Source: The Ape that Thought It Was a Peacock: Does Evolutionary Psychology Exaggerate Human Sex Differences? (2013), p. 150
“If you watch animals objectively for any length of time, you're driven to the conclusion that their main aim in life is to pass on their genes to the next generation. Most do so directly, by breeding. In the few examples that don't do so by design, they do it indirectly, by helping a relative with whom they share a great number of their genes. And in as much as the legacy that human beings pass on to the next generation is not only genetic but to a unique degree cultural, we do the same. So animals and ourselves, to continue the line, will endure all kinds of hardship, overcome all kinds of difficulties, and eventually the next generation appears. This albatross is over 30 years old, she's already a grandmother, and this year once again she has produced a chick. She will devote the next 10 months of her life looking after it. She has faced the trials of life and triumphed, for her little 2 day old chick the trials are just beginning.”
Closing lines
The Trials of Life (1990)
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David Attenborough 70
British broadcaster and naturalist 1926Related quotes
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Inscribed on the Will Rogers Memorial Building in Claremore, Oklahoma.
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As quoted in Peter's Quotations : Ideas for Our Time (1979) by Laurence J. Peter, p. 285
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As quoted in ...

Broadcasting Speech (August 8, 2007)