Quote#Time
Ideas, like men, can become dictators. We Americans have so far…
Quote byAldo Leopold · 1887–1948
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: "The Farmer as a Conservationist" [1939]; Published in The River of the Mother of God and Other Essays by Aldo Leopold, Susan L. Flader and J. Baird Callicott (eds.) 1991, p. 259..
English (original)
Ideas, like men, can become dictators. We Americans have so far escaped regimentation by our rulers, but have we escaped regimentation by our own ideas? I doubt if there exists today a more complete regimentation of the human mind than that accomplished by our self-imposed doctrine of ruthless utilitarianism.
— Aldo Leopold
More from Aldo Leopold
Do we realize that industry, which has been our good servant, might make a poor master?
Many of the attributes most distinctive of America and Americans are the impress of the wilderness. … Shall we now exterminate this thing that made us Americans?
Nonconformity is the highest evolutionary attainment of social animals.
Six days shalt thou paddle and pack, but on the seventh thou shall wash thy socks.
Our new camp is on a windswept rock point. … We don't know what lake we're on, and don't care ...
Conservation is not merely a thing to be enshrined in outdoor museums, but a way of living on land.