Ability to see the cultural value of wilderness boils down, in the last analysis, to a question of intellectual humility.

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

— Aldo Leopold, 'The Land Ethic'

A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic …

— Aldo Leopold, 'The Land Ethic'

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'