31 Quotes by David Attenborough
- The fundamental issue is the moral issue.
- You know, it is a terrible thing to appear on television, because people think that you actually know what you're talking about.
- You can only get really unpopular decisions through if the electorate is convinced of the value of the environment. That's what natural history programmes should be for.
- Well, I'm having a good time. Which makes me feel guilty too. How very English.
- It was regarded as a responsibility of the BBC to provide programs which have a broad spectrum of interest, and if there was a hole in that spectrum, then the BBC would fill it.
- Television of course actually started in Britain in 1936, and it was a monopoly, and there was only one broadcaster and it operated on a license which is not the same as a government grant.
- People must feel that the natural world is important and valuable and beautiful and wonderful and an amazement and a pleasure.
- People are not going to care about animal conservation unless they think that animals are worthwhile.
- 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.
- It's a moral question about whether we have the right to exterminate species.
- The only way to save a rhinoceros is to save the environment in which it lives, because there's a mutual dependency between it and millions of other species of both animals and plants.
- The question is, are we happy to suppose that our grandchildren may never be able to see an elephant except in a picture book?
- I just wish the world was twice as big and half of it was still unexplored.
- I don't approve of sunbathing, and it's bad for you.
- Getting to places like Bangkok or Singapore was a hell of a sweat. But when you got there it was the back of beyond. It was just a series of small tin sheds.
- 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.
- Crying wolf is a real danger.
- I'm absolutely strict about it. When I land, I put my watch right, and I don't care what I feel like, I will go to bed at half past eleven. If that means going to bed early or late, that's what I live by. As soon as you get there, live by that time.
- It is that range of biodiversity that we must care for - the whole thing - rather than just one or two stars.
- I mean, it is an extraordinary thing that a large proportion of your country and my country, of the citizens, never see a wild creature from dawn 'til dusk, unless it's a pigeon, which isn't really wild, which might come and settle near them.
- If I can bicycle, I bicycle.
- I've been to Nepal, but I'd like to go to Tibet. It must be a wonderful place to go. I don't think there's anything there, but it would be a nice place to visit.
- I'm not in politics.
- In the old days... it was a basic, cardinal fact that producers didn't have opinions. When I was producing natural history programmes, I didn't use them as vehicles for my own opinion. They were factual programmes.
- Being in touch with the natural world is crucial.
- I think a major element of jetlag is psychological. Nobody ever tells me what time it is at home.
- I suffer much less than many of my colleagues. I am perfectly able to go to Australia and film within three hours of arrival.
- All we can hope for is that the thing is going to slowly and imperceptibly shift. All I can say is that 50 years ago there were no such thing as environmental policies.
- An understanding of the natural world and what's in it is a source of not only a great curiosity but great fulfillment.
- Before the BBC, I joined the Navy in order to travel.
- I'm against this huge globalisation on the basis of economic advantage.
Privacy policy
