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The whole conflict thus boils down to a question of degree. We of the minority see a law of diminishing returns in progress our opponents do not.

Aldo Leopold

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Aldo Leopold
Age: 60 †
Born: 1887
Born: January 1
Died: 1948
Died: January 1
Academic
Author
Botanical Collector
Ecologist
Environmentalist
Forestry Scientist
Naturalist
Philosopher
University Teacher
Burlington
Iowa
Aldo Starker Leopold
Rand Aldo Leopold
Whole
Degree
Thus
Degrees
Boils
Conflict
Diminishing
Return
Returns
Progress
Minority
Question
Minorities
Law
Opponents

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The rich diversity of the world's cultures reflects a corresponding diversity in the wilds that gave them birth.
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What avail are forty freedoms without a blank spot on the map?
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Health is the capacity of the land for self-renewal.
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Bread and beauty grow best together. Their harmonious integration can make farming not only a business but an art the land not only a food-factory but an instrument for self-expression, on which each can play music to his own choosing.
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The first law of intelligent tinkering is to save all the parts
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. . . perhaps our grandsons, having never seen a wild river, will never miss the chance to set a canoe in singing waters . . . glad I shall never be young without wild country to be young in.
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There are two things that interest me: the relation of people to each other, and the relation of people to land.
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Tell me of what plant-birthday a man takes notice, and I shall tell you a good deal about his vocation, his hobbies, his hay fever, and the general level of his ecological education.
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We stand guard over works of art, but species representing the work of aeons are stolen from under our noses
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Having to squeeze the last drop of utility out of the land has the same desperate finality as having to chop up the furniture to keep warm.
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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.
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Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them
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No farmer-sportsman group is stronger than the ties of mutual confidence and enthusiasm which bind its members.
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Man brings all things to the test of himself, and this is notably true of lightning.
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In that year [1865] John Muir offered to buy from his brother ... a sanctuary for the wildflowers that had gladdened his youth. His brother declined to part with the land, but he could not suppress the idea: 1865 still stands in Wisconsin history as the birth-year of mercy for things natural, wild, and free.
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Acts of creation are ordinarily reserved for gods and poets, but humbler folk may circumvent this restriction if they know how. To plant a pine, for example, one need be neither god nor poet one need only own a shovel.
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We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us.
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In June as many as a dozen species may burst their buds on a single day. No man can heed all of these anniversaries no man can ignore all of them.
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All conservation of wildness is self-defeating, for to cherish we must see and fondle, and when enough have seen and fondled, there is no wilderness left to cherish.
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Every farm woodland, in addition to yielding lumber, fuel and posts, should provide its owner a liberal education. This crop of wisdom never fails, but it is not always harvested.
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