Aldo Leopold

"We have built a floor over the land and now we live in a third dimension."

"The ordinary citizen today assumes that science knows what it is talking about when it speaks of 'developing' a lake or a mountain."

"The land remembers everything we do to it, good and bad, forever."

"Civilization has so cluttered this elemental man-earth relationship with gadgets and middlemen that awareness of it is lost."

"A deer viewed with respect is a different thing than a deer viewed with hunger."

"The cultural value of wilderness has nothing to do with economics."

"We stand guard over works of art, but species and ecosystems we devote to sport."

"The land is an organism, and conserving it is not something to be done for profit."

"Oxygen is the commonest element in the biosphere, but carbon is the most indispensable."

"The public is still unaware that a wilderness is a public utility."

"Education is learning to see the unity of all things in nature."

"Plants are the great source of all life. Without plants, animals cannot exist."

"Land use changes are slow and costly, but the process is inevitable."

"The wilderness we save is a measure of our respect for the land."

"Diversity in the landscape is necessary for the mental health of a society."

"We abuse land because we do not see it as having intrinsic value."

"The land ethic is a fundamental shift in how we view our relationship to nature."

"Esthetics and utility are not enemies; they are interdependent."

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

"The tragedy of the commons is an inescapable fact of modern life."

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

"The land knows nothing of the human concepts of rent, taxes, and profits."

"Wildness is necessary to the fullness of life."

"We are learning the first lesson in the alphabet of land ecology."

"Environmental health requires the recognition of new ethical boundaries."

"The land is community, and we are the newest members of that community."

"We stand in awe before the complexity of the natural world."

"A conservationist is one who understands the value of wild things and wild places."

"The land ethic enlarges the boundaries of our moral community."

"We cannot win this battle to save species and environments without forging an emotional bond between ourselves and nature."