The only possible way to get somebody to change is to reach into their hearts.

I like some animals more than some people, some people more than some animals.

We learn the social norms of our society and modify our behaviour accordingly.

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

There are good mothers and bad ones, but most of them are somewhere in-between.

Some people actually do not like animals - hard for me to understand, but true.

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

The chimps' way of aggression is quick and brutal. I compare them to gang attacks.

I urge you to read Eternal Treblinka and think deeply about its important message.

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

I am living in the Africa I have always longed for, always felt stirring in my blood.

I have never had an animal that didn't have a personality, one differing from another.

If you do microcredit with men, they tend to quickly drink it. They don't pay you back.

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

I believe sharing stories and experiences is the best way to teach people to empathize!

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

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

However much you know giraffes, to see one in the wild for the first time feels prehistoric.

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

If you consciously say 'I won't do it!' to yourself, then you have a good chance that you won't.

What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.

We have the choice to use the gift of our life to make the world a better place--or not to bother

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

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

I wasn't trying to be a scientist. I only ever wanted to be a naturalist, like a David Attenborough.

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

I have found that to love and be loved is the most empowering and exhilarating of all human emotions.

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

Well, in some ways we're not successful at all. We're destroying our home. That's not a bit successful.

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

Science demands objective factual evidence - proof; spiritual experience is subjective and leads to faith.

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

Other people have talked about chimpanzees being a window into the past, which I suppose is true, in a way.

Certainly, if you look at human behavior around the world, you have to admit that we can be very aggressive.

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

Here we are, the most clever species ever to have lived. So how is it we can destroy the only planet we have?

We could change the world tomorrow if all the millions of people around the world acted the way they believe.

In a very unscientific statement, I feel that there's been a disconnect between this clever brain and the heart.

Never be arrogant or abrasive. Treat your opponent respectfully if they really and truly believe they are right.

Chimps act the way they feel unless they are afraid of reprisal if they do so. But that doesn't apply to humans.

I love to write - it is a great source of reflection, especially as I continue to meet many new inspiring people.

What makes us human, I think, is an ability to ask questions, a consequence of our sophisticated spoken language.

We, as humans, have actually developed a sense of social responsibility. We have gone beyond our basic instincts.

Chimps are very quick to have a sudden fight or aggressive episode, but they're equally as good at reconciliation.

Of course we're all programmed genetically to some extent. But the "selfish gene" thesis doesn't explain everything.

We are unique. Chimpanzees are unique. Dogs are unique. But we humans are just not as different as we used to think.

It was because the chimps are so eye-catching, so like us and teach us so much that my work was recognised worldwide.

Animals were my passion from even before I could speak apparently. When I was about 10, 11 I fell in love with Tarzan.

You're thinking about putting scientists into small cages and doing research on them. I wish it could happen sometimes.

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

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