Top 120 David Suzuki Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “In nature there is no such thing as waste. In nature nothing is wasted; everything is recycled.”

— David Suzuki

Featured in: Environment Quotes, Nature Quotes

2. “If we pollute the air, water and soil that keep us alive and well, and destroy the biodiversity that allows natural systems to function, no amount of money will save us.”

— David Suzuki

3. “We’re in a giant car heading towards a brick wall and everyone’s arguing over where they’re going to sit.”

— David Suzuki

4. “We all live downstream.”

— David Suzuki

5. “Unless we are willing to encourage our children to reconnect with and appreciate the natural world, we can’t expect them to help protect and care for it.”

— David Suzuki

6. “I can’t imagine anything more important than air, water, soil, energy and biodiversity. These are the things that keep us alive.”

— David Suzuki

7. “It is not too late to take another path.”

— David Suzuki

8. “Every breath is a sacrament, an affirmation of our connection with all other living things, a renewal of our link with our ancestors and a contribution to generations yet to come. Our breath is a part of life’s breath, the ocean of air that envelopes the earth.”

— David Suzuki

9. “There is a gyre of discarded floating plastic the size of the continental USA in the ocean. In it, plastic trash outweighs plankton 40 to 1.”

— David Suzuki

10. “Change is never easy, and it often creates discord, but when people come together for the good of humanity and the Earth, we can accomplish great things.”

— David Suzuki

11. “Conventional economics is a form of brain damage. Economics is so fundamentally disconnected from the real world, it is destructive.”

— David Suzuki

12. “The environment is so fundamental to our continued existence that it must transcend politics and become a central value of all members of society.”

— David Suzuki

13. “Water is our most precious resource, but we waste it, just as we waste other resources, including oil and gas.”

— David Suzuki

14. “Aboriginal people are key because they have a different sense of where we belong and how we interact with nature.”

— David Suzuki

15. “Our personal consumer choices have ecological, social, and spiritual consequences. It is time to re-examine some of our deeply held notions that underlie our lifestyles.”

— David Suzuki

16. “Protecting the biosphere should be our highest priority or else we sicken and die.”

— David Suzuki

17. “The future doesn’t exist. The only thing that exists is now and our memory of what happened in the past. But because we invented the idea of a future, we’re the only animal that realized we can affect the future by what we do today.”

— David Suzuki

18. “Just as fossil fuels from conventional sources are finite and are becoming depleted, those from difficult sources will also run out. If we put all our energy and resources into continued fossil fuel extraction, we will have lost an opportunity to have invested in renewable energy.”

— David Suzuki

19. “Our beliefs, our values shape the way we look out at the world and the way we treat it. If we believe that we were here, placed here by God, that this – all of this creation is for us, it’s for us to go and occupy, dominate and exploit, then we will proceed to do that.”

— David Suzuki

20. “Conventional economics is a form of brain damage.”

— David Suzuki

21. “If we want to move towards a low-polluting, sustainable society, we need to get consumers to think about their purchases.”

— David Suzuki

22. “All those hours exploring the great outdoors made me more resilient and confident.”

— David Suzuki

23. “Outright bans on plastic bags may not be the best solution, but education and incentives to get people to stop using them are necessary.”

— David Suzuki

24. “The human brain had a vast memory storage. It made us curious and very creative. Those were the characteristics that gave us an advantage – curiosity, creativity and memory. And that brain did something very special. It invented an idea called ‘the future.’”

— David Suzuki

25. “Our identity includes our natural world, how we move through it, how we interact with it and how it sustains us.”

— David Suzuki

26. “We have much to learn by studying nature and taking the time to tease out its secrets.”

— David Suzuki

27. “Doing all we can to combat climate change comes with numerous benefits, from reducing pollution and associated health care costs to strengthening and diversifying the economy by shifting to renewable energy, among other measures.”

