Aldo Leopold
Aldo Leopold
Aldo Leopoldwas an American author, scientist, ecologist, forester, conservationist, and environmentalist. He was a professor at the University of Wisconsin and is best known for his book A Sand County Almanac, which has sold more than two million copies...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionActivist
Date of Birth11 January 1887
CityBurlington, IA
CountryUnited States of America
spring mud knees
He who searches for spring with his knees in the mud finds it, in abundance.
nature spring heart
Our grandfathers were less well-housed, well-fed, well-clothed than we are. The strivings by which they bettered their lot are also those which deprived us of [Passenger] pigeons. Perhaps we now grieve because we are not sure, in our hearts, that we have gained by the exchange. The gadgets of industry bring us more comforts than the pigeons did, but do they add as much to the glory of the spring?
weed real sea
Like all real treasures of the mind, perception can be split into infinitely small fractions without losing its quality. The weeds in a city lot convey the same lesson as the redwoods; the farmer may see in his cow-pasture what may not be vouchsafed to the scientist adventuring in the South Seas.
respect land community
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.
cost faces wild-and-free
We face the question whether a still higher "standard of living" is worth its cost in things natural, wild, and free.
men self ideas
Ideas, like men, can become dictators. We Americans have so far escaped regimentation by our rulers, but have we escaped regimentation by our own ideas? I doubt if there exists today a more complete regimentation of the human mind than that accomplished by our self-imposed doctrine of ruthless utilitarianism.
house over-you wisconsin
How would you like to have a thousand brilliantly colored cliff swallows keeping house in the eaves of your barn, and gobbling up insects over your farm at the rate of 100,000 per day? There are many Wisconsin farmsteads where such a swallow-show is a distinct possibility.
writing men thinking
I have read many definitions of what is a conservationist, and written not a few myself, but I suspect that the best one is written not with a pen, but with an axe. It is a matter of what a man thinks about while chopping, or while deciding what to chop. A conservationist is one who is humbly aware that with each stroke he is writing his signature on the face of his land.
drama land sky
The drama of the sky dance is enacted nightly on hundreds of farms, the owners of which sigh for entertainment, but harbor the illusion that it is to be sought in theaters. They live on the land, but not by the land.
beautiful nature art
Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with the pretty. It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language.
conservation interest land-conservation
Conservation will ultimately boil down to rewarding the private landowner who conserves the public interest.
nature land justice
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.
rivers broken sun
A river or stream is a cycle of energy from sun to plants to insects to fish. It is a continuum broken only by humans.
nature ignorance men
The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant: 'What good is it?