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Aldo Leopold

Aldo Leopold Quotes

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Famous Aldo Leopold Quotes

“Twenty centuries of 'progress' have brought the average citizen a vote, a national anthem, a Ford, a bank account, and a high opinion of himself, but not the capacity to live in high density without befouling and denuding his environment, nor a conviction that such capacity, rather than such density, is the true test of whether he is civilized.”

ScienceOpinionEnvironmentProgressCenturyCitizensCivilizationCapacityTestsVoteAccountsTwentiesEnvironmentalAverageConvictionCivilizedDinosaursAnthemBank AccountsDensityNational Anthem
Book:Game Management 118
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“For unnumbered centuries of human history the wilderness has given way. The priority of industry has become dogma. Are we as yet sufficiently enlightened to realize that we must now challenge that dogma, or do without our wilderness? Do we realize that industry, which has been our good servant, might make a poor master?”

WayHumansHas BeensMightGivenRealizingChallengesPoorCenturyMastersIndustryPrioritiesServantEnlightenedWildernessDogmaHuman History
Book:Aldo Leopold's Southwest
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“Ability to see the cultural value of wilderness boils down, in the last analysis, to a question of intellectual humility. The shallow-minded modern who has lost his rootage in the land assumes that he has already discovered what is important.”

ImportantLastsValuesLostAbilityModernLandHumilityIntellectualAssumingAnalysisWildernessShallowAbility To SeeIntellectual Humility
Book:A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There
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“This song of the waters is audible to every ear, but there is other music in these hills, by no means audible to all. On a still night, when the campfire is low and the Pleiades have climbed over rimrocks, sit quietly and listen, and think hard of everything you have seen and tried to understand. Then you may hear it - a vast pulsing harmony - its score inscribed on a thousand hills, its notes the lives and deaths of plants and animals, its rhythms spanning the seconds and the centuries.”

ThinkingLifeMayMeanStillsHardNightSongWaterNatureAnimalCenturyListeningThousandLowsEarsHarmonyPlantNotesRhythmHillsScoreLife And DeathSecondsPlants And AnimalsCampfire
Author:Aldo Leopold
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“The practice of conservation must spring from a conviction of what is ethically and aesthetically right, as well as what is economically expedient. A thing is right only when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the community, and the community includes the soil, waters, fauna, and flora, as well as people.”

PeopleWellsWaterCommunityPracticeEnvironmentIntegritySpringConvictionPreservesSoilStabilityConservationFlora
Author:Aldo Leopold
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“Our tools are better than we are, and grow better faster than we do. They suffice to crack the atom, to command the tides, but they do not suffice for the oldest task in human history, to live on a piece of land without spoiling it.”

HumansGrowsPiecesLandToolsTasksCommandFasterCracksAtomsTidesHuman History
Book:Aldo Leopold: A Sand County Almanac & Other Writings on Conservation and Ecology: (Library of America #238)
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“Third, there is value in any experience that exercises those ethical restraints collectively called 'sportsmanship'. Our tools for the pursuit of wildlife improve faster than we do, and sportsmanship is the voluntary limitation in the use of these armaments. It is aimed to augment the role of skill and shrink the role of Gadgets in the pursuit of wild things.”

UseValuesRolesExerciseSkillsToolsThirdsPursuitLimitationFasterEthicalRestraintShrinksWildlifeGadgetsSportsmanshipArmamentWild Things
Book:A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There
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“A land ethic...reflects the existence of an ecological conscience, and this in turn reflects a conviction of individual responsibility for the health of the land. Health is the capacity of the land for self-renewal. Conservation is our effort to understand and preserve this capacity.”

SelfTurnsIndividualEffortExistenceResponsibilityLandEthicsConscienceCapacityConvictionPreservesConservationRenewalEcologicalIndividual ResponsibilityLand Conservation
Author:Aldo Leopold
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“My dog does not care where heat comes from, but he cares that it comes, and soon. Indeed he considers my ability to make it come as something magical, for when I rise in the coal black pre-dawn and kneel by the hearth to make a fire, he pushes himself blandly between me and the kindling splits I have laid in the ashes, and I must touch a match to them by poking it between his legs. Such faith , I suppose, is the kind that moves mountains.”

HeartKindDoeCareMovingBlackAbilityFireDogMountainLegsDawnHeatSplitsAshesCoalMy DogMove MountainsKindling
Author:Aldo Leopold
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“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 he knows it or not, the divine functions of creating and destroying plants.”

KnowsTreeLandDivineCreatingFunctionPlantDestroyingAncestorGiverPlant A TreeShovels
Book:Aldo Leopold: A Sand County Almanac & Other Writings on Conservation and Ecology: (Library of America #238)
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“Wilderness is the raw material out of which man has hammered the artifact called civilization. Wilderness was never a homogenous raw material. It was very diverse. The differences in the product are known as cultures. The rich diversity of the worlds cultures reflects a corresponding diversity. In the wilds that gave them birth.”

MenWorldCultureDifferencesKnownRichMaterialsProductsBirthCivilizationDiversityWildernessDiverseRaw MaterialsCorrespondingArtifactsHammered
Book:Aldo Leopold: A Sand County Almanac & Other Writings on Conservation and Ecology: (Library of America #238)
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“Then came the gadgeteer, otherwise known as the sporting-goods dealer. He has draped the American outdoorsman with an infinity of contraptions, all offered as aids to self-reliance, hardihood, woodcraft, or marksmanship, but too often functioning as substitutes for them. Gadgets fill the pockets, they dangle from neck and belt. The overflow fills the auto-trunk and also the trailer. Each item of outdoor equipment grows lighter and often better, but the aggregate poundage becomes tonnage.”

SelfGrowsKnownAidsNecksPocketsGoodsSubstitutesInfinityEquipmentSelf RelianceItemsBeltsRelianceDealerLightersTrailersTrunksGadgetsOverflowBackpackingOutdoorsmanMarksmanship
Book:A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There
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“My favorite quote: The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land. In short, a land ethic changes the role of Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land-community to plain member and citizen of it. It implies respect for his fellow-members, and also respect for the community as such.”

WaterCommunityAnimalRolesLandCitizensMembersEthicsFellowsPlantMy FavoriteBoundariesSoilHomo SapiensConquerorPlants And Animals
Author:Aldo Leopold
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“Our grandfathers were less well-housed, well-fed, well-clothed than we are. The strivings by which they bettered their lot are also those which deprived us of [Passenger] pigeons. Perhaps we now grieve because we are not sure, in our hearts, that we have gained by the exchange. The gadgets of industry bring us more comforts than the pigeons did, but do they add as much to the glory of the spring?”

WellsHeartNatureIndustryComfortSpringGloryAddStriveGrievingNot SureFedsGrandfatherDeprivedPassengersPigeonsGadgets
Author:Aldo Leopold
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“Harmony with land is like harmony with a friend; you cannot cherish his right hand and chop off his left. That is to say, you cannot love game and hate predators; you cannot conserve the waters and waste the ranges; you cannot build the forest and mine the farm. The land is one organism.”

HandsHateGamesLeftWaterNatureLandMinesWasteHarmonyForestsRangeCherishFarmsOrganismsPredatorLand ConservationThe Love Of The Game
Book:Aldo Leopold: A Sand County Almanac & Other Writings on Conservation and Ecology: (Library of America #238)
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