In our attempt to make conservation easy, we have made it trivial.

Wilderness is the raw material out of which man has hammered the artifact called civilization.

My favorite quote: The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land. In short, a land ethic changes the role of Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land-community to plain member and citizen of it. It implies respect for his fellow-members, and also respect for the community as such.

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.

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.

Civilization has so cluttered this elemental man-earth relationship with gadgets and middlemen that awareness of it is growing dim. We fancy that industry supports us, forgetting what supports industry.

If we lose our wilderness, we have nothing left worth fighting for.