#gerald durrell quotes

[margysmusings]

“Larry was always full of ideas about things of which he had no experience.” ― Gerald Durrell, My Family and Other Animals

#quote #book quote #gerald durrell #my family and other animals

[aroundmesitsthenight]

The sea was like a warm, silk coverlet that moved my body gently to and fro. There were no waves, only this gentle underwater movement, the pulse of the sea, rocking me softly.

Gerald Durrell, from ‘My Family and Other Animals’, first published in 1956. 

#lit #gerald durrell #my family and other animals #british literature #1956 #quotes

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

RALPH STEINER ( 1899-1986 ) - Untitled, New York, 1925

Source: Christie’s. com

(h/t Beth Levin)

* * * * 

I should like to pay a special tribute to my mother, to whom this book is dedicated. Like a gentle, enthusiastic, and understanding Noah, she has steered her vessel full of strange progeny through the stormy seas of life with great skill, always faced with the possibility of mutiny, always surrounded by the dangerous shoals of overdraft and extravagance, never being sure that her navigation would be approved by the crew, but certain that she would be blamed for anything that went wrong. That she survived the voyage is a miracle, but survive it she did, and, moreover, with her reason more or less intact. As my brother Larry rightly points out, we can be proud of the way we have brought her up; she is a credit to us

Gerald Durrell, My Family and Other Animals

[alive on all channels]

#quotes #Gerald Durrell #family #Beth Levin #Ralph Steiner #NYC #1920s #Alive On All Channels

[sleepysera]

"'Really, this is a frightful country,' he said, turning on us belligerently, as though we were all directly responsible for the climatic conditions prevailing. 'You set foot on shore at Dover and you're met by a positive barrage of cold germs ... D'you realize that this is the first cold I've had in twelve years? Simply because I had the sense to keep away from Pudding Island. Everyone I've met so far has a cold. The entire population of the British Isles seems to do absolutely nothing from one year's end to another except shuffle round in small circles sneezing voluptuously into each other's faces ... a sort of merry-go-round of reinfection. What chance of survival has one got?'"

-Gerald Durrell, Birds, Beasts, and Relatives (1969)

#books #quote #memoir #autobiography #great britain #gerald durrell

[godzilla-reads]

“‎'All we need is a book,' roared Leslie; 'don't panic, hit 'em with a book.'"

Gerald Durrell, My Family and Other Animals

#godzilla reads #my family and other animals #gerald durrell #gerald durrell quotes #book quotes #bookish quotes #reading #reads #booklr #booklife #booklover #book blog #book blurb #booknerd

[exhaled-spirals]

« I waded into the warm shallows and then dived and swam out to cooler water. Here, if you held your breath and let yourself sink to the bottom, the soft velvety blanket of the sea momentarily stunned and crippled your ears. Then, after a moment, they became attuned to the underwater symphony. The distant throb of a boat engine, soft as a heart-beat, the gentle whisper of the sand as the sea’s movement shuffled and rearranged it and, above all, the musical clink of the pebbles on the shore’s edge.

To hear the sea at work on its great store of pebbles, rubbing and polishing them lovingly, I swam from the deep waters into the shallows. I anchored myself with a handful of multi-coloured stones, then, ducking my head below the surface, listened to the beach singing under the gentle touch of the small waves. If walnuts could sing, I reflected, they would sound like this. Scrunch, tinkle, squeak, mumble, cough (silence while the wave retreats) and then the whole thing in different keys repeated with the next wave. The sea played on the beach as though it were an instrument. »

— Gerald Durrell, Birds, Beasts and Relatives

#quote #gerald durrell #corfu trilogy #sea #nature #music #english

[bookofkhidr]

I believe that all children should be surrounded by books and animals.

Gerald Durrell

#Gerald Durrell #quote #quotes #lit #literature #children #childhood #books #animals #bookofkhidr #book of khidr

[catmint1]

I believe that all children should be surrounded by books and animals.

