Aldo Leopold

"In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks."

"The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land."

"A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community; it is wrong when it tends otherwise."

"Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land."

"The oldest task in human history is to live on a piece of land without spoiling it."

"Wilderness is the raw material out of which man manufactures the stuff which he calls civilization."

"One cannot live without encountering some form of wilderness."

"The public outcome of all these private landscapes is the landscape of the nation."

"Only the mountain has lived long enough to listen objectively to the howl of the wolf."

"Land health is the capacity of the land for self-renewal."

"The land-relation is still strictly economic, entailing privileges but not obligations."

"Harmony with land is like harmony with a friend; you cannot cherish his right hand and chop off his left."

"Wilderness is the ultimate source of health."

"We abuse land because we see 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 value in any experience that reminds us of our dependence on the wide universe."

"We inherited a continent and passed on a state."

"The outstanding scientific discovery of the twentieth century is not television or radio, but the complexity of the land organism."

"Good oak needs good neighbors."

"The land ethic reflects the existence of an ecological conscience."

"Art is the effort to make habitations and make these habitations beautiful."

"Thinking like a mountain means appreciating the long view of history."

"We need beauty for the renewal of the soul."

"The coon hunts from necking to necking and from woods to woods."

"Conservation means harmonizing the relationship between land and people."

"The goal of the land ethic is not to stop the use of land, but to use it wisely."

"Every species owes its existence to countless others."

"One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds."

"The geese that once darkened the sky are now as scarce as clouds in midsummer."

"To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering."

"Wilderness is a resource which can shrink but not grow."