What makes us human, I think, is an ability to ask questions, a consequence of our sophisticated spoken language.
Change happens by listening and then starting a dialogue with the people who are doing something you don’t believe is right.
Let us develop respect for all living things. Let us try to replace violence and intolerance with understanding and compassion. And love.
My mother always taught us that if people don’t agree with you, the important thing is to listen to them. But if you’ve listened to them carefully and you still think that you’re right, then you must have the courage of your convictions.
We are unique. Chimpanzees are unique. Dogs are unique. But we humans are just not as different as we used to think.
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.
I’m always pushing for human responsibility. Given that chimpanzees and many other animals are sentient and sapient, then we should treat them with respect.
Chimpanzees, more than any other living creature, have helped us to understand that there is no sharp line between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom. It’s a very blurry line, and it’s getting more blurry all the time.
As a child, we couldn’t afford holidays overseas, so instead I travelled through books. I was inspired by Dr Dolittle and Tarzan.
My mission is to create a world where we can live in harmony with nature.
Someday we shall look back on this dark era of agriculture and shake our heads. How could we have ever believed that it was a good idea to grow our food with poisons?
The chimpanzees taught me a lot about nonverbal communication. The big difference between them and us is that they don’t have spoken language. Everything else is almost the same: Kissing, embracing, swaggering, shaking the fist.
Lasting change is a series of compromises. And compromise is all right, as long your values don’t change.
Here we are, the most clever species ever to have lived. So how is it we can destroy the only planet we have?
The only possible way to get somebody to change is to reach into their hearts.
If only we can overcome cruelty, to human and animal, with love and compassion we shall stand at the threshold of a new era in human moral and spiritual evolution – and realize, at last, our most unique quality: humanity.
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.
Anyone who tries to improve the lives of animals invariably comes in for criticism from those who believe such efforts are misplaced in a world of suffering humanity.
You may not believe in evolution, and that is all right. How we humans came to be the way we are is far less important than how we should act now to get out of the mess we have made for ourselves.
From my perspective, I absolutely believe in a greater spiritual power, far greater than I am, from which I have derived strength in moments of sadness or fear. That’s what I believe, and it was very, very strong in the forest.