Favorite Quotes from "A Sand County Almanac" by Aldo Leopold

A friend recommended to me Aldo Leopold's book A Sand County Almanac. For more information on Aldo Leopold, visit the Aldo Leopold Foundation website.

The book, originally published in 1949, is an excellent exploration of why we need an environmental ethic (Leopold called it "the land ethic.") Here are some passages which struck me. All page numbering comes from the 2013 special commemorative edition.

Historians Must Use the Saw, the Wedge and the Axe (p.16)

Alphabetical Conservationists Destroy Wilderness (p. 89)

Economists Don't See the Value of Wilderness (p. 91)

Understanding Evolution by Natural Selection Opens a Way towards the Environmental Ethic (p. 97)

"It is a century now since Darwin gave us the first

Ecological Awareness, Not Technology, Is a Mark of Humans' Superiority (p. 99)

Note that "Mr. Bush's bombs" is a reference to Vannevar Bush, who became famous for marshalling engineering and science for the United States's military. "Mr. DuPont's nylons" is a reference to the DuPont company's successful commercial replacement of women's silk stockings with a synthetic fabric. This transition is widely considered the begining of the age of plastics.

Is Experience the Dilution of Essentials by Trivialities of Living? (p. 107)

Striving Too Much for Safety is Not Thinking Like a Mountain (p. 117)

True Recreation Development Is a Mental Process (p. 151)

Conservation Solely for Economic Self-interest Is Limited (p. 180)

Releases of Biotic Capital Are Deceptively Positive in the Short-Term (p 183)

Chemical & Mechanical Changes to Agriculture Are Improvements to the Pump, Not the Well (p. 186)