71 Best David Attenborough Quotes To Make You Think

David Attenborough is a British naturalist.

Attenborough is a former senior manager at BBC. He has also served as the controller of BBC Two.

He has written and presented various documentaries such as the 'Blue Planet'. In 2022, he was also listed in the list of 100 Greatest Britons.

He has been giving messages to treasure nature for most of his life. He's a true hero for drawing attention to urgent matters of the environment.

This article has a list of quotes said by Attenborough about the environment and quotes about David Attenborough the naturalist regarding our way of life. These quotes will make you wish the world had four million different kinds of solutions to environmental problems.

For more such quotes, also check conservation quotes or nature quotes.
 

Best David Attenborough Quotes

Some of the best David Attenborough quotes are given below.

1. "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.

2. "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.

3. "People must feel that the natural world is important and valuable and beautiful and wonderful and an amazement and a pleasure."

-David Attenborough.

4. "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."

-David Attenborough.

5. "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.

6. "The fact remains that man has unprecedented control over the world and everything in it. And so, whether he likes it or not, what happens next is very largely up to him."

-David Attenborough.

7. "Every breath of air we take, every mouthful of food that we take, comes from the natural world. And if we damage the natural world, we damage ourselves."

-David Attenborough.

8. "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.

9. "People are not going to care about animal conservation unless they think that animals are worthwhile."

-David Attenborough.

10. "What humans do over the next 50 years will determine the fate of all life on the planet."

-David Attenborough.

Great David Attenborough Quotes

Listed below are some great David Attenborough quotes.

11. "An understanding of the natural world and what's in it is a source of not only a great curiosity but great fulfillment."

-David Attenborough.

12. "It seems to me that an understanding of the natural world is crucial for all of us – after all we depend upon it for our food, for the air we breathe and, some would say, for our very sanity."

-David Attenborough, ‘How Many People Can Live on Planet Earth’.

13. "The biggest animal that has ever lived on our planet: a blue whale...It’s far bigger than even the biggest dinosaur. Its tongue weighs as much as an elephant. Its heart is the size of a car. And some of its blood vessels are so wide that you could swim down them."

-David Attenborough.

14. "I think we're lucky to be living when we are, because things are going to get worse."

-David Attenborough.

15. "The whole biological community needs to be talking to one another so that people can get a comprehension of the turmoil in which our planet is involved at the moment, which is a biological turmoil above anything else."

-David Attenborough.

16. "I'm against this huge globalisation on the basis of economic advantage."

-David Attenborough.

17. "This isn’t just about losing wonders of nature. With the loss of even the smallest organisms, we destabilise and ultimately risk collapsing the world’s ecosystems – the networks that support the whole of life on Earth."

-David Attenborough.

18. "You have to steer a course between not appalling people, but at the same time not misleading them."

-David Attenborough.

19. "There are three times as many people in the world as when I started making television programs 56 years ago. It is frightening. We can’t go on as we have been. We are seeing the consequences in terms of ecology, pollution, space and food production."

-David Attenborough.

20. "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.

Interesting David Attenborough Quotes

Some interesting quotes said by Attenborough are given below.

21. "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.

22. "Human beings have overrun the world."

-David Attenborough.

23. "If we [humans] disappeared overnight, the world would probably be better off."

-David Attenborough.

24. "It is now clear our actions are having a significant impact on the world’s oceans. They are under threat now as never before in human history. Many people believe the oceans have reached a crisis point."

-David Attenborough.

25. "Surely we have a responsibility to leave for future generations a planet that is healthy and habitable by all species."

-David Attenborough.

26. "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.

27. "We can now destroy or we can cherish, the choice is ours."

-David Attenborough.

28. "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.

29. "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.

30. "In moments of great grief, that’s where you look and immerse yourself. You realise you are not immortal, you are not a god, you are part of the natural world and you come to accept that."

-David Attenborough.

David Attenborough Quotes About Environment

A list of quotes about the environment said by Attenborough are listed below.

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

-David Attenborough.

32. "We really need to kick the carbon habit and stop making our energy from burning things. Climate change is also really important."

-David Attenborough.

33. "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.

34. "We ourselves (one single species) have taken over vast tracts of the inhabitable surface of the planet. Surely, we should allow those other creatures we share the planet with to retain some part of their ancient heritage."

-David Attenborough.

35. "We moved from being a part of nature to being apart from nature."

-David Attenborough.