Gerald Durrell, My Family and Other Animals

#quotes #gerald durrell #my family and other animals #on life #books #animals #pets #nature #raising children #reading books

[thelibraryiscool]

As the sun sank and the geckos started to scuttle about the shadowy walls of the house, Ulysses would wake up. He would yawn delicately, stretch his wings, clean his tail, and then shiver violently so that all his feathers stood out like the petals of a wind-blown chrysanthemum. With great nonchalance he would regurgitate a pellet of undigested food on to the newspaper spread below for this, and other, purposes. Having prepared himself for the night's work, he would utter an experimental 'tywhoo?' to make sure his voice was in trim, and then launch himself on soft wings, to drift round the room as silently as a flake of ash and land on my shoulder. For a short time he would sit there, nibbling my ear, and then he would give himself another shake, put sentiment to one side, and become business-like. He would fly on to the window-sill and give another questioning 'tywhoo?', staring at me with his honey-coloured eyes. This was the signal that he wanted the shutters opened. As soon as I threw them back he would float out through the window, to be silhouetted for a moment against the moon before diving into the dark olive trees. A moment later a loud challenging 'tywhoo! tywhoo!' would ring out, the warning that Ulysses was about to start his hunting.

Gerald Durrell, My Family and Other Animals

because I am inordinately fond of Ulysses the owl, in all his ‘fine ash-grey, rust-red, and black plumage’ glory

#gerald durrell #my family and other animals #the durrells #books #quote #allie reads #this is such a calming escapist light-hearted book #do recommend for this time of stress and isolation

[natureisthegreatestartist]

You cannot begin to preserve any species of animal unless you preserve the habitat in which it dwells. Disturb or destroy that habitat and you will exterminate the species as surely as if you had shot it. So conservation means that you have to preserve forest and grassland, river and lake, even the sea itself. This is not only vital for the preservation of animal life generally, but for the future existence of man himself -- a point that seems to escape many people.

Conservationist Gerald Durrell (1925-1995)

#Animals #animal quote #gerald durrell #gerald durrell quote #conservation #conservation quote #activism quote #ecoactivism quote #eco activism quote #save the animals #wise words #nature quote

[margysmusings]

“I can't be expected to produce deathless prose in an atmosphere of gloom and eucalyptus.” ― Gerald Durrell, My Family and Other Animals

#quote #book quote #gerald durrell #my family and other animals

[aroundmesitsthenight]

Theodore had an apparently inexhaustible fund of knowledge about everything, but he imparted this knowledge with a sort of meticulous diffidence that made you feel he was not so much teaching you something new, as reminding you of something which you were already aware of, but which had, for some reason or other, slipped your mind.

Gerald Durrell, from ‘My Family and Other Animals’, originally published in 1956. 

#lit #gerald durrell #my family and other animals #british literature #1956 #quotes

[diaryoftruequotes]

A house is not a home until it has a dog.

Gerald Durrell

#Gerald Durrell #quotes #book quotes #literature #authors

[lentheric]

#the durrells #gerald durrell #letters #love letters #quotes

[godzilla-reads]

“In my experience it is always the most innocent-looking creatures that can cause you the worst damage.”

— Gerald Durrell, The Whispering Land

#gerald durrell #godzilla reads #gerald durrell quotes #excerpt #book quotes #animal quotes #the whispering land #ralph thompson #book illustrations #book art #art #reading #reads #nature writing #nonfiction books #nature books #novels #a zoo in my luggage trilogy #books and literature #books and reading #books and libraries #literature #book blog #book blurb #book aesthetic #bookaddict #bookworm #bibliophile #bookish #booklover

[exhaled-spirals]

« “You mean to say that each snail is both a male and a female?” “Yes, indeed,” said Theodore, adding with masterly understatement, “it’s very curious.” “Good God,” cried Larry. “I think it’s unfair. All those damned slimy things wandering about seducing each other like mad all over the bushes, and having the pleasures of both sensations. Why couldn’t such a gift be given to the human race? That’s what I want to know.” “Aha, yes. But then you would have to lay eggs,” Theodore pointed out. “True,” said Larry, “but what a marvelous way of getting out of cocktail parties – “I’m terribly sorry I can’t come,” you would say. “I’ve got to sit on my eggs.” Theodore gave a little snort of laughter. “But snails don’t sit on their eggs,” he explained. “They bury them in damp earth and leave them.” “The ideal way of bringing up a family,” said Mother, unexpectedly but with immense conviction. “I wish I’d been able to bury you all in some damp earth and leave you.” »

— Gerald Durrell, Birds, Beasts and Relatives (The Corfu Trilogy, #2)

#quote #gerald durrell #corfu trilogy #snails #english