David Attenborough Quotes
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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.
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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.
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Natural history is not about producing fables.
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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.
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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.
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You have to steer a course between not appalling people, but at the same time not misleading them.
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If we humans disappeared overnight, the world would probably be better off.
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I think a major element of jetlag is psychological. Nobody ever tells me what time it is at home.
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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.
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Being in touch with the natural world is crucial.
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Crying wolf is a real danger.
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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.
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People are not going to care about animal conservation unless they think that animals are worthwhile.
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I'm swanning round the world looking at the most fabulously interesting things. Such good fortune.
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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.
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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.
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I just wish the world was twice as big and half of it was still unexplored.
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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.
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The fundamental issue is the moral issue.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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I think we're lucky to be living when we are, because things are going to get worse.
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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.