Gifford Pinchot Quotes

• Without natural resources life itself is impossible. From birth to death, natural resources, transformed for human use, feed, clothe, shelter, and transport us. Upon them we depend for every material necessity, comfort, convenience, and protection in our lives. Without abundant resources prosperity is out of reach.

  Gifford Pinchot

  Use, Shelter, Comfort

  Gifford Pinchot (1998). “Breaking New Ground”, p.505, Island Press

  134 Copy quote

• The purpose of conservation: The greatest good to the greatest number of people for the longest time.

  Gifford Pinchot

  Nature, Numbers, People

  134 Copy quote

• Unless we practice conservation, those who come after us will have to pay the price of misery, degradation, and failure for the progress and prosperity of our day

  Gifford Pinchot

  Pay The Price, Practice, Aggravation

  94 Copy quote

• Conservation is the application of common sense to the common problems for the common good.

  Gifford Pinchot

  Common Sense, Problem, Conservation

  Gifford Pinchot (2017). “Gifford Pinchot: Selected Writings”, p.43, Penn State Press

  98 Copy quote

• Conservation means the wise use of the earth and its resources for the lasting good of men

  Gifford Pinchot

  Wise, Mean, Men

  Gifford Pinchot (1998). “Breaking New Ground”, p.505, Island Press

  100 Copy quote

• It is a greater thing to be a good citizen than to be a good Republican or a