I think we're lucky to be living when we are, because things are going to get worse.
Interpretation
David Attenborough reflects on the current state of the world, suggesting that despite challenges, our time holds unique opportunities.
In this quote, David Attenborough expresses a perspective that acknowledges the difficulties we face in contemporary society while emphasizing a sense of gratitude for the unique experiences of living in this era. He suggests that future challenges may intensify, yet there remains a sense of fortune in being able to navigate the present moment and its complexities. This recognition of both gratitude and foreboding encourages a mindful engagement with the world around us.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a discussion on environmental issues to highlight our responsibility to the future.
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.
I'm against this huge globalisation on the basis of economic advantage.
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.
There's a small worm called Loa Loa Filariasis. This parasite can survive in one environment exclusively- namely, underneath the skin and inside the eyes of human beings. Children and the elderly in tropical regions (usually the poorest) are the most widely affected. A painful, slow death is virtually certain. The worm can actually live in the host for 17 years before the host finally dies.
The fundamental issue is the moral issue.
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.
It is the message, not the man, which is important to the Sufis.
PHYSIOGNOMY, n. The art of determining the character of another by the resemblances and differences between his face and our own, which is the standard of excellence.
A man is the sum of his misfortunes. One day you'd think misfortune would get tired but then time is your misfortune
Trying to exhaust himself, Vaughan devised an endless almanac of terrifying wounds and insane collisions: The lungs of elderly men punctured by door-handles; the chests of young women impaled on steering-columns; the cheek of handsome youths torn on the chromium latches of quarter-lights. To Vaughan, these wounds formed the key to a new sexuality, born from a perverse technology. The images of these wounds hung in the gallery of his mind, like exhibits in the museum of a slaughterhouse.
The choice, however, is as clear now for nations as it was once for the individual: peace or extinction.
As a species we're fundamentally insane. Put more than two of us in a room, we pick sides and start dreaming up reasons to kill one another. Why do you think we invented politics and religion?
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