Quotes by David Attenborough

“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.”

“I remember sleeping in places that were infested with rats and waking up with one trundling over my face. Actually, I hate rats! In my time, Ive picked up all sorts of things in hotels-fleas, lice, tapeworm.”

“An understanding of the natural world and whats in it is a source of not only a great curiosity but great fulfillment.”

“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. ”

“People say we have all got to join Europe for reasons which even the economists themselves arent clear on-at the same time were saying, well yes of course Scotland has got to be independent. And why dont we make Wales independent too? And the north of England.”

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

“It is curiosity, quite right-a divine curiosity. A characteristic of the gods is curiosity.”

“Its lost on me. I can just about tell if its got a jet engine or one of those funny things on the front!”

“Neither have I said we have got to do this because of some pharmaceutical advantage there may or may not be. The moral issue is that we should not impoverish this world.”

“Just recently we were coming out of Niger and it so happened that there was a great pilgrimage so all the hotels were full. We ended up sleeping on the floor in tin huts with bed bugs and fleas.”

“Being in touch with the natural world is crucial.”

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

“When I was right in the middle of Borneo, you thought you were in a different world. There was no radio, no ways of communicating.”

“I dont 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.”

“I think there will be radical changes. But I dont actually think that within the next 100 years the natural world will be reduced to rats and cockroaches, nor do I think that the plant world will be reduced to some kind of desert.”

“Things change... I dont think we should regard change as a disaster.”

“The only way Prescott is going to get through something to do with transport policy, is if the public think there are too many damn things on the road, and use the railways.”

“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.”

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

“Im absolutely strict about it. When I land, I put my watch right, and I dont care what I feel like, I will go to bed at half past eleven. If that means going to bed early or late, thats what I live by. As soon as you get there, live by that time.”