[About gorillas] You take these fine, regal animals. How many (human) fathers have the same sense of paternity? How many human mothers are more caring? The family structure is unbelievably strong.
Dian FosseyRead
My study of the wild gorilla is not yet finished, and even when it is complete, it will contribute only a small part toward man's understanding of his closest animal relatives, the great apes. But one conclusion is already clear: The gorilla is one of the most maligned animals in the world.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Dian Fossey highlights that gorillas are misunderstood and unjustly portrayed negatively.
In this quote, Dian Fossey emphasizes the ongoing efforts to study gorillas and their significance in understanding humanity's relationship with great apes. She points out that despite her research being incomplete, it is evident that gorillas have been unfairly judged and misrepresented, urging a reevaluation of their true nature and value.
Themes
GorillaNatureMisunderstoodResearchGreat ApesConservation
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about wildlife conservation, this quote could be used to highlight the importance of understanding and protecting gorillas.
More from Dian Fossey
All quotes →Active conservation [of gorillas] involves simply going out into the forest, on foot, day after day after day, attempting to capture poachers, killing-regretfully-poacher dogs, which spread rabies within the park, and cutting down traps.
Dian FosseyRead
If mountain gorillas are to survive and propagate, far more active conservation measures urgently need to be undertaken. The question remains, is it already too late?
Dian FosseyRead
When you realize the value of all life, you dwell on what is past and concentrate more on the preservation of the future.
Dian FosseyRead
The mountain gorilla faces grave danger of extinction - primarily because of the encroachments of native man upon its habitat - and neglect by civilized man, who does not conscientiously protect even the limited areas now allotted for the gorilla's survival.
Dian FosseyRead
When you realize the value of all life, you dwell less on what is past and concentrate more on the preservation of the future.
Dian FosseyRead
Similar quotes
Much of our waste problem is to be accounted for by the intentional flimsiness and unrepairability of the labor-savers and gadgets that we have become addicted to.
Wendell BerryRead
Calvin: Today for show and tell, I've brought a tiny miracle of nature: a single snowflake! I think we might all learn a lesson from how this utterly unique and exquisite crystal turns into an ordinary, boring molecule of water just like every other one when you bring it into the classroom. And now, while the analogy sinks in, I will be leaving you drips and going outside.
Bill WattersonRead
Nature is more like a seesaw than a crystal, a never-ending conga line of bold moves and corrections.
Diane AckermanRead
Beetles and butterflies are sometimes restricted to small areas. Each mountain in a range, and even the different zones of a mountain, may have its own peculiar species. But the house-fly seems to be everywhere. I wonder if any island in mid-ocean is flyless.
John MuirRead
The Mojave is a big desert and a frightening one. It’s as though nature tested a man for endurance and constancy to prove whether he was good enough to get to California.
John SteinbeckRead
This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks, Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight, Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic, Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms. Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighboring ocean Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest.
Henry Wadsworth LongfellowRead