Seeds of Hope Quotes

“And so, relentlessly, the planet is being desecrated in the name of “progress,” on the one hand, and as a result of poverty, ignorance, and apathy, born of hopelessness and despair, on the other.
So long as never-ending economic growth remains the goal of our governments and our major financial institutions, and so long as the corporate bottom line continues to put immediate profit above the future of our children, and so long as so many of the world’s inhabitants continue to live in unalleviated poverty, the crimes against the natural world will continue.”
― Jane Goodall, Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants

“It was as though the plants wanted me to write a different kind of book and sent gentle roots deep into my brain. They wanted me to fully acknowledge their importance in human history, their amazing powers of healing, the nourishment they provide, their ability to harm if we misused them, and, ultimately, our dependence on the plant kingdom. The plants seemed to want me to share with the world my own understanding of their beingness, so that people might better honor them as important partners in so many of our endeavors.”
― Jane Goodall, Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants

“Birutė Galdikas, the primatologist and authority on orangutans, has been fighting to fend off poachers, miners, and loggers over the years, but palm oil has proven to be the greatest threat of all.”
― Jane Goodall, Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants

“palm oil, not only for inclusion in many food products but also for biofuel. Because palm oil is considered a “clean” alternative to petroleum, the demand for it is growing in the United States and Europe.”
― Jane Goodall, Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants

“However, in order to be economically successful, the colonial invaders needed plentiful supplies of cheap labor—and it was this that led to the transatlantic slave trade.”
― Jane Goodall, Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants

“The development of these plantations thus went hand in hand with the expansion of the colonies—particularly those of Britain, France, Holland, Spain, and Portugal—in tropical and subtropical countries, including those in the Caribbean and the Americas.”
― Jane Goodall, Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants

“Peyote has been used medicinally in many different contexts by several Native American cultures. The Tarahumara of northwest Mexico held long-distance races from”
― Jane Goodall, Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants

“When I was in Mexico, I was told how mescaline was extracted from the peyote cactus.”
― Jane Goodall, Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants

“He confided to me that he was taking part in an “experiment” to learn about the effects of mescaline—a substance I now know is extracted from a cactus.”
― Jane Goodall, Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants

“One of the most powerful voices speaking out against the overexploitation, or even theft, of indigenous wisdom by Western corporations is the philosopher and environmental activist Dr. Vandana Shiva. Of particular concern for her is the patenting of products derived from an indigenous plant. She sees this as a new sort of colonialism: “In the old way they took over the land—now they are taking over life.”
― Jane Goodall, Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants

“Another plant whose incredible power to heal was confirmed by Western medicine is the Madagascar periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus),”
― Jane Goodall, Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants

“There is now scientific research that proves that gardening promotes well-being in people experiencing depression or distress, including those who are elderly, homeless, or mentally ill. Indeed, putting one’s hands in the soil, feeling the texture of plants, smelling their scents, and looking at their calming colors can relax the mind and uplift the spirits.”
― Jane Goodall, Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants

“It was twelve-year-old Edmond Albius, whose mother had worked on a vanilla plantation on Réunion (a small island off Madagascar), who revolutionized vanilla farming. The young Albius came up with a unique and innovative method of hand-pollination that is still being used to this day.”
― Jane Goodall, Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants

“(Bulbophyllum echinolabium), which, until recently, was threatened by both overcollection and logging.”
― Jane Goodall, Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants

“Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, Florida, famous for its collection of more than six thousand living orchids.”
― Jane Goodall, Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants

“Phragmipedium kovachii. It is a stunningly beautiful orchid from the Amazon rain forest in northeast Peru, with a blue-purple flower that can have a horizontal spread of up to nine and a half inches.”
― Jane Goodall, Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants

“enhances the orchid’s reproductive success—but not his own! The best known of these cheats is the bee orchid—the flower looks and feels like a female bee and even has the same pheromones.”
― Jane Goodall, Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants

“The Seed Cathedral.”
― Jane Goodall, Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants

“we now know, for all fynbos species. It is the heating of the soil as the fire sweeps across the ground that breaks seed dormancy.”
― Jane Goodall, Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants

“Someone once wondered why it is that if a work of Man is destroyed, it is called vandalism, but if a work of nature, of God, is destroyed it is so often called progress.”
― Jane Goodall, Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants

“And give thanks that we live in such a wonderful, magical, and endlessly fascinating kingdom. The kingdom of the plants.”
― Jane Goodall, Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants

“When a mother tree is cut down, this is likely to have an adverse effect on the development of the young, replacement seedling, and thus the regeneration of the entire forest may be compromised.”
― Jane Goodall, Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants

“It is now clear not only that all the trees in the forest are interconnected below the ground but also that each of the largest and oldest trees serves as a “mother tree,” with younger trees growing within her root-fungi network.”
― Jane Goodall, Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants

“Imagine—this gangly plant, which Darwin likened to a duckbill platypus of the vegetable kingdom, has survived as a species, unchanged, for 135 to 205 million years. Originally its habitat was lush, moist forest, yet it has now adapted to a very different environment—the harsh Namib Desert.”
― Jane Goodall, Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants

“Welwitschia mirabilis.”
― Jane Goodall, Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants

“One of the most important things about roots is that they hold the soil in place.”
― Jane Goodall, Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants

“I am so glad TV had not been invented then—it meant I had to, and most certainly did, exercise and develop my powers of imagination.”
― Jane Goodall, Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants