Who really said it

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

Q: Did Jane Goodall say "What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make"?

Not confirmed. Universally credited to Jane Goodall — and embraced by the Jane Goodall Institute itself — the line sits squarely inside her lifelong message about individual impact and hope. But no primary source (a specific book, speech, or interview, with a date) has ever been documented for this exact wording; it circulates in quote compilations without a citation, and neither Quote Investigator nor Wikiquote's sourced section pins it to an origin.

Attributed to Jane Goodall 3 April 1934 – 1 October 2025 · British primatologist & conservationist

Attributed Rights unconfirmed

Universally credited to Jane Goodall — and embraced by the Jane Goodall Institute itself — the line sits squarely inside her lifelong message about individual impact and hope. But no primary source (a specific book, speech, or interview, with a date) has ever been documented for this exact wording; it circulates in quote compilations without a citation, and neither Quote Investigator nor Wikiquote’s sourced section pins it to an origin.

Last verified 16 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Unconfirmed quote & credit

“What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make” Jane Goodall (attributed) — widely credited to her but with no documented primary source

Can you use it?

We couldn’t verify where this wording comes from, so there’s no rights status to give. Safe to present as an unverified or anonymous line — just don’t assert a specific author or source.

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In context

Evoking the world of Jane Goodall — British primatologist & conservationist. Theme: "What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The sourcing problem

Credited to: Jane Goodall
Documented source: None located — no book, speech, or interview cited
Common longer form: “You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you…”
Status: Attributed — genuine to her message, but unsourced

You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.

The two-sentence form above is the version most often reproduced; the shorter “What you do makes a difference…” is simply its second half. No compilation traces either to a dated primary source.

Jane Goodall Institute — quotes to guide you

What the record shows

The Jane Goodall Institute of Canada lists the line among Goodall’s guiding quotes — but gives no book, speech, or date for it.
Quote compilations from Goodreads to news round-ups of her most famous quotes all reproduce it with the same absence of any citation.
Wikiquote’s sourced section does not carry this exact line; the closest documented statement is a reworded one from her filmed final message: “every single day you live, you make a difference…and you get to choose the difference that you make.”
Quote Investigator has not published a trace of this quotation, so no earliest-attestation date is on record.

The line is credited to Jane Goodall (1934–2025) but has never been tied to a specific published work, speech, or interview, so its first-publication date is undocumented. If it were drawn from one of her books or talks it would be in copyright to her estate and publishers; because no source can be identified, we assert no rights status rather than guess.

Fact-check

The catch: it's real, but sourceless

This is not a case of the wrong author — the thought is unmistakably Goodall’s and she voiced it for decades. The catch is that a line reproduced on posters, mugs, and institute pages has never been anchored to a documented origin.

A specific Goodall book unconfirmed

The quote is frequently shared as if lifted from one of her books (Reason for Hope is sometimes guessed), but no compilation supplies a title, page, or edition, and the primary source remains unlocated. Treat any book-and-page citation you see as unverified.

Her filmed “Final Message” different wording

Wikiquote’s sourced section documents a similar idea in different words — “every single day you live, you make a difference…and you get to choose the difference that you make” — which is sometimes conflated with the classic wording. They express the same thought but are not the same sentence.

Genuine to Jane Goodall in spirit and consistent with everything she said — but honestly attributed, not verified, because no dated primary source for the exact wording has ever been shown. See the Jane Goodall Institute’s own listing, which carries the line without a citation.

Context

Why the line resonates

The sentence distills the argument Goodall returned to again and again in her later career: that hope is not passive, and that agency is unavoidable. If you cannot pass a day without leaving some mark on the world, then the only real question is what kind of mark — a framing that turned a scientist’s observation into a call to personal responsibility.

That message was the engine of her youth program, Roots & Shoots, and it is why the quote spread so widely after her death in October 2025. Its authenticity is not really in doubt; only its paper trail is.

The point isn't whether you make a difference — it's deciding which kind.

Why we stop short of “verified”

Quotle marks a quote verified only when the specific work containing the exact wording can be shown. Here, despite near-total agreement on the author, no book, essay, speech transcript, or dated interview has been located that carries the sentence as worded — not even on the Jane Goodall Institute’s own pages, which reproduce it without a source.

This is the honest middle ground: strong, uncontested attribution to Goodall; no evidence it originated with anyone else; but no primary source to lift it into the verified tier. If a dated original surfaces, this page will be upgraded.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Purpose Character

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Jane Goodall Institute — Quotes to Guide Youjanegoodall.ca

Goodall's own institute lists the line among her guiding quotes — with no source or date attached.

Wikiquote: Jane Goodallen.wikiquote.org

Sourced section documents a reworded variant from her filmed final message, but not this exact wording.

Goodreads — the quote pagegoodreads.com

Community-added, explicitly unverified; shows how the line circulates without citation.

Good Good Good — her most famous quotesgoodgoodgood.co

Post-death round-up carrying both the short and longer forms, again with no origin given.

Quote Investigator (home)quoteinvestigator.com

The standard first stop for tracing quotations — no investigation of this line is published, so no earliest attestation exists on record.

The true voice behind the message

Jane Goodall

1934–2025 · British primatologist & conservationist

Dame Jane Goodall (1934–2025) transformed the study of chimpanzees through her decades of fieldwork at Gombe, Tanzania, beginning in 1960, and later became one of the world’s most recognizable voices for conservation and hope. Through the Jane Goodall Institute and its youth program Roots & Shoots, she spent her final decades urging ordinary people to recognize the daily impact of their choices. The idea that every individual makes a difference — and gets to decide what kind — was the through-line of her public message for more than thirty years.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

Jane Goodall, quotation widely attributed but with no documented primary source. Reproduced without citation by the Jane Goodall Institute and quote compilations; a reworded variant appears in the short film “Dr. Jane Goodall’s Final Message to the World.” Earliest dated original: not located as of 16 July 2026.

MLA (9th ed.)

Goodall, Jane. Attributed quotation; no documented primary source located.

APA (7th ed.)

Goodall, J. (n.d.). [Attributed quotation; source undocumented].

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make’?” Last verified 16 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/what-you-do-makes-a-difference-and-you-have-to-decide-what