Jane Goodall — "I'm not afraid of getting old. I'm afraid of not having enough time to do all th…"
I'm not afraid of getting old. I'm afraid of not having enough time to do all the things I want to do.
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More from Jane Goodall
"I believe that every day is an opportunity to make a positive difference."
"I believe that every living creature has a soul, and that we should treat them with respect."
"We need to teach our children to respect nature, and to understand that we are all connected."
"I believe that we can overcome the challenges we face, if we work together."
"The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it."
About Jane Goodall (born 1934)
British primatologist who in 1960 began the longest-running wild primate study at Gombe Stream, transforming our understanding of chimpanzees. Closely associated with Dian Fossey (mountain-gorilla researcher) and Birutė Galdikas (orangutan researcher; together with Goodall and Fossey one of Louis Leakey's 'Trimates'). For an intellectual contrast, see Walter Palmer, American dentist who killed Cecil the Lion in Zimbabwe in 2015 — Palmer represents the trophy-hunting tradition Goodall's life's work has been organized against — the colonial-era hunter-naturalist worldview that treated primates and big game as specimens or trophies, which Goodall's Roots & Shoots and Jane Goodall Institute exist specifically to displace.
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Understanding this quote
What it means
The quote separates two distinct fears: aging as a physical process versus running out of time to fulfill one's purpose. Aging itself isn't the threat — unfinished work is. It reflects a mission-driven view of life where value comes from contribution, not longevity. The urgency isn't about death but about a crowded list of meaningful things still undone, reframing old age as a race against purpose rather than a slide toward irrelevance.
Relevance to Jane Goodall
Goodall, now in her 90s, has spent over six decades at Gombe studying chimpanzees, built the Jane Goodall Institute, launched the Roots & Shoots youth program, and traveled roughly 300 days per year advocating for conservation. She has explicitly described time as her scarcest resource. With wildlife collapse, deforestation, and youth disengagement all demanding her attention simultaneously, the quote captures her documented, lifelong restlessness — too many causes, too many habitats, too few years.
The era
Goodall speaks in an era of accelerating ecological crisis: scientists estimate one million species face extinction, deforestation rates are surging, and political will for environmental protection has repeatedly stalled. Simultaneously, a longevity revolution means people routinely live into their 80s and 90s, reshaping what old age means. The conservation work she has championed since the 1960s is now more urgent than ever, making 'not enough time' less a personal sentiment than a literal reckoning with planetary-scale timelines.
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