QUOTES
"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."
"Conservation
is a state of harmony between men and land."
"We
abuse land because we regard 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."
"Like
winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to
do away with them. Now we face the question whether a still higher 'standard of
living' is worth its cost in things natural, wild, and free. For us of the minority,
the opportunity to see geese is more important than television, and the chance
to find a pasque-flower is a right as inalienable as free speech."
"All
ethics so far evolved rest upon a single premise: that the individual is a member
of a community of interdependent parts. . . . The land ethic simply enlarges the
boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or
collectively: the land."
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.
