Famous Quotes & Sayings

David Attenborough Quotes & Sayings

Enjoy the top 100 famous quotes, sayings and quotations by David Attenborough.

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Famous Quotes By David Attenborough

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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. — David Attenborough

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I have no doubt that the fundamental problem the planet faces is the enormous increase in the human population — David Attenborough

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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. — David Attenborough

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Nature isn't positive in that way. It doesn't aim itself at you. It's not being unkind to you. — David Attenborough

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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

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You know, it is a terrible thing to appear on television, because people think that you actually know what you're talking about. — David Attenborough

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It's extraordinary how self-obsessed human beings are. The things that people always go on about is, 'tell us about us', 'tell us about the first human being'. We are so self-obsessed with our own history. There is so much more out there than what connects to us. — David Attenborough

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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

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Since when has Finland been a rotten place to live in? — David Attenborough

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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. — David Attenborough

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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. — David Attenborough

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Children start off reading in books about lions and giraffes and so on, but they also-if theyre lucky enough and have reasonable privileges of any human being-are able to go into a garden and turn over stone and see a worm and see a slug and see an ant. — David Attenborough

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Anyone who thinks that you can have infinite growth on a planet with finite resources is either a madman or an economist. — David Attenborough

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The notion of ever more old people needing ever more young people, who in turn will grow old and need ever more young people and so on, ad infinitum, is an obvious ecological Ponzi scheme. — David Attenborough

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I'm against this huge globalisation on the basis of economic advantage. — David Attenborough

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Nothing in the natural world makes sense - except when seen in the light of evolution — David Attenborough

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There are some four million different kinds of animals and plants in the world. Four million different solutions to the problems of staying alive. — David Attenborough

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Reptiles and amphibians are sometimes thought of as primitive, dull and dimwitted. In fact, of course, they can be lethally fast, spectacularly beautiful, surprisingly affectionate and very sophisticated. — David Attenborough

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How could I look my grandchildren in the eye and say I knew what was happening to the world and did nothing. — David Attenborough

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In the Baboon community, it is not how strong you are that is important, but who you know that counts — David Attenborough

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We really need to kick the carbon habit and stop making our energy from burning things. Climate change is also really important. You can wreck one rainforest then move, drain one area of resources and move onto another, but climate change is global. — David Attenborough

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Bringing nature into the classroom can kindle a fascination and passion for the diversity of life on earth and can motivate a sense of responsibility to safeguard it. — David Attenborough

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If I can make programmes when I'm 95, that would be fine. But I would think I'll have had enough by then. — David Attenborough

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It is curiosity, quite right-a divine curiosity. A characteristic of the gods is curiosity. — David Attenborough

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The more you go on, the less you need people standing between you and the animal and the camera waving their arms about. — David Attenborough

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What I am interested in with birds, just as I am with spiders or monkeys, is what they do and why they do it. — David Attenborough

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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

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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. — David Attenborough

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

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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. — David Attenborough

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I suffer much less than many of my colleagues. I am perfectly able to go to Australia and film within three hours of arrival. — David Attenborough

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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

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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

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I had a huge advantage when I started 50 years ago - my job was secure. I didn't have to promote myself. These days there's far more pressure to make a mark, so the temptation is to make adventure television or personality shows. I hope the more didactic approach won't be lost. — David Attenborough

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Clearly we could devastate the world ... as far as we know, the Earth is the only place in the universe where there is life. Its continued survival now rests in our hands — David Attenborough

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We are a plague on the Earth. — David Attenborough

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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

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Birds were flying from continent to continent long before we were. They reached the coldest place on Earth, Antarctica, long before we did. They can survive in the hottest of deserts. Some can remain on the wing for years at a time. They can girdle the globe. Now, we have taken over the earth and the sea and the sky, but with skill and care and knowledge, we can ensure that there is still a place on Earth for birds in all their beauty and variety - if we want to ... And surely, we should. — David Attenborough

