Quotessence
Home / Authors / David Attenborough
David Attenborough

David Attenborough Quotes

Broadcaster

Filter quotes by topic

AllWorldIfsPeopleThinkingNaturalAnimalHumansEarthNatural WorldPopulationEnvironmentKnowsMeanWayYearsClimate ChangeHuman BeingsTelevisionBelieveClimate

Famous David Attenborough Quotes

“At a time when it's possible for thirty people to stand on the top of Everest in one day, Antarctica still remains a remote, lonely and desolate continent. A place where it's possible to see the splendours and immensities of the natural world at its most dramatic and, what's more, witness them almost exactly as they were, long, long before human beings ever arrived on the surface of this planet. Long may it remain so.”

PeopleWorldHumansMayLongStillsNaturalHuman BeingsPlanetsOne DayLonelyRemainsSurfaceWitnessDramaticThirtyContinentsNatural WorldEverestDesolateImmensitySplendourAntarctica
Author:David Attenborough
Create image

“If I were beginning my career today, I don't think I would take the same direction. Television is at a crossroads at the moment. And although I am not up to date technologically, I suspect that somewhere out there people are conveying things about natural history by means other than television, and I think if I were beginning today, I'd be there.”

PeopleIfsThinkingMeanMomentsTodayNaturalCareersTelevisionSuspectsCrossroadsNatural HistoryConveyingUp To DateSomewhere Out There
Author:David Attenborough
Create image

“The only acceptable way to solve ecological problems is if you can persuade people to have fewer children. In the Victorian times, there were families of 15 children. Someone like Edward Lear, he was the last of 21 children. And so what we have to think about is offering people the alternative choice. And in the West, that's what's happening. The birth rate has been dropping steadily and still is. I'm wanting human beings to be better off so they don't view children as an insurance for the future.”

PeopleIfsThinkingWayHumansChildrenHas BeensStillsProblemLastsChoicesHuman BeingsViewsBirthHappeningsWestRateSolveAlternativesFewerAcceptableOfferingBetter OffDroppingEcologicalVictorianLearBirth RateVictorian Times
Author:David Attenborough
Create image

“I don't think whole populations are villainous, but Americans are just extraordinarily unaware of all kinds of things. If you live in the middle of that vast continent, with apparently everything your heart could wish for just because you were born there, then why worry? [...] If people lose knowledge, sympathy and understanding of the natural world, they're going to mistreat it and will not ask their politicians to care for it.”

PeopleIfsThinkingWorldHeartKindWholeCareAsksWishUnderstandingBornLosesNaturalWorryMiddlePoliticianPopulationAll KindsContinentsNatural WorldEnvironmentalismMistreat
Author:David Attenborough
Create image

“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.”

PeopleThinkingKnowsBelieveWellsLittlesMadeSometimesEyeDifficultBoysWonderfulAtheismCreationBirdSittingRiversBlindWestAtheistCreatorBoringProofParadiseHis EyesButterflyOrganismsWormsWonderful ThingsLittle BoysAccommodateHummingEyeballsLiving OrganismsWest AfricaCreator God
Author:David Attenborough
Create image

“Opponents say natural selection is not a theory supported by observation or experiment; that it is not based on fact; and that it cannot be proved. Well, no, you cannot prove the theory to people who won't believe in it any more than you can prove that the Battle of Hastings took place in 1066. However, we know the battle happened then, just as we know the course of evolution on earth unambiguously shows that Darwin was right.”

PeopleKnowsBelieveWellsFactsShowsEarthCoursesNaturalHappenedTheoryEvolutionBattleProveExperimentsObservationOpponentsSelectionNatural Selection
Author:David Attenborough
Create image

“You've got to be fairly solemn [about the environment]. I mean the mere notion that there are three times as many people on Earth as there were when I started making television. How can the Earth accommodate them? When people, including politicians, set their faces against looking at the consequences-it's just unbelievable that anyone could ignore it.”

PeopleMeanEarthFacesScienceThreeEnvironmentTelevisionPoliticianConsequenceMereEnvironmentalNotionIncludingUnbelievableThree TimesSolemnAccommodate
Author:David Attenborough
Create image

“[W]hen we look at the graphs of rising ocean temperatures, rising carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and so on, we know that they are climbing far more steeply than can be accounted for by the natural oscillation of the weather ... What people (must) do is to change their behavior and their attitudes ... If we do care about our grandchildren then we have to do something, and we have to demand that our governments do something.”

PeopleIfsKnowsLooksGovernmentCareNaturalAttitudeDemandBehaviorOceanWeatherAtmosphereRisingGlobal WarmingClimbingCarbonGrandchildrenTemperatureCarbon DioxideHensGraphsOscillation
Author:David Attenborough
Create image