36. "We have overfished 30% of fish stocks to critical levels. We cut down over 15 billion trees each year. By damming, polluting, and over-extracting rivers and lakes, we've reduced the size of freshwater populations by over 80%."

-David Attenborough.

37. "We have a finite environment—the planet. Anyone who thinks that you can have infinite growth in a finite environment is either a madman or an economist."

-David Attenborough.

38. "Nature doesn’t sit still. Things and individuals are changing, dying and new things are coming. They’re all stories."

-David Attenborough.

39. "Ever since we arrived on this planet as a species, we’ve cut them down, dug them up, burnt them and poisoned them."

-David Attenborough.

Top David Attenborough Quotes

Listed below are the top quotes said by Attenborough.

40. "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.

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

-David Attenborough.

42. "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.

43. "Today we’re doing so on a greater scale than ever."

-David Attenborough.

44. "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…"

-David Attenborough.

45. "A hundred years ago, there were one and a half billion people on Earth. Now, over six billion crowd our fragile planet. But even so, there are still places barely touched by humanity."

-David Attenborough.

46. "Young people: They care. They know that this is the world that they’re going to grow up in, that they’re going to spend the rest of their lives in. But, I think it’s more idealistic than that. They actually believe that humanity, human species, has no right to destroy and despoil regardless."

-David Attenborough.

47. "Being in touch with the natural world is crucial."

-David Attenborough.

48. "Surely we all have a responsibility to care for our Blue Planet. The future of humanity and indeed, all life on earth, now depends on us."

-David Attenborough.

49. "Kids like their fossils. I’ve taken my godson fossil-hunting and there’s nothing more magical than finding a shiny shell and knowing you’re the first person to have seen it for 150 million years."

-David Attenborough.

50. "I think a major element of jetlag is psychological. Nobody ever tells me what time it is at home."

-David Attenborough.

51. "It is that range of biodiversity that we must care for - the whole thing - rather than just one or two stars."

-David Attenborough.

Famous David Attenborough Quotes

Some famous David Attenborough quotes are listed below.

52. "We humans, alone on Earth, are powerful enough to create worlds, and then destroy them."

-David Attenborough, ‘A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future’.

53. "It’s surely 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.

54. "As I see it humanity needs to reduce its impact on the Earth urgently and there are three ways to achieve this: we can stop consuming so many resources, we can change our technology and we can reduce our population. We probably need to do all three."

-David Attenborough.

55. "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.

56. "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.

57. "The living world is a unique and spectacular marvel yet the way we humans live on earth is sending it into a decline."

-David Attenborough.

58. "It's a moral question about whether we have the right to exterminate species."

-David Attenborough.

59. "Education is not a matter of getting facts and sowing them within brains, but that it is an attitude of mind that you teach children to find out for themselves"

-David Attenborough.

60. "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.

61. "Before the BBC, I joined the Navy in order to travel."

-David Attenborough.

62. "Every 10 years, an area the size of Britain disappears under a jungle of concrete."

-David Attenborough.

63. "We are at a unique stage in our history. Never before have we had such an awareness of what we are doing to the planet, and never before have we had the power to do something about that.

-Attenborough.

Latest David Attenborough Quotes

Listed below are the latest David Attenborough quotes.

64. "No one will protect what they don't care about; and no one will care about what they have never experienced."

-David Attenborough.

65. "We must change our diet. The planet can’t support billions of meat-eaters. Go vegetarian to save wildlife and the planet."

-Sir David Attenborough, ‘The Independent, 26 August 2020’.

66. "We’re suffocating ourselves by cutting things down. And the awful thing is that the knowledge is there. Fifty years ago when we exterminated things, we did it without realising. Now there’s plenty of evidence of what it is we’re doing, and yet we keep on doing it."

-Attenborough.

67. "The Holocene has ended. The Garden of Eden is no more. We have changed the world so much that scientists say we are in a new geological age: the Anthropocene, the age of humans."

-Attenborough.

68. "I believe the Abominable Snowman may be real. I think there may be something in that."

-Attenborough.

69. "I think that’s putting it a bit dramatically: I have a very nice time, and I have a very privileged time. I see amazing things, things that you would give your right arm to see really."

-Attenborough.

70. "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.

71. "The people have spoken. Leaders of the world, you must lead. The continuation of our civilizations, and the continuation of the natural world, is in your hands."

- David Attenborough.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for the best David Attenborough quotes to make you think, then why not take a look at recycling quotes, or funny animal quotes.