Jane Goodall Quotes

Why should I care about posterity? What's posterity ever done for me?

We seem to have lost the wisdom of the indigenous people, which dictated that in any major decision, the first consideration was 'How will this decision we're making today affect our people in the future? These days, decisions are made based on the bottom line.

Few can be induced to labor exclusively for posterity - Posterity has done nothing for us

The American people have a right to know that, when Donald Trump's making decisions, they are being made in their best interests without him lining his pockets.

I never made a decision in my life that wasn't one hundred per cent selfish.

Few can be induced to labor exclusively for posterity; and none will do it enthusiastically. Posterity has done nothing for us; and theorize on it as we may, practically we shall do very little for it, unless we are made to think we are at the same time doing something for ourselves.

I actually don't hope for a legacy. I think that it impedes your ability to make the hard decisions if you sit around saying, 'How will this affect my legacy?'

The people who control the condition in which we live have no reason to think beyond more than the next five or 10 years.

If individuals have no sufficient reason to believe that a good situation today will have adverse long-term consequences, it must always be rational for them to aim to maximize their short-term good.

One way or another, the choice will be made by our generation, but it will affect life on earth for all generations to come

Along with others, I have tried to pry economists away from narrow assumptions about self interest. Behavior is driven by a much richer set of values and preferences.

Young people in general - and young women in particular - need to understand that they cannot retrieve in their forties the opportunities they threw away in their twenties.

Present thinking people kill the future.

Sometimes we want to engage in a war for financial reasons, for strategic reasons, for moral reasons, for all sorts of reasons, and it's important when we're making that decision to remind ourselves of what happens to the people on the front lines when we start this process.

I know that this is sport first and business second, and people have to do what's right for them.

If you think of people as making decisions actively, every time we think about the cup of coffee, we say, "How much will I enjoy the cup of coffee, what else could I not do in the future because I buy this cup of coffee?

Among politicians and businessmen, *Pragmatism* is the current term for 'To hell with our children.'

It is our responsibility to leave the people of the future a free hand.

Intensely selfish people are always very decided as to what they wish. They do not waste their energies in considering the good of others.

I sometimes wonder how some people can live with themselves in some of the big companies today. So many far-reaching decisions are based on how they will affect the next shareholders' meeting.

I would like people to understand the rationale for my embryonic stem cell research decision and how the process became distorted over time.

I just was non-political and didn't see myself as a person who could push people around, make their decision, you know, and tell them how lousy their work was.

Look at a child and realize that their future is in your hands. It's not just those who will be here fifty years from now. The decisions we make in the next ten years will shape the next 10,000 years.

People optimize locally - that is, they do what's best for themselves.

People don't respond just because you are fighting for the truth. They take their interests into account.