He who hopes for spring with upturned eye never sees so small a thing as Draba. He who despairs of spring with downcast eye steps on it, unknowing. He who searches for spring with his knees in the mud finds it, in abundance.

The life of every river sings its own song, but in most the song is long marred by the discords of misuse.

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.

Conservation will ultimately boil down to rewarding the private landowner who conserves the public interest.

We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us.

Our grandfathers were less well-housed, well-fed, well-clothed than we are. The strivings by which they bettered their lot are also those which deprived us of [Passenger] pigeons. Perhaps we now grieve because we are not sure, in our hearts, that we have gained by the exchange. The gadgets of industry bring us more comforts than the pigeons did, but do they add as much to the glory of the spring?

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.