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Everyone likes birds. What wild creature is more accessible to our eyes and ears, as close to us and everyone in the world, as universal as a bird? — David Attenborough

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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. — David Attenborough

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I'm luckier than my grandfather, who didn't move more than five miles from the village in which he was born. — David Attenborough

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I don't approve of sunbathing, and it's bad for you. — David Attenborough

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The reverse side of the coin in having this extraordinary ability to go anywhere, is that no one anywhere is remote any more. — David Attenborough

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The fundamental issue is the moral issue. — David Attenborough

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You have to steer a course between not appalling people, but at the same time not misleading them. — David Attenborough

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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

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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. — David Attenborough

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They always mean beautiful things like hummingbirds. I always reply by saying that I think of a little child in east Africa with a worm burrowing through his eyeball. The worm cannot live in any other way, except by burrowing through eyeballs. I find that hard to reconcile with the notion of a divine and benevolent creator. — David Attenborough

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Its about cherishing the woodland at the bottom of your garden or the stream that runs through it. It affects every aspect of life. — David Attenborough

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We are not overpopulated in an absolute sense; we've got the technology for 10 billion, probably 15 billion people, to live on this planet and live good lives. What we haven't done is developed our technology. — David Attenborough

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There is no question that climate change is happening; the only arguable point is what part humans are playing in it. — David Attenborough

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The World is full of wonders, but they become more Wonderful, not less Wonderful when Science looks at them. — David Attenborough

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There are perfectly good independent small nations. — David Attenborough

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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. — David Attenborough

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I believe the Abominable Snowman may be real. I think there may be something in that. — David Attenborough

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I would be absolutely astounded if population growth and industrialisation and all the stuff we are pumping into the atmosphere hadn't changed the climatic balance. Of course it has. There is no valid argument for denial. — David Attenborough

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All our environmental problems become easier to solve with fewer people and harder - and ultimately impossible to solve - with ever more people. — David Attenborough

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It's like saying that two and two equals four, but if you wish to believe it, it could also be five ... Evolution is not a theory; it is a fact, every bit as much as the historical fact that William the Conqueror landed in 1066. — David Attenborough

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That people will object very much to seeing a predator killing its prey, and yet, in the news, will accept showing shots of people shooting one another. — David Attenborough

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If we [humans] disappeared overnight, the world would probably be better off. — David Attenborough

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I'd like to see the giant squid. Nobody has ever seen one. I could tell you people who have spent thousands and thousands of pounds trying to see giant squid. I mean, we know they exist because we have seen dead ones. But I have never seen a living one. Nor has anybody else. — David Attenborough

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If we and the rest of the back-boned animals were to disappear overnight, the rest of the world would get on pretty well. But if the invertebrates were to disappear, the world's ecosystems would collapse — David Attenborough

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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. — David Attenborough

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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. — David Attenborough

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We can now destroy or we can cherish-the choice is ours. — David Attenborough

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It is vital that there is a narrator figure whom people believe. That's why I never do commercials. If I started saying that margarine was the same as motherhood, people would think I was a liar. — David Attenborough

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I'm no longer sceptical. I no longer have any doubt at all. I think climate change is the major challenge facing the world. — David Attenborough

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Birds are the most accomplished aeronauts the world has ever seen. They fly high and low, at great speed, and very slowly. And always with extraordinary precision and control. — David Attenborough

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I've been bitten by a python. Not a very big one. I was being silly, saying: 'Oh, it's not poisonous ... ' Then, wallop! But you have fear around animals. — David Attenborough

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If you watch animals objectively for any length of time, you're driven to the conclusion that their main aim in life is to pass on their genes to the next generation. — David Attenborough

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No one will protect what they don't care about; and no one will care about what they have never experiened — David Attenborough

