Quotessence
Home / Authors / Aldo Leopold
Aldo Leopold

Aldo Leopold Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllLandConservationWildernessNatureLand ConservationMenPlantAnimalEnvironmentEnvironmentalMayRiversCommunityHumansIfsValuesEthicsPeopleSoilWater

Famous Aldo Leopold Quotes

“If education really educates, there will, in time, be more and more citizens who understand that relics of the old West add meaning and value to the new. Youth yet unborn will pole up the Missouri with Lewis and Clark, or climb the Sierras with James Capen Adams, and each generation in turn will ask: Where is the big white bear? It will be a sorry answer to say he went under while conservationists weren't looking.”

IfsBigsValuesTurnsAsksWhiteAnswersGenerationsYouthBearsCitizensAddWestSorryClimbsEducateUnbornRelicsSierraMissouriOld WestLewis And Clark
Book:A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There
Create image

“Ideas, like men, can become dictators. We Americans have so far escaped regimentation by our rulers, but have we escaped regimentation by our own ideas? I doubt if there exists today a more complete regimentation of the human mind than that accomplished by our self-imposed doctrine of ruthless utilitarianism.”

IfsMenMindHumansIdeasSelfTodayDoubtDoctrineAccomplishedHuman MindRulersDictatorRuthlessUtilitarianismRegimentation
Book:Aldo Leopold: A Sand County Almanac & Other Writings on Conservation and Ecology: (Library of America #238)
Create image

“Conservationists have, I fear, adopted the pedagogical method of the prophets: we mutter darkly about impending doom if people don't mend their ways. The doom is impending, all right; no one can be an ecologist, even an amateur one, without seeing it. But do people mend their ways for fear of calamity? I doubt it. They are more likely to do it out of pure curiosity and interest.”

PeopleIfsWayInterestDoubtSeeingPureMethodCuriosityProphetAdoptedDoomCalamity
Book:Aldo Leopold: A Sand County Almanac & Other Writings on Conservation and Ecology: (Library of America #238)
Create image

“The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant, "What good is it?" If the land mechanism as a whole is good, then every part is good, whether we understand it or not. If the biota, in the course of aeons, has built something we like but do not understand, then who but a fool would discard seemingly useless parts? To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering.”

IfsMenFirstsWholeLastsCoursesAnimalLandIgnoranceFoolBuiltIntelligentPlantUselessWheelsMechanismLast WordsPrecautionCogsTinkeringLand Conservation
Book:Round River
Create image

“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. By virtue of this curious loophole in the rules, any clodhopper may say: Let there be a tree - and there will be one.”

IfsKnowsNeedsMayKnow HowVirtueTreeExampleCreationPoetPlantFolksCuriousRestrictionReservedShovelsLoopholes
Book:A Sand County Almanac
Create image

“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)
Create image

“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)
Create image

“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
Create image