Aldo Leopold was an American writer and naturalist, and is widely considered to be the father of wildlife ecology. Below are a few notable Aldo Leopold quotes about nature, ethics, and environmentalism:

“Ethical behavior is doing the right thing when no one else is watching- even when doing the wrong thing is legal.”

“We abuse land because we see it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.”

“Only the mountain has lived long enough to listen objectively to the howl of the wolf.”

“Nonconformity is the highest evolutionary attainment of social animals.”

“Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them.”

“We shall never achieve harmony with the 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.”

“The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant: ‘What good is it?”

“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.”

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

“The modern dogma is comfort at any cost.”

“Is education possibly a process of trading awareness for things of lesser worth?”

Like these quotes? Check out more nature quotes here.

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