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Human beings, because we're so clever, have removed every single one of those population limiting factors ... So nothing controls our increase in numbers except our own wish. Since I first started making television programs, the population of the world has increased three times. That's an extraordinary notion. Can it increase four times? Can it increase five times? The Earth is a finite size. So a point will eventually come when we run out of food, when we run out of space and when we will have destroyed most of the natural world. So ought we to do something about it before that happens? — David Attenborough

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Instead of controlling the environment for the benefit of the population, perhaps we should control the population to ensure the survival of our environment — David Attenborough

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Sentimentalising is anathema, as far as I am concerned. It leads you into ethical problems about violence and killing and eating meat. The whole world becomes topsy-survy if you impose moralities that were evolved within human society on what a blowfly or what a parasite does ... there are lots of emotions you can deduce from an animal's behaviour that are correct, but when you start saying it's feeling guilty or thinking or a loved one or mourning, you must be very careful of those feelings. — David Attenborough

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This last chapter .. may have given the impression that somehow man is the ultimate triumph of evolution, that all these millions of years of development have had no purpose other than to put him on earth. There is no scientific evidence whatever to support such a view and no reason to suppose that our stay here will be any more permanent than that of the dinosaur. — David Attenborough

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People talk about doom-laden scenarios happening in the future: they are happening in Africa now. You can see it perfectly clearly. Periodic famines are due to too many people living on land that can't sustain them. — David Attenborough

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Trade is a proper and decent relationship, with dignity and respect on both sides. — David Attenborough

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One in eight plant species face extinction. — David Attenborough

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Life is not all high emotion. Some of the most interesting things are when its not highly emotional: little details of relationships and body language. — David Attenborough

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I don't think we are going to become extinct. We're very clever and extremely resourceful - and we will find ways of preserving ourselves, of that I'm sure. But whether our lives will be as rich as they are now is another question. — David Attenborough

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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

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I often get letters, quite frequently, from people who say how they like the programmes a lot, but I never give credit to the almighty power that created nature. — David Attenborough

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

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Apart from anything else, I am designed by evolution, like we all are: if we see a little thing like that, big eyes, tiny nose, we go 'aaah'. That's what evolution does. We are programmed to do that. So to find babies the most amazing, isn't surprising, I don't think. — David Attenborough

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I don't run a car, have never run a car. I could say that this is because I have this extremely tender environmentalist conscience, but the fact is I hate driving. — David Attenborough

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We keep putting on programmes about famine in Ethiopia; that's what's happening. Too many people there. They can't support themselves - and it's not an inhuman thing to say. It's the case. Until humanity manages to sort itself out and get a coordinated view about the planet it's going to get worse and worse. — David Attenborough

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As far as I'm concerned, if there is a supreme being then He chose organic evolution as a way of bringing into existence the natural world ... which doesn't seem to me to be necessarily blasphemous at all. — David Attenborough

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The fact is that no species has ever had such wholesale control over everything on earth, living or dead, as we now have. That lays upon us, whether we like it or not, an awesome responsibility. In our hands now lies not only our own future, but that of all other living creatures with whom we share the earth. — David Attenborough

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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. — David Attenborough

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Natural history is not about producing fables. — David Attenborough

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If my grandchildren were to look at me and say, 'You were aware species were disappearing and you did nothing, you said nothing', that I think is culpable. I don't know how much more they expect me to be doing, I'd better ask them. — David Attenborough

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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

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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

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The question is, are we happy to suppose that our grandchildren may never be able to see an elephant except in a picture book? — David Attenborough

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When I was a boy in the 1930s, the carbon dioxide level was still below 300 parts per million. This year, it reached 382, the highest figure for hundreds of thousands of years. — David Attenborough

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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

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The idea that the Lord had given us a present, that the world is a gift from God ... well, the amount of stuff, back then, that the Lord was giving away was limited. We do not have dominion. — David Attenborough

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

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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. — David Attenborough

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You can cry about death and very properly so, your own as well as anybody else's. But it's inevitable, so you'd better grapple with it and cope and be aware that not only is it inevitable, but it has always been inevitable, if you see what I mean. — David Attenborough