The collection / 29 fragments

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Passages, proverbs, and questions carried across the ages.

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01c. 1951 AD

I don’t know [why we're here]. People sometimes say to me, ‘Why don’t you admit that the humming bird, the butterfly, the Bird of Paradise are proof of the wonderful things produced by Creation?’ And I always say, well, when you say that, you’ve also got to think of a little boy sitting on a river bank, like here, in West Africa, that’s got a little worm, a living organism, in his eye and boring through the eyeball and is slowly turning him blind. The Creator God that you believe in, presumably, also made that little worm. Now I personally find that difficult to accommodate…

David Attenborough / quote

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02c. 1951 AD

‎Using his burgeoning intelligence, this most successful of all mammals has exploited the environment to produce food for an ever increasing population. Instead of controlling the environment for the benefit of the population, perhaps it's time we controlled the population to allow the survival of the environment.

David Attenborough / quote

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03c. 1951 AD

Now, over half of us live in an urban environment. My home, too, is here in the city of London. Looking down on this great metropolis, the ingenuity with which we continue to reshape the surface of our planet is very striking. It’s also very sobering, and reminds me of just how easy it is for us to lose our connection with the natural world.Yet it’s on this connection that the future of both humanity and the natural world will depend. And surely, it is our responsibility to do everything within our power to create a planet that provides a home not just for us, but for all life on Earth.

David Attenborough / quote

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04c. 1951 AD

Young people: They care. They know that this is the world that they're going to grow up in, that they're going to spend the rest of their lives in. But, I think it's more idealistic than that. They actually believe that humanity, human species, has no right to destroy and despoil regardless.

David Attenborough / quote

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05c. 1951 AD

I find it far more awesome, wonderful, that creation; our appearance in the world; should be the culmination, or at least one of the latest products of 3,000 Million years of organic evolution, than a kind of country trick, taking a rib out of a man's side in a trance.

David Attenborough / quote

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06c. 1951 AD

The truth is: the natural world is changing. And we are totally dependent on that world. It provides our food, water and air. It is the most precious thing we have and we need to defend it.

David Attenborough / quote

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07c. 1951 AD

I just wish the world was twice as big and half of it was still unexplored.

David Attenborough / quote

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08c. 1951 AD

The climate, the economic situation, rising birth rates; none of these things give me a lot of hope or reason to be optimistic.

David Attenborough / quote

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09c. 1951 AD

Steve Irwin did wonderful conservation work but I was uncomfortable about some of his stunts. Even if animals aren't aware that you are not treating them with respect, the viewers are.

David Attenborough / quote

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10c. 1951 AD

It's coming home to roost over the next 50 years or so. It's not just climate change; it's sheer space, places to grow food for this enormous horde. Either we limit our population growth or the natural world will do it for us, and the natural world is doing it for us right now.

David Attenborough / quote

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11c. 1951 AD

The whole of science, and one is tempted to think the whole of the life of any thinking man, is trying to come to terms with the relationship between yourself and the natural world. Why are you here, and how do you fit in, and what's it all about.

David Attenborough / quote

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12c. 1951 AD

I can mention many moments that were unforgettable and revelatory. But the most single revelatory three minutes was the first time I put on scuba gear and dived on a coral reef. It's just the unbelievable fact that you can move in three dimensions.

David Attenborough / quote

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13c. 1951 AD

The process of making natural history films is to try to prevent the animal knowing you are there, so you get glimpses of a non-human world, and that is a transporting thing.

David Attenborough / quote

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14c. 1951 AD

Cameramen are among the most extraordinarily able and competent people I know. They have to have an insight into natural history that gives them a sixth sense of what the creature is going to do, so they can be ready to follow.

David Attenborough / quote

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15c. 1951 AD

Natural history is not about producing fables.

David Attenborough / quote

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16c. 1951 AD

People must feel that the natural world is important and valuable and beautiful and wonderful and an amazement and a pleasure.

David Attenborough / quote

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17c. 1951 AD

I don't like rats, but there's not much else I don't like. The problem with rats is they have no fear of human beings, they're loaded with foul diseases, they would run the place given half the chance, and I've had them leap out of a lavatory while I've been sitting on it.

David Attenborough / quote

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18c. 1951 AD

An understanding of the natural world and what's in it is a source of not only a great curiosity but great fulfillment.

David Attenborough / quote

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19c. 1951 AD

Dealing with global warming doesn't mean we have all got to suddenly stop breathing. Dealing with global warming means that we have to stop waste, and if you travel for no reason whatsoever, that is a waste.

David Attenborough / quote

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20c. 1951 AD

Before the BBC, I joined the Navy in order to travel.

David Attenborough / quote

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21c. 1951 AD

I like animals. I like natural history. The travel bit is not the important bit. The travel bit is what you have to do in order to go and look at animals.

David Attenborough / quote

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22c. 1951 AD

I think a major element of jetlag is psychological. Nobody ever tells me what time it is at home.

David Attenborough / quote

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23c. 1951 AD

It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement the greatest source of visual beauty the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living.

David Attenborough / quote

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24c. 1951 AD

Many individuals are doing what they can. But real success can only come if there is a change in our societies and in our economics and in our politics.

David Attenborough / quote

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