— David Suzuki

28. “Humans are an infant species, a mere 150,000 years old. But, armed with a massive brain, we’ve not only survived, we’ve used our wits to adapt to and flourish in habitats as varied as deserts, Arctic tundra, tropical rainforests, wetlands and high mountain ranges.”

— David Suzuki

29. “Plastic bags are bad and for the most part unnecessary.”

— David Suzuki

30. “And that, quite simply, is the issue. We live in a finite world with finite resources. Although it may sometimes seem quite big, earth is really very small – a tiny blue and green oasis of life in a cold universe.”

— David Suzuki

31. “We are playing Russian roulette with features of the planet’s atmosphere that will profoundly impact generations to come. How long are we willing to gamble?”

— David Suzuki

32. “The increasing frequency of extreme weather events, droughts and floods is in line with what climate scientists have been predicting for decades – and evidence is mounting that what’s happening is more severe than predicted, and will get far worse still if we fail to act.”

— David Suzuki

33. “The damage that climate change is causing and that will get worse if we fail to act goes beyond the hundreds of thousands of lives, homes and businesses lost, ecosystems destroyed, species driven to extinction, infrastructure smashed and people inconvenienced.”

— David Suzuki

34. “Love is the force that makes us fully human.”

— David Suzuki

35. “It’s time we stopped ignoring the environment. Let’s not let another election go by without making this a high priority.”

— David Suzuki

36. “The truth is, as most of us know, that global warming is real and humans are major contributors, mainly because we wastefully burn fossil fuels.”

— David Suzuki

37. “Debating the best way to do something we shouldn’t be doing in the first place is a sure way to end up in the wrong place.”

— David Suzuki

38. “For the first time since life appeared on earth, one species- us- is single-handedly altering the physical, chemical and biological nature of earth. We have become a force of nature.”

— David Suzuki

39. “We are upsetting the atmosphere upon which all life depends. In the late 80s when I began to take climate change seriously, we referred to global warming as a “slowmotion catastrophe” one we expected to kick in perhaps generations later. Instead, the signs of change have accelerated alarmingly.”

— David Suzuki

40. “We can’t blame children for occupying themselves with Facebook rather than playing in the mud. Our society doesn’t put a priority on connecting with nature. In fact, too often we tell them it’s dirty and dangerous.”

— David Suzuki

41. “Planting native species in our gardens and communities is increasingly important, because indigenous insects, birds and wildlife rely on them. Over thousands, and sometimes millions, of years they have co-evolved to live in local climate and soil conditions.”

— David Suzuki

42. “We humans have become dependent on plastic for a range of uses, from packaging to products. Reducing our use of plastic bags is an easy place to start getting our addiction under control.”

— David Suzuki

43. “Nature surrounds us, from parks and backyards to streets and alleyways. Next time you go out for a walk, tread gently and remember that we are both inhabitants and stewards of nature in our neighbourhoods.”

— David Suzuki

44. “Our choices at all levels-individual, community, corporate and government-affect nature. And they affect us.”

— David Suzuki

45. “Canada, more than any nation, will be affected by rising sea levels from global warming.”

— David Suzuki

46. “Conserving energy and thus saving money, reducing consumption of unnecessary products and packaging and shifting to a clean-energy economy would likely hurt the bottom line of polluting industries, but would undoubtedly have positive effects for most of us.”

— David Suzuki

47. “On December 7, 1941, an event took place that had nothing to do with me or my family and yet which had devastating consequences for all of us – Japan bombed Pearl Harbour in a surprise attack. With that event began one of the shoddiest chapters in the tortuous history of democracy in North America.”

— David Suzuki

48. “Just as human activity is upsetting Earth’s carbon cycle, our actions are altering the water cycle.”

— David Suzuki

49. “I see a world in the future in which we understand that all life is related to us and we treat that life with great humility and respect.”

— David Suzuki

50. “Human beings are often at their best when responding to immediate crises – car accidents, house fires, hurricanes. We are less effective in the face of enormous but slow-moving crises such as the loss of biodiversity or climate change...”

— David Suzuki