It is inconceivable to me that an ethical relation to land can exist without love, respect, and admiration for land, and a high regard for its value. By value, I of course mean something far broader than mere economic value; I mean value in the philosophical sense.

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.

The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant: 'What good is it?

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

Do we realize that industry, which has been our good servant, might make a poor master?

Too much safety seems to yield only danger in the long run.

All ethics so far evolved rest upon a single premise: that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts.