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Aldo Leopold

Aldo Leopold Quotes

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Famous Aldo Leopold Quotes

“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; it is such who prate of empires, political or economic, that will last a thousand years. It is only the scholar who appreciates that all history consists of successive excursions from a single starting-point, to which man returns again and again to organize yet another search for a durable scale of values. It is only the scholar who understands why the raw wilderness gives definition and meaning to the human enterprise.”

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Author:Aldo Leopold
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“There is, as yet, no sense of pride in the husbandry of wild plants and animals, no sense of shame in the proprietorship of a sick landscape. We tilt windmills in behalf of conservation in convention halls and editorial offices, but on the back forty we disclaim even owning a lance.”

AnimalLandPrideOfficeSickShamePlantLandscapeFortyHallsConventionsConservationBehalfEditorialsPlants And AnimalsTiltWindmills
Book:A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There
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“Conservation is getting nowhere because it is incompatible with our Abrahamic concept of land. We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect. There is no other way for land to survive the impact of mechanized man, nor for us to reap from it the aesthetic harvest it is capable, under science, of contributing to culture”

MenWayMayUseCultureCommunityLandCapableConceptsAbuseRegardImpactBelongingAestheticCommodityConservationHarvestReapContributingLove And RespectLand Conservation
Book:A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There
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“I am asserting that those who love the wilderness should not be wholly deprived of it, that while the reduction of the wilderness has been a good thing, its extermination would be a very bad one, and that the conservation of wilderness is the most urgent and difficult of all the tasks that confront us, because there are no economic laws to help and many to hinder its accomplishment.”

ShouldHas BeensHelpingWould BeLawDifficultEconomicTasksGood ThingsAccomplishmentWildernessConservationDeprivedUrgentReductionHinderExtermination
Author:Aldo Leopold
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“We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.”

MayUseNatureCommunityNaturalInspiringEnvironmentLandOceanRespectAbuseRegardGreenEnvironmentalCaringPreservesWildernessBelongingSustainabilityPollutionEcologyCommodityConservationPreservationNatural WorldOur EnvironmentWildlifeBeginningOur CommunityMother EarthNatural EnvironmentLove And RespectNature And EnvironmentSave Mother EarthNature LoveEarth And NatureNature ConservationGreen LivingWildlife ConservationEco FriendlyThe Wild NatureConservingInspiring NatureEnvironmental PollutionInspirational EnvironmentalEnergy ConservationGo GreenLand ConservationLove And NatureWhere You BelongEnvironmental SustainabilityLand UseWildlife And NatureConserving EnvironmentDeep EcologyUse And AbuseProtect NatureCommunity LivingCommunity Garden
Author:Aldo Leopold
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“We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes. I realized then, and have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those eyes – something known only to her and to the mountain. I was young then, and full of trigger-itch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunters’ paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view.”

MeanEyeYoungDiesViewsKnownWatchesFireSeeingDyingMountainGreenI RealizedParadiseSomething NewFewerHuntingFierceHer EyesConservationHuntersTriggersDeerLand Conservation
Author:Aldo Leopold
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“Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them. Now we face the question whether a still higher 'standard of living' is worth its cost in things natural, wild and free. For us of the minority, the opportunity to see geese is more important than television.”

StillsImportantFacesOpportunityNatureNaturalTakenProgressTelevisionWindHigherCostStandardsGrantedSunsetMinoritiesConservationGeeseStandards Of LivingTaken For GrantedWild And FreeWild ThingsHigher StandardsLand Conservation
Book:A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There
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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.”

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Author:Aldo Leopold
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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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“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 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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