly didn't matter how we humans got to be the way we are, whether evolution or special creation was responsible. What mattered and mattered desperately was our future development. Were we going to go on destroying God's creation, fighting each other, hurting the other creatures of the His planet?"
"I think anything is better than war. The extent to which one can negotiate with fanatics, I have no idea. I don't know."
"Chimps are very quick to have a sudden fight or aggressive episode, but they're equally as good at reconciliation."
"I am obstinate and I will not give in."
"I don't spend that much time being introspective, believe it or not. All I know is that I grew up not questioning God because that's how you are. God was there like the birds and the wind."
"The person who has the most influence on me is my mother. Think of life as a flight where we fly higher and higher. If I were a bird that needs feathers to fly higher, I would regard my mother as my strongest feather."
"The best relationship you can have with a chimpanzee is total mutual trust."
"Terrorism is usually fueled by poverty, and the fanatical faith of the terrorists who truly believe that the more people they kill who do not subscribe to their faith, the greater their reward in heaven."