The real jewel of my disease-ridden woodlot is the prothonotary warbler. ... The flash of his gold-and-blue plumage amid the dank decay of the June woods is in itself proof that dead trees are transmuted into living animals, and vice versa. — Aldo Leopold Copy Share Image
Every region should retain representative samples of its original or wilderness condition, to serve science as a sample of normality. Just as doctors must study healthy people to understand disease, so must the land sciences study the wilderness to understand… — 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
