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.
Aldo LeopoldRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the faith and trust animals, like dogs, have in their humans, highlighting a deeper philosophical perspective on belief and connection.
Aldo Leopold's quote illustrates the idea that dogs possess a simple yet profound faith and trust in their owners, valuing the outcome—such as warmth from a fire—over the complexities of its source. This relationship between a dog and its human serves as a metaphor for the kind of unwavering belief that can inspire great actions, suggesting that such simple faith may indeed have the power to 'move mountains' in a figurative sense.
Themes
FaithTrustDogsRelationshipsBelief
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of trust in relationships.
More from Aldo Leopold
All quotes →We 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.
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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.
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Recreational development is a job not of building roads into lovely country, but of building receptivity into the still unlovely human mind.
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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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A peculiar virtue in wildlife ethics is that the hunter ordinarily has no gallery to applaud or disapprove of his conduct
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