Jane Goodall Quotes

Here we are, arguably the most intelligent being that's ever walked planet Earth, with this extraordinary brain ... and yet we're destroying the only home we have.

Man is a clever animal who behaves like an imbecile.

The truth is that our race survived ignorance; it is our scientific genius that will do us in.

Here we are, the most clever species ever to have lived. So how is it we can destroy the only planet we have?

We would destroy ourselves and the planet if no change happens, because of the amplification of the egoic state through science and technology.

If we destroy the biosphere, then mankind will die. We all waste our time worrying about stupid wars and petty jealousy and greed, and all the time, we're sitting on a time bomb.

Many can argue that it is our power of intelligence that is the key to the human domination of our planet. I suggest that it is the ability to put our thoughts into words that can be communicated to others.

Not all intelligence can be artificial now, so if we make a mistake, the consequences are no longer simply located within an institution or a national culture.

It's not going to do any good to land on Mars if we're stupid.

We are a plague on the Earth.

As a kid, I didn't need to be convinced the future promised peril and oppression, so when I started thinking up the middle-grade science fiction novel that became 'The Boy at the End of the World,' it seemed only natural to build the story around a dark vision of the future. In my book, civilization has nearly destroyed itself.

We are in danger of destroying ourselves by our greed and stupidity. We cannot remain looking inwards at ourselves on a small and increasingly polluted and overcrowded planet.

The human race's prospects of survival were considerably better when we were defenseless against tigers than they are today when we have become defenseless against ourselves.

If we don't blow ourselves up, this is going to be a really wonderful world.

Although whenever you have intelligent life in the presence of large explosions, a safe bet is that the intelligent life is responsible for the large explosion.

A large section of the intelligentsia seems wholly devoid of intelligence.

You know very well that I no longer think. I am far too intelligent for that.

If we blow ourselves up we will do it by misapplication of science; if we manage to keep from blowing ourselves up, it will be through intelligent application of science.

The more intelligent a man is, the more originality he discovers in others.

Such is the vastness of his genius that he can outwit even himself.

If you care about being thought credible and intelligent, do not use complex language where simpler language will do.

Each child should be more intelligent than his parents.

Every act of the man inscribes itself in the memories of his fellows, and in his own manners and face. The air is full of sounds;the sky, of tokens; the ground is all memoranda and signatures; and every object covered over with hints, which speak to the intelligent.

Suddenly the clouds seem high above us. They’re moving over us in an arch, circling the planet. They have seen abysmal oceans and charred, scorched islands. They have seen how we destroyed the world. If I could see everything, as the clouds do, would I swirl around this remaining continent, still so full of color and life and seasons, wanting to protect it? Or would I just laugh at the futility of it all, and meander onward, down the earth’s sloping atmosphere?

Intelligence is like four-wheel drive. It only allows you to get stuck in more remote places.