Acts of creation are ordinarily reserved for gods and poets, but humbler folk may circumvent this restriction if they know how. To plant a pine, for example, one need be neither god nor poet; one need only own a shovel. — Aldo Leopold Copy Share Image
When some remote ancestor of ours invented the shovel, he became a giver: He could plant a tree. And when the axe was invented, he became a taker: He could chop it down. Whoever owns land has thus assumed, whether… — 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
