Interview with Emily Maitlis, in her 2019 book Airhead: The Imperfect Art of Making News
“

I don't think any human society is prepared to make decisions which they may not like if they're made by people who don't speak the same language... It's very easy, as we all know, to be very tolerant of minorities until they become majorities and you find yourself a minority. It's easy to say 'Oh yes, these lovely people – I love the way they wear such interesting costumes.' You know, that's fine until some day you find that they're actually telling you what to do and that they've actually taken over the town council and what you thought was your home was not. I'm not supporting it; I'm saying it's what it is.

— David Attenborough

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "I don't think any human society is prepared to make decisions which they may not like if they're made by people who don't speak the same language... It's very easy, as we all know, to be very tolerant of minorities until they become majorities and you find yourself a minority. It's easy to say 'Oh yes, these lovely people – I love the way they wear such interesting costumes.' You know, that's fine until some day you find that they're actually telling you what to do and that they've actually taken over the town council and what you thought was your home was not. I'm not supporting it; I'm saying it's what it is." in the context of "Interview with Emily Maitlis, in her 2019 book Airhead: The Imperfect Art of Making News" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "David Attenborough" (Quotes) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
David Attenborough

About David Attenborough

Sir David Frederick Attenborough OM CH CVO CBE FRS (born 8 May 1926) is a British broadcaster and writer specialising in natural history who has mainly worked for the BBC since the early 1950s.