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Aldo Leopold

Aldo Leopold Quotes

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Famous Aldo Leopold Quotes

“We realize the indivisibility of the earth - its soil, mountains, rivers, forests, climate, plants, and animals - and respect it collectively not only as a useful servant but as a living being, vastly less alive than ourselves in degree, but vastly greater than ourselves in time and space - a being that was old when the morning stars sang together, and when the last of us has been gathered unto his fathers, will still be young.”

Has BeensStillsEarthTogetherLastsYoungFatherStarsRealizingSpaceAnimalMorningGreaterMountainRiversPlantClimateEnvironmentalForestsServantSoilTime And SpaceBe YoungPlants And Animals
Author:Aldo Leopold
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“Thus far we have considered the problem of conservation of land purely as an economic issue. A false front of exclusively economic determinism is so habitual to Americans in discussing public questions that one must speak in the language of compound interest to get a hearing.”

ProblemSpeakLanguageInterestIssuesEconomicLandFrontsRiversEnvironmentalHearingConservationCompoundsDiscussingHabitualDeterminismEconomic IssuesCompound Interest
Book:Aldo Leopold: A Sand County Almanac & Other Writings on Conservation and Ecology: (Library of America #238)
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“We console ourselves with the comfortable fallacy that a single museum piece will do, ignoring the clear dictum of history that a species must be saved in many places if it is to be saved at all.”

IfsClearPiecesComfortableRiversSpeciesEnvironmentalSavedMuseumsFallacyConsole
Book:Aldo Leopold: A Sand County Almanac & Other Writings on Conservation and Ecology: (Library of America #238)
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“I know a painting so evanescent that it is seldom viewed at all except by some wandering deer. It is a river who wields the brush and it is the same river who before I can bring my friends to view his work erases it forever from human view. After that it exists only in my mind's eye.”

KnowsMindHumansI CanEyeViewsForeverPaintingMy FriendsRiversWanderBrushesEraseDeer
Book:A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There
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“We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us.”

NatureCommunityNaturalEnvironmentLandRespectAbuseRegardGreenEnvironmentalPreservesWildernessBelongingSustainabilityPollutionEcologyCommodityConservationPreservationOur EnvironmentWildlifeOur CommunityMother EarthNatural EnvironmentNature And EnvironmentSave Mother EarthEarth And NatureNature ConservationGreen LivingWildlife ConservationEco FriendlyConservingInspiring NatureEnvironmental PollutionInspirational EnvironmentalEnergy ConservationGo GreenLand ConservationWhere You BelongEnvironmental SustainabilityWildlife And NatureConserving EnvironmentDeep EcologyProtect NatureCommunity LivingCommunity Garden
Book:A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There
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“One of the anomalies of modern ecology is the creation of two groups, each of which seems barely aware of the existence of the other. The one studies the human community, almost as if it were a separate entity, and calls its findings sociology, economics and history. The other studies the plant and animal community and comfortably relegates the hodge-podge of politics to the liberal arts. The inevitable fusion of these two lines of thought will, perhaps, constitute the outstanding advance of this century.”

IfsHumansArtTwoSeemsCommunityLinesAnimalExistenceStudyGroupsModernCenturyCreationFindingsEconomicsPlantInevitableEntityEcologySociologyOutstandingFusionPlants And AnimalsAnomaliesLiberal Arts
Book:Aldo Leopold: A Sand County Almanac & Other Writings on Conservation and Ecology: (Library of America #238)
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“There is yet no ethic dealing with man's relation to land and to the animals and plants which grow upon it. Land, like Odysseus' slave-girls, is still property. The land-relation is still strictly economic, entailing privileges but not obligations.”

MenStillsGirlGrowsAnimalGrowing UpEconomicLandEthicsRelationPropertyPlantSlavePrivilegeObligationOdysseusSlave Girl
Book:The River of the Mother of God: and other Essays by Aldo Leopold
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“It is inconceivable to me that an ethical relation to land can exist without love, respect, and admiration for land, and a high regard for its value. By value, I of course mean something far broader than mere economic value; I mean value in the philosophical sense.”

MeanValuesCoursesEconomicLandRelationPhilosophicalRegardMereAdmirationEthicalWithout LoveLove RespectEconomic Value
Book:A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There
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“There are idle spots on every farm, and every highway is bordered by an idle strip as long as it is; keep cow, plow, and mower out of these idle spots, and the full native flora, plus dozens of interesting stowaways from foreign parts, could be part of the normal environment of every citizen.”

LongNatureInterestingEnvironmentCitizensNormalSpotsNativePlusFarmsDozenCowsIdleHighwaysFloraMowers
Book:A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There
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“If in a city we had six vacant lots available to the youngsters of a certain neighborhood for playing ball, it might be "development" to build houses on the first, and the second, and the third, and the fourth, and even the fifth, but when we build houses on the last one, we forget what houses are for.”

IfsFirstsMightLastsCertainHouseNatureForgetCitiesDevelopmentSixThirdsBallsAvailableNeighborhoodFourthFifthYoungstersVacant
Book:Aldo Leopold's Southwest
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“We all strive for safety, prosperity, comfort, long life, and dullness. The deer strives with his supple legs, the cowman with trap and poison, the statesman with pen, the most of us with machines, votes, and dollars. A measure of success in this is all well enough, and perhaps is a requisite to objective thinking, but too much safety seems to yield only danger in the long run. Perhaps this is behind Thoreau's dictum: In wilderness is the salvation of the world. Perhaps this is the hidden meaning in the howl of the wolf, long known among mountains, but seldom perceived among men.”

ThinkingMenWorldLifeWellsLongEnoughSeemsRunningBehindsKnownToo MuchDangerComfortMountainMachinesVoteSafetySalvationDollarsStriveProsperityLegsObjectivesPoisonWildernessPensYieldLong RunsTrapsStrifeLong LifeStatesmenDeerHowlDullnessMeasure Of SuccessSuppleHidden Meaning
Author:Aldo Leopold
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“The most important characteristic of an organism is that capacity for internal self-renewal known as health. There are two organisms whose processes of self-renewal have been subjected to human interference and control. One of these is man himself (medicine and public health). The other is land (agriculture and coservation). The effort to control the health of land has not been very successful.”

MenHumansHas BeensTwoImportantSelfProcessEffortKnownSuccessfulLandCapacityMedicineCharacteristicsInternalsAgricultureOrganismsRenewalInterferencePublic Health
Book:Aldo Leopold: A Sand County Almanac & Other Writings on Conservation and Ecology: (Library of America #238)
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