Jane Goodall — "My mission is to create a world where people live in harmony with nature."
My mission is to create a world where people live in harmony with nature.
Get This Quote & Author's Image Illustrated On:
Click any product to generate a realistic preview. Up to 3 at a time.
* Initial load can take up to 90 seconds — revising the preview in another color is nearly instant.
Kitchen
Apparel
Other
More from Jane Goodall
"The world needs us to be better. We need to be better for the animals, for the planet, for ourselves."
"The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it."
"We have to find a way to live in harmony with nature, or we will destroy ourselves."
"I don't understand why we have to be so destructive. Why can't we learn to live in harmony with nature?"
"What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make."
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.
Verification
Unverifiable
Found in 1 providers: grok
1 source checked
Understanding this quote
What it means
The quote declares a personal commitment to ending the conflict between human civilization and the natural world. It envisions a future where ecosystems and wildlife are not sacrificed for economic growth, but coexist sustainably with human communities. It is a call to shift from exploitation toward stewardship, recognizing that human wellbeing ultimately depends on the health of the planet's living systems.
Relevance to Jane Goodall
After decades observing chimpanzees in Gombe, Tanzania — fundamentally redefining the boundary between humans and animals — Goodall transitioned from researcher to global activist. She founded the Jane Goodall Institute and the Roots & Shoots youth program, traveling 300 days a year to advocate for conservation. Her fieldwork revealed how deeply connected humans are to other species, making this mission a direct extension of everything she witnessed in the wild.
The era
Goodall rose to prominence during accelerating environmental destruction — tropical deforestation, mass species extinction, and the emerging climate crisis. By the 1990s, when she committed to full-time advocacy, the Gombe forests she had studied were severely degraded by human encroachment. The 1992 Rio Earth Summit formalized global concern, but political action lagged behind science. Her mission responded directly to a world where industrial development was outpacing conservation at every turn.
AI-generated insights based on extensive research and information for context. Factual errors? Email [email protected].