“We have the choice to use the gift of our life to make the world a better place–or not to bother”

Trees are living beings. And they have their own personalities. There are the young, eager saplings, all striving with each other. If you put your cheek against one of those, you almost sense the sap rising and the energy.

What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.

From the moment when, staring into the eyes of a chimpanzee, I saw a thinking, reasoning personality looking back.

Each one of us matters, has a role to play, and makes a difference. Each one of us must take responsibility for our own lives, and above all, show respect and love for living things around us, especially each other.

We can’t leave people in abject poverty, so we need to raise the standard of living for 80% of the world’s people, while bringing it down considerably for the 20% who are destroying our natural resources.

I like some animals more than some people, some people more than some animals.

Thousands of people who say they ‘love’ animals sit down once or twice a day to enjoy the flesh of creatures who have been utterly deprived of everything that could make their lives worth living and who endured the awful suffering and the terrors of the abattoirs

He had instigated a detailed study of the limb bones and locomotor patterns of a number of modern antelopes; the functions of varying bone structures of their legs could then be ascertained. Then, from the structure of fossil antelope bones reconstructed their movements.

Change happens by listening and then starting a dialogue with the people who are doing something you don’t believe is right.

The least I can do is speak out for those who cannot speak for themselves

There is a powerful force unleashed when young people resolve to make a change.

If we do not do something to help these creatures, we make a mockery of the whole concept of justice.

We find animals doing things that we, in our arrogance, used to think was just human .

One thing I had learned from watching chimpanzees with their infants is that having a child should be fun.

It was a reward far beyond my greatest hopes.

I’d like to be remembered as someone who really helped people to have a little humility and realize that we are part of the animal kingdom, not separated from it.

Be content with what thou hast received, and smooth thy frowning forehead, for the door of choice is not open either to thee or me.

The power to do good is also the power to do harm.

I think my all time favourite song would be between ‘Slow Dancing in a Burning Room’ and ‘Dreaming with a Broken Heart’ by John Mayer.

If there are a thousand steps between us and God, He will take all but one. He will leave the final one for us. The choice is ours.

Inherent to socialism is the absence of choice. If I want to choose my own pretzels or books or iphones, they prevent me – they fine me, or imprison me. And those systems, not infrequently have historically, have developed into systems where there are programs.

It’s not that I don’t love you. It’s just that I don’t want to.

You have to know how to accept rejection and reject acceptance.

I choose love. No occasion justifies hatred; no injustice warrants bitterness, I choose love. Today I will love God and what God loves.