Top 120 David Suzuki Quotes (2024 Update)
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101. “If we call insects “pests,” then we can make war on them. And we have done that, developing powerful chemicals that kill all insects to eliminate the ones that are troublesome to us. To me, using broad-spectrum pesticides is like dealing with high rates of crime in a town or neighbourhood by removing or killing everyone in the area.”

— David Suzuki

102. “As parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts we need to start getting out into nature with the young people in our lives. Families play a key role in getting kids outside.”

— David Suzuki

103. “We must pay greater attention to keeping our bodies and minds healthy and able to heal. Yet we are making it difficult for our defences to work. We allow things to be sold that should not be called food. Many have no nutritive value and lead to obesity, salt imbalance, and allergies.”

— David Suzuki

104. “The place where we spend most of our lives moulds our priorities and the way we perceive our surroundings. A human-engineered habitat of asphalt, concrete and glass reinforces our belief that we lie outside of and above nature, immune from uncertainty and the unexpected of the wild.”

— David Suzuki

105. “From year to year, environmental changes are incremental and often barely register in our lives, but from evolutionary or geological perspectives, what is happening is explosive change.”

— David Suzuki

106. “So now the challenge is to imagine a different world where our wealth is in human relations and the things we do together, and we learn to live in balance with the rest of nature.”

— David Suzuki

107. “Come on Canada, it’s time to kick our bad habits and get into shape!”

— David Suzuki

108. “Many organic practices simply make sense, regardless of what overall agricultural system is used. Far from being a quaint throwback to an earlier time, organic agriculture is proving to be a serious contender in modern farming and a more environmentally sustainable system over the long term.”

— David Suzuki

109. “The event of creation did not take place so many eons ago, astronomically or biologically speaking. Creation is taking place every moment of our lives.”

— David Suzuki

110. “You would have thought that our first priority would be to ask what the ecologists are finding out, because we have to live within the conditions and principles they define. Instead, we’ve elevated the economy above ecology.”

— David Suzuki

111. “Pearl Harbor was the defining event in my life. It shaped who I am, and all of my hang-ups and my drives, I think, stem from that.”

— David Suzuki

112. “Perhaps the whole world is actually a banquet, to which every living thing is invited. First you come as guests: then eventually you’re on the menu.”

— David Suzuki

113. “Faced with the evidence, many deniers have started to admit that global warming is real, but argue that humans have little or nothing to do with it.”

— David Suzuki

114. “We can no longer tolerate what’s going on in Ottawa and Edmonton. What I would challenge you to do is to put a lot of effort into trying to see whether there’s a legal way of throwing our so-called leaders into jail because what they’re doing is a criminal act.”

— David Suzuki

115. “Beyond reducing individual use, one of our top priorities must be to move from fossil fuels to energy that has fewer detrimental effects on water supplies and fewer environmental impacts overall.”

— David Suzuki

116. “To me, the real challenge is the human mind, which is driving our actions: our beliefs and values shape the way we see the world, which in turn determines how we will treat it. So long as we assume that we are the centre of the universe and everything revolves around us, we will not be able to see the dangers we create. To see those, we have to recognize that our very lives and our well-being depend on the richness of nature.”

— David Suzuki

117. “I’ve always been more interested in organisms that can move on their own than in stationary plants. But when I canoe or hike along the edge of lakes or oceans and see trees that seem to be growing out of rock faces, I am blown away. How do they do it?”

— David Suzuki

118. “Most North Americans know that human-caused global warming is real, even if political leaders don’t always reflect or act on that knowledge.”

— David Suzuki

119. “What permaculturists are doing is the most important activity that any group is doing on the planet.”

— David Suzuki

120. “We know that deprivation of love can kill people. What are the effects of being deprived of a living environment?”

— David Suzuki

121. “The nation that values youth and thinness is the most obese in the world. The place where the dollar rules has more diparity between rich and poor than any other industrialized nation. Although peace is one of its highest ideals, the United States is well known for violence. More people use drugs regularly in this land of opportunity than in the rest of the world put together. And more people per capita are imprisoned in the land of the free than in any other Western country.”

— David Suzuki

122. “More than any other time in history, the 1990s will be a turning point for human civilization.”

— David Suzuki

123. “Over and over, we hear politicians say they can’t spend our tax dollars on environmental protection when the economy is so fragile.”

— David Suzuki

124. “We have altered the physical, chemical and biological properties of the planet on a geological scale. We have left no part of the globe untouched.”

— David Suzuki

125. “That little walk powerfully reminded me that nature is our touchstone. However sophisticated and technologically advanced we may be, we are biological creatures, utterly dependent on her beneficence for clean air, water and food.”

— David Suzuki

126. “Even meeting Kyoto targets barely makes a dent in what we have to achieve.”

— David Suzuki

127. “Why do you need to go outside? For one thing, to appreciate what it is that keeps you alive. And the more time you spend outside, the more you are able to sense change in that world. If you can smell something, chances are that unless it’s flowers or food, it doesn’t belong there and is not good for us. But even more profound, we have to get outside and seek nature because we need that connection for our physical and mental health.”

— David Suzuki

128. “Japanese people cut their energy use by 25 percent immediately after Fukushima. They showed there was huge opportunity there. And instead, the government simply wants to get those plants up and running again.”

— David Suzuki

129. “The one thing I feel is very hopeful, however, is the overwhelming participation of women in the movement for change.”

— David Suzuki

130. “The terrible part of this looming catastrophe is that people have been working on solutions for years and have developed concrete steps to massively reduce our energy use, while stimulating whole new industries and technologies that are more efficient and affordable.”

— David Suzuki

131. “Less than 10% of the fuel energy burned in automobiles is translated into forward motion of the vehicle and even then most of this energy is needed to move the vehicle itself, which typically weighs 20 times more than its passengers.”

— David Suzuki

132. “Because countries often have differing political and economic systems, agreements are needed to protect those invested in trade.”

— David Suzuki

133. “If America wants to retain its position as a global power, its president must listen to the people and show strong leadership at this turning point in human history.”

— David Suzuki

134. “The way we’ve set up corporations, even a majority vote of stockholders cannot demand that a corporation’s policies reflect the public good or preserve the environment for future use. That’s because profit is the one and only motive. It’s up to government and it’s up to people to protect the public interest. Corporations are simply not allowed to.”

— David Suzuki

135. “Many instances of persecution and killing have occurred in countries with atrocious human rights records such as Sri Lanka, Guatemala and the Democratic Republic of Congo.”

— David Suzuki

136. “We needn’t be saddened with the impossible weight of managing the entire biosphere, but we must meet the challenge of living in balance with the sacred elements.”

— David Suzuki

137. “If we witness an act of discrimination but do not speak up or intervene, then we tacitly support it.”

— David Suzuki

138. “The way we see the world shapes the way we treat it. If a mountain is a deity, not a pile of ore; if a river is one of the veins of the land, not potential irrigation water; if a forest is a sacred grove, not timber; if other species are biological kin, not resources; or if the planet is our mother, not an opportunity – then we will treat each other with greater respect. Thus is the challenge, to look at the world from a different perspective.”

— David Suzuki

139. “Human domination over nature is quite simply an illusion, a passing dream by a naive species. It is an illusion that cost us much, ensnared us in our own designs, given us a few boasts to make about our courage and genius, but all the same it is an illusion.”

— David Suzuki