Thus far we have considered the problem of conservation of land purely as an economic issue. A false front of exclusively economic… — Aldo Leopold Copy Share Image
“That land is a community is the basic concept of ecology, but that land is to be loved and respected is an… — Aldo Leopold Copy Share Image
The practice of conservation must spring from a conviction of what is ethically and aesthetically right, as well as what is economically… — Aldo Leopold Copy Share Image
To those devoid of imagination a blank place on the map is a useless waste; to others, the most valuable part. — Aldo Leopold Copy Share Image
There is, as yet, no sense of pride in the husbandry of wild plants and animals, no sense of shame in the… — Aldo Leopold Copy Share Image
“Getting up too early is a vice habitual in horned owls, stars, geese, and freight trains. Some hunters acquire it from geese,… — Aldo Leopold Copy Share Image
“We forest officers, who acquiesced in the extinguishment of the bear, knew a local rancher who had plowed up a dagger engraved… — Aldo Leopold Copy Share Image
“But wherever the truth may lie, this much is crystal-clear: our bigger-and-better society is now like a hypochondriac, so obsessed with its… — Aldo Leopold Copy Share Image
The problem, then, is how to bring about a striving for harmony with land among a people many of whom have forgotten… — Aldo Leopold Copy Share Image
All conservation of wildness is self-defeating, for to cherish we must see and fondle, and when enough have seen and fondled, there… — Aldo Leopold Copy Share Image
“There is an allegory for historians in the diverse functions of saw, wedge, and axe. The saw works only across the years,… — Aldo Leopold Copy Share Image
Conservation is a positive exercise of skill and insight, not merely a negative exercise of abstinence and caution. — Aldo Leopold Copy Share Image
What more delightful avocation than to take a piece of land and by cautious experimentation to prove how it works. What more… — Aldo Leopold Copy Share Image
Conservation will ultimately boil down to rewarding the private landowner who conserves the public interest. — Aldo Leopold Copy Share Image
Relegating conservation to government is like relegating virtue to the Sabbath. Turns over to professionals what should be daily work of amateurs . — Aldo Leopold Copy Share Image
If the land mechanism as a whole is good then every part is good, whether we understand it or not... — Aldo Leopold Copy Share Image
What conservation education must build is an ethical underpinning for land economics and a universal curiosity to understand the land mechanism. Conservation… — Aldo Leopold Copy Share Image
The road to conservation is paved with good intentions that often prove futile, or even dangerous, due to a lack of understanding… — Aldo Leopold Copy Share Image
A land ethic...reflects the existence of an ecological conscience, and this in turn reflects a conviction of individual responsibility for the health… — Aldo Leopold Copy Share Image
Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with the pretty. — Aldo Leopold Copy Share Image
...to any one for whom wild things are something more than a pleasant diversion, (conservation) constitutes one of the milestones in moral… — Aldo Leopold Copy Share Image
Conservation is getting nowhere because it is incompatible with our Abrahamic concept of land. We abuse land because we regard it as… — Aldo Leopold Copy Share Image
I am asserting that those who love the wilderness should not be wholly deprived of it, that while the reduction of the… — Aldo Leopold Copy Share Image
“Unsportsmanlike predator-killing is always rationalized as defence of property—usually someone else’s property. This excuse is getting too thin to pass muster among… — Aldo Leopold Copy Share Image
The worthiness of any cause is not measured by its clean record, but by its readiness to see the blots when they are pointed… — Aldo Leopold Copy Share Image
Is it possible to preserve the element of Unknown Places in our national life? Is it practicable to do so, without undue loss in… — Aldo Leopold Copy Share Image
Teach the student to see the land, understand what he sees, and enjoy what he understands. — Aldo Leopold Copy Share Image
Wildflower corners are easy to maintain, but once gone, they are hard to rebuild. — Aldo Leopold Copy Share Image
He who searches for spring with his knees in the mud finds it, in abundance. — Aldo Leopold Copy Share Image
Nonconformity is the highest evolutionary attainment of social animals. — Aldo Leopold Copy Share Image
If education really educates, there will, in time, be more and more citizens who understand that relics of the old West add meaning and… — Aldo Leopold Copy Share Image
This song of the waters is audible to every ear, but there is other music in these hills, by no means audible to all....… — Aldo Leopold Copy Share Image
To those who know the speech of hills and rivers straightening a stream is like shipping vagrants—a very successful method of passing trouble from… — Aldo Leopold Copy Share Image
We shall never achieve harmony with land, any more than we shall achieve absolute justice or liberty for people. In these higher aspirations, the… — Aldo Leopold Copy Share Image
