Aldo Leopold
American author, scientist, ecologist, forester, environmentalist
(1887-1948)
“Only the mountain has lived long enough to listen objectively to the howl of the wolf.”
“Nonconformity is the highest evolutionary attainment of social animals.”
“Man always kills the thing he loves, and so we the pioneers have killed our wilderness. Some say we had to. Be that as it may, I am glad I shall never be young without wild country to be young in. Of what avail are forty freedoms without a blank spot on the map?”
“There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot.”
“Examine each question in terms of what is ethically and aesthetically right, as well as what is economically expedient. A thing is right when it tends to perserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”
“The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant: 'What good is it?”