Our tools are better than we are, and grow better faster than we do. They suffice to crack the atom, to command the tides, but they do not suffice for the oldest task in human history, to live on a piece of land without spoiling it.
If the land mechanism as a whole is good then every part is good, whether we understand it or not.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that if a system is functioning well overall, then each component within that system is also functioning well, regardless of our understanding.
Aldo Leopold emphasizes the interconnectedness of natural systems in this quote. He asserts that when the entire mechanism of the land is healthy and well-functioning, it implies that all individual elements within that system are also contributing positively, even if they are not fully understood by humans. This insight highlights the importance of viewing nature as an integrated whole rather than merely a collection of parts, urging us to recognize the intrinsic value of all components of the ecosystem.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about environmental conservation, one could use this quote to emphasize the importance of preserving entire ecosystems.
More from Aldo Leopold
All quotes βWe Americans, in most states at least, have not yet experienced a bear-less, eagle-less, cat- less, wolf-less woods. Germany strove for maximum yields of both timber and game and got neither.
When some remote ancestor of ours invented the shovel, he became a giver: He could plant a tree. And when the axe was invented, he became a taker: He could chop it down. Whoever owns land has thus assumed, whether he knows it or not, the divine functions of creating and destroying plants.
Recreational development is a job not of building roads into lovely country, but of building receptivity into the still unlovely human mind.
My dog does not care where heat comes from, but he cares that it comes, and soon. Indeed he considers my ability to make it come as something magical, for when I rise in the coal black pre-dawn and kneel by the hearth to make a fire, he pushes himself blandly between me and the kindling splits I have laid in the ashes, and I must touch a match to them by poking it between his legs. Such faith , I suppose, is the kind that moves mountains.
Individual thinkers since the days of Ezekiel and Isaiah have asserted that the despoliation of land is not only inexpedient but wrong. Society, however, has not yet affirmed their belief.
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Having a monolithic view of feminism is suffocating.