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.
Jane Goodall
With Love and Compassion
Topic: Love, Compassion, & Kindness
We still have a long way to go. But we are moving in the right direction. 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.
Jane Goodall was born on April 3, 1934, in London, England. As a young girl, she was fascinated by animals and nature, which led her to dream of traveling to Africa to observe them in their natural habitats. With limited financial resources but an unwavering determination, she eventually saved enough to make her first journey to Kenya in 1957. There, she met famed anthropologist Louis Leakey, who recognized her potential and offered her the opportunity to study chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania. Though she lacked a formal scientific education at the time, her keen observational skills and genuine respect for the natural world laid the groundwork for a revolutionary understanding of animal behavior.
Goodall's work in Gombe radically changed the scientific community's understanding of chimpanzees and, by extension, human beings. Over the years, she discovered that chimpanzees used tools, had complex social structures, and exhibited behaviors previously thought to be uniquely human, such as empathy and even warfare. Her findings were initially met with skepticism, but as the evidence grew, so did her reputation. Goodall earned her Ph.D. in ethology from Cambridge University in 1965, becoming one of the few people to earn a doctorate without first obtaining a bachelor's degree.
Over the ensuing decades, Jane Goodall has become a global advocate for conservation and animal welfare, founding the Jane Goodall Institute in 1977. The organization focuses on conservation, education, and research and has initiated various community-centered conservation programs across Africa. She has authored numerous books, delivered lectures worldwide, and received many awards and honors for her work, including being named a UN Messenger of Peace. Through her ongoing efforts, she seeks to inspire a new generation of individuals to treat the natural world with the same profound respect and deep sense of interconnectedness that has guided her own remarkable life.
Goodall, Jane, and Phillip Berman. Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey. Grand Central Publishing, 2000.
Jane Goodall
Theme: Compassion
About This Jane Goodall Quotation [Commentary]
Jane Goodall emphasizes that love and compassion are essential to humanity’s moral and spiritual evolution. She acknowledges that cruelty persists—toward both humans and animals—but believes change is possible. “If only we can overcome cruelty, to human and animal, with love and compassion,” she writes, then we will stand “at the threshold of a new era.” This shift is not just ethical but foundational to realizing our “most unique quality: humanity.” Goodall’s words remind us that the way we treat others defines the course of our collective future.
She highlights the danger of disconnecting intellect from empathy, noting that much harm stems from “sheer selfish greed” and a lack of compassion for future generations. While human intelligence has led to great advancements, she warns that without moral responsibility, it fuels exploitation and destruction. Still, she insists that hope is not passive wishing but requires “action and engagement.” True wisdom, she suggests, comes from using both “our clever brain and our compassionate heart” to guide ethical progress.
For Goodall, overcoming cruelty is not just about stopping harmful actions but about fostering an attitude of love and understanding. “We are moving in the right direction,” she says, affirming that transformation is within reach. By choosing compassion, humanity enters a new era where moral growth is not an ideal but a lived reality. In this, we fulfill our most defining potential—not just as intelligent beings, but as ones capable of care and responsibility.
Additional Jane Goodall Quotations
“It is these undeniable qualities of human love and compassion and self-sacrifice that give me hope for the future. We are, indeed, often cruel and evil. Nobody can deny this. We gang up on each one another, we torture each other, with words as well as deeds, we fight, we kill. But we are also capable of the most noble, generous, and heroic behavior.”
―Jane Goodall, Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey.
“Hope is often misunderstood. People tend to think that it is simply passive wishful thinking: I hope something will happen but I’m not going to do anything about it. This is indeed the opposite of real hope, which requires action and engagement.”
―Jane Goodall, The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times.
“Of course, a great deal of our onslaught on Mother Nature is not really lack of intelligence but a lack of compassion for future generations and the health of the planet: sheer selfish greed for short-term benefits to increase the wealth and power of individuals, corporations and governments. The rest is due to thoughtlessness, lack of education, and poverty. In other words, there seems to be a disconnect between our clever brain and our compassionate heart. True wisdom requires both thinking with our head and understanding with our heart.”
―Jane Goodall, The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times.
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