Gerald Durrell Quotes

A house is not a home until it has a dog.

There is no first world and third world. There is only one world, for all of us to live and delight in.

All over the world the wildlife that I write about is in grave danger. It is being exterminated by what we call the progress of civilization.

When man continues to destroy nature, he saws the very branch on which he sits since the rational protection of nature is at the same time the protection of mankind

Zoos should concentrate more on the preservation side of things.

In conservation, the motto should always be 'never say die'.

If naturalists go to heaven (about which there is considerable ecclesiastical doubt), I hope that I will be furnished with a troop of kakapo to amuse me in the evening instead of television.

My childhood in Corfu shaped my life. If I had the craft of Merlin, I would give every child the gift of my childhood.

They were maps that lived, maps that one could study, frown over, and add to; maps, in short, that really meant something.

Gradually the magic of the island [Corfu] settled over us as gently and clingingly as pollen.

Animals generally return the love you lavish on them by a swift bite in passing-not unlike friends and wives.

Erosion, desertification, and pollution have become our lot. It is a weird form of suicide, for we are bleeding our planet to death.

I said I 'liked' being half-educated; you were so much more 'surprised' at everything when you were ignorant.

Aspirin is so good for roses, brandy for sweet peas, and a squeeze of lemon-juice for the fleshy flowers, like begonias.

I can't be expected to produce deathless prose in an atmosphere of gloom and eucalyptus.

I do wish you wouldn't argue with me when I'm knitting.

Right in the Hart of the Africn Jungel a small wite man lives. Now there is one extraordinary fact about him that he is the frind of all animals.

Tea would arrive, the cakes squatting on cushions of cream, toast in a melting shawl of butter, cups agleam and a faint wisp of steam rising from the teapot shawl.

‎'All we need is a book,' roared Leslie; 'don't panic, hit 'em with a book.

She would seize every opportunity to dive into the bathroom, in a swirl of white towels, and once in there she was as hard to dislodge as a limpet from a rock.

Overflowing with the milk of human kindness, the family had invited everyone they could think of, including people they cordially disliked.