Gerald Durrell was born 7 January 1925 and died 30 January 1995.
Five Quotes
- There is no first world and third world. There is only one world, for all of us to live and delight in.
- Until we consider animal life to be worthy of the consideration and reverence we bestow upon old books and pictures and historic monuments, there will always be the animal refugee living a precarious life on the edge of extermination, dependent for existence on the charity of a few human beings.
- The great ecosystems are like complex tapestries – a million complicated threads, interwoven, make up the whole picture. Nature can cope with small rents in the fabric; it can even, after a time, cope with major disasters like floods, fires, and earthquakes. What nature cannot cope with is the steady undermining of its fabric by the activities of man.
- Erosion, desertification, and pollution have become our lot. It is a weird form of suicide, for we are bleeding our planet to death.
- As I watched the pulsing fire among the trees and heard the beat of the drum merge and tremble with the voices, forming an intricate pattern of sound, I knew that someday I would have to return or be haunted forever by the beauty and mystery that is Africa.
Gerald Durrell was an English naturalist, zookeeper, conservationist, author, and television presenter. He is remembered for writing a number of books based on his life as an animal collector and enthusiast. He is the author of My Family and Other Animals. He was the youngest brother of novelist Lawrence Durrell.
Source for image: By Byron Patchett – CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15495823
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