“A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”

“A land ethic changes the role of Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land-community to plain member …”

— Aldo Leopold, 'The Land Ethic'

“Ability to see the cultural value of wilderness boils down, in the last analysis, to a question of …”

— Aldo Leopold, 'A Sand County Almanac'

“Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land.”

— Aldo Leopold, 'The Land Ethic'

“One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds.”

— Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac (1949) — from an unused 1947 draft foreword

“That land is a community is the basic concept of ecology, but that land is to be loved and respected …”

— Aldo Leopold, 'The Land Ethic'

“The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and …”

— Aldo Leopold, 'The Land Ethic'