I shouldn't have named the chimps. It wasn't scientific. I didn't know. I knew nothing. And worse sin of all was that I was ascribing to them emotions like happiness, sadness and so forth.

Without the heart to ground it and open it to who we really can be as human beings, the brain is a very dangerous machine. A machine that is saying: we've got to have economic growth; we've got to have unending economic growth, otherwise societies will collapse. And yet there should be something saying: wait a minute, this isn't going to work.

Mainly because as women's education increases all around the planet, we find that family size tends to drop.

You can't do everything. You can't do health and forestry and agriculture. You've got to focus and do one or the other.

If we start with chimpanzees, they differ from us with the composition of the DNA by only just over one percent. So, as far as genetics go, we're almost identical. The composition of the blood, the immune system, the structure of the brain - almost identical.

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

I believe sharing stories and experiences is the best way to teach people to empathize!