Aldo Leopold Quotes

The Worthiness Of Any Cause Is Not Measured By Its Clean Record, But By Its Readiness To See The Blots When They Are Pointed Out, And To Change Its Mind.

I Confess My Own Leisure To Be Spent Entirely In Search Of Adventure, Without Regard To Prudence, Profit, Self Improvement, Learning, Or Any Other Serious Thing.

There Are Men Charged With The Duty Of Examining The Construction Of The Plants, Animals, And Soils Which Are The Instruments Of The Great Orchestra. These Men Are Called Professors. Each Selects One Instrument And Spends His Life Taking It Apart And Describing Its Strings And Sounding Boards. This Process Of Dismemberment Is Called Research. The Place For Dismemberment Is Called A University.

There Is, As Yet, No Sense Of Pride In The Husbandry Of Wild Plants And Animals, No Sense Of Shame In The Proprietorship Of A Sick Landscape. We Tilt Windmills In Behalf Of Conservation In Convention Halls And Editorial Offices, But On The Back Forty We Disclaim Even Owning A Lance.

Examine Each Question In Terms Of What Is Ethically And Aesthetically Right, As Well As What Is Economically Expedient.

Third, There Is Value In Any Experience That Exercises Those Ethical Restraints Collectively Called 'sportsmanship'. Our Tools For The Pursuit Of Wildlife Improve Faster Than We Do, And Sportsmanship Is The Voluntary Limitation In The Use Of These Armaments. It Is Aimed To Augment The Role Of Skill And Shrink The Role Of Gadgets In The Pursuit Of Wild Things.

I Love All Trees, But I Am In Love With Pines.

My Dog Does Not Care Where Heat Comes From, But He Cares That It Comes, And Soon. Indeed He Considers My Ability To Make It Come As Something Magical, For When I Rise In The Coal Black Pre-dawn And Kneel By The Hearth To Make A Fire, He Pushes Himself Blandly Between Me And The Kindling Splits I Have Laid In The Ashes, And I Must Touch A Match To Them By Poking It Between His Legs. Such Faith , I Suppose, Is The Kind That Moves Mountains.

This Whole Effort To Rebuild And Stabilize A Countryside Is Not Without Its Disappointments And Mistakes... What Matter Though These Temporary Growing Pains When One Can Cast His Eye Upon The Hills And See Hard-boiled Farmers Who Have Spent Their Lives Destroying Land Now Carrying Water By Hand To Their New Plantations

It Is In Midwinter That I Sometimes Glean From My Pines... A Curious Transfusion Of Courage.

The Art Of Land Doctoring Is Being Practiced With Vigor, But The Science Of Land Health Is Yet To Be Born.

Time Was When Education Moved Toward Soil, Not Away From It.