The voice of the natural world would be, "Could you please give us space and leave us alone to get along with our own lives and our own ways, because we actually know much better how to do it then when you start interfering."
Jane GoodallRead
I like some animals more than some people, some people more than some animals.
Interpretation
People can have varying preferences for animals and humans based on individual qualities and experiences.
This quote by Jane Goodall reflects the idea that our relationships and connections to beings around us—whether animals or humans—are influenced by personal experiences, actions, and inherent characteristics. It suggests a subjective evaluation of worth and affection that varies among individuals and encourages an examination of the complexities of interpersonal and interspecies relationships.
In practice
During a wildlife conservation conference when discussing connections with nature.
The voice of the natural world would be, "Could you please give us space and leave us alone to get along with our own lives and our own ways, because we actually know much better how to do it then when you start interfering."
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.
I was born in London in England in 1934. I went through, as a child, the horrors of World War II, through a time when food was rationed and we learned to be very careful, and we never had more to eat than what we needed to eat. There was no waste. Everything was used.
Chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutan shave been living for hundreds of thousands of years in their forest,living fantastic lives, never overpopulating, never destroying the forest. I would say that they have been in a way more successful than us as far as being in harmony with the environment.
There are an awful lot of scientists today who believe that before very long we shall have unraveled all the secrets of the universe. There will be no puzzles anymore. To me, it'd be really, really tragic because I think one of the most exciting things is this feeling of mystery, feeling of awe, the feeling of looking at a little live thing and being amazed by it and how it has emerged through these hundreds of years of evolution and there it is and it is perfect and why.
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.
If you go on with this nuclear arms race, all you are going to do is make the rubble bounce.
The fundamental loss of a desire for God is the heart of original sin.
No one, I hope, can doubt my wish to see... all mankind exercising self-government, and capable of exercising it. But the question is not what we wish, but what is practicable.
Why don't they cut their own children's ears into points to make them look sharp? Why don't they cut off their noses to make them look plucky? One would be just as sensible as the other. What right have they to torment and disfigure God's creatures?
The guiding motto in the life of every natural philosopher should be, seek simplicity and distrust it.
Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.
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