Nature Quotes

"The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet."

"We must protect forests as critical carbon sinks."

"Natural disasters will become more severe and frequent."

"Climate change threatens food systems worldwide."

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

"The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness."

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

"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 are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot."

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

"When we destroy a species, we destroy one page of the book of life."

"Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them."

"Conservation will ultimately boil down to rewarding the private landowner who conserves the public interest."

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

"Wilderness values may be unknown, but that does not mean they are nonexistent."

"The land is tired; man must rest it, understand it, and work with it."

"An ethical relationship to the land is dependent upon an emotional relationship."

"Leopold believed that we must see the forest, not just the trees, and the ecology, not just the economics."

"There is value in any experience that reminds us of our dependence upon the wide world, an experience that takes place in the blood rather than the intellect."

"We humans are just one strand in the web of life; when we pull that strand thinking only of ourselves, the whole web unravels."

"The land is an organism, and those who break its components or deny its wholeness diminish themselves."

"Every species has value not because humans decide it has worth, but because it exists and has always existed."

"Leopold taught that respecting nature is respecting ourselves."

"The song of a river is far more precious than the sound of machinery."

"We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity; we regard it as a commodity because we see it as a commodity."

"When the land does not belong to the people, the people do not belong to the land."

"Land is not merely soil; it is a fountain of energy flowing through a circuit of soils, plants, and animals."

"Leopold's greatest gift to us is the idea that land can claim moral consideration."

"A land ethic begins where the belief that the soil, waters, plants, and animals are all part of us."

"A sand county teaches that there is profound meaning in the ordinary rhythms of nature."