“There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot. These essays are the delights and dilemmas of one who cannot.”

Source: A Sand County Almanac, 1949, Foreword, p. vii (opening words).

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot. These essays are the delights and dilemmas of one…" by Aldo Leopold?
Aldo Leopold photo
Aldo Leopold 130
American writer and scientist 1887–1948

Related quotes

“There are some things people can do to change and some things they cannot do — character can be formed, but temperament is given. And the strong who cannot bend are just as much to be pitied as the weak who cannot stiffen.”

Sydney J. Harris (1917–1986) American journalist

“Confusing ‘Character’ with ‘Temperament’”
Clearing the Ground (1986)
Context: The core in the mystery of what we call personality resides in the individual mix between character and temperament. The most successful personalities are those who achieve the best balance between the strict demands of character and the lenient tolerance of temperament. This balance is the supreme test of genuine leadership, separating the savior from the fanatic.
The human Jesus is, to my mind, the ultimate paradigm of such psychic equilibrium. He was absolutely hard on himself and absolutely tender toward others. He maintained the highest criteria of conduct for himself but was not priggish or censorious or self-righteous about those who were weaker and frailer. Most persons of strength cannot accept or tolerate weakness in others. They are blind to the virtues they do not possess themselves and are fiercely judgmental on one scale of values alone. Jesus was unique, even among religious leaders, in combining the utmost of principle with the utmost of compassion for those unable to meet his standards.
We need to understand temperament better than we do and to recognize its symbiotic relationship to character. There are some things people can do to change and some things they cannot do — character can be formed, but temperament is given. And the strong who cannot bend are just as much to be pitied as the weak who cannot stiffen.

Rollo May photo

“You can live without a father who accepts you, but you cannot live without a world that makes some sense to you.”

Rollo May (1909–1994) US psychiatrist

Source: The Courage to Create (1975), Ch. 7 : Passion for Form, p. 127

Clarence Darrow photo

“One cannot live through a long stretch of years without forming some philosophy of life.”

Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) American lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union

Source: The Story of My Life (1932), Ch. 1 "Before The Beginning"
Context: One cannot live through a long stretch of years without forming some philosophy of life. As one journeys along he gains experiences and even some ideas. Accumulated opinions and philosophy may be more important to others than the bare facts about how he lived, so my ambition is not so much to relate the occurrences as to record the ideas that life has forced me to accept; and, after all, thoughts, impressions and feelings are really life itself. I should like to think that these reflections might make existence a trifle easier for some of those who may chance to read this story.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo
Albert Camus photo
Marguerite Yourcenar photo

“Leisure moments: each life well regulated has some such intervals, and he who cannot make way for them does not know how to live.”

Des moments libres. Toute vie bien réglée a les siens, et qui ne sait pas les provoquer ne sait pas vivre.
Source: Memoirs of Hadrian (1951), p. 43

Tang Xianzu photo

“Love is not love at its fullest if one who lives is unwilling to die for it, or if it cannot restore to life one who has so died.”

Tang Xianzu (1550–1616) Chinese playwright

Preface to Mudan Ting dated 1598; in The Peony Pavilion, trans. Cyril Birch (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2002), p. ix
Context: Love is of source unknown, yet it grows ever deeper. The living may die of it, by its power the dead live again. Love is not love at its fullest if one who lives is unwilling to die for it, or if it cannot restore to life one who has so died. And must the love that comes in dream necessarily be unreal? For there is no lack of dream lovers in this world.

“Some live lies who won’t tell them; some tell lies who won’t live them.”

Henry S. Haskins (1875–1957)

Source: Meditations in Wall Street (1940), p. 119

Jürgen Moltmann photo

Related topics