Quotes by Land That land is a community is the basic concept of ecology, but that land is to be loved and respected is an extension of ethics. Aldo Leopold respect community land Individual thinkers since the days of Ezekiel and Isaiah have asserted that the despoliation of land is not only inexpedient but wrong. Society, however, has not yet affirmed their belief. Aldo Leopold ezekiel land belief We shall never achieve harmony with land, any more than we shall achieve absolute justice or liberty for people. In these higher aspirations, the important thing is not to achieve but to strive. Aldo Leopold nature land people When some remote ancestor of ours invented the shovel, he became a giver: He could plant a tree. And when the axe was invented, he became a taker: He could chop it down. Whoever owns land has thus assumed, whether he knows it or not, the divine functions of creating and destroying plants. Aldo Leopold creating land tree Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land. Aldo Leopold nature land men Once you learn to read the land, I have no fear of what you will do to it, or with it. And I know many pleasant things it will do to you. Aldo Leopold pleasant no-fear land The road to conservation is paved with good intentions that often prove futile, or even dangerous, due to a lack of understanding of either land or economic land use. Aldo Leopold understanding land use Every region should retain representative samples of its original or wilderness condition, to serve science as a sample of normality. Just as doctors must study healthy people to understand disease, so must the land sciences study the wilderness to understand disorders of the land-mechanism. Aldo Leopold doctors land people What more delightful avocation than to take a piece of land and by cautious experimentation to prove how it works. What more substantial service to conservation than to practice it on one's own land? Aldo Leopold pieces land practice Health is the capacity of the land for self-renewal. Aldo Leopold renewal land self The problem, then, is how to bring about a striving for harmony with land among a people many of whom have forgotten there is any such thing as land, among whom education and culture have become almost synonymous with landlessness. This is the problem of conservation education. Aldo Leopold land culture people My favorite quote: The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land. In short, a land ethic changes the role of Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land-community to plain member and citizen of it. It implies respect for his fellow-members, and also respect for the community as such. Aldo Leopold land animal water Our tools are better than we are, and grow better faster than we do. They suffice to crack the atom, to command the tides, but they do not suffice for the oldest task in human history, to live on a piece of land without spoiling it. Aldo Leopold atoms tasks land I have purposely presented the land ethic as a product of social evolution because nothing so important as an ethic is ever 'written'… It evolves in the minds of a thinking community. Aldo Leopold community land thinking It is inconceivable to me that an ethical relation to land can exist without love, respect, and admiration for land, and a high regard for its value. By value, I of course mean something far broader than mere economic value; I mean value in the philosophical sense. Aldo Leopold philosophical land mean I do not imply that this philosophy of land was always clear to me. It is rather the end result of a life journey. Aldo Leopold land journey philosophy Conservation viewed in its entirety, is the slow and laborious unfolding of a new relationship between people and land. Aldo Leopold new-relationship land people Land health is the capacity for self-renewal in the soils, waters, plants, and animals that collectively comprise the land. Aldo Leopold land self animal There are two things that interest me: the relation of people to each other, and the relation of people to land. Aldo Leopold land two people What conservation education must build is an ethical underpinning for land economics and a universal curiosity to understand the land mechanism. Conservation may then follow. Aldo Leopold curiosity land may «1234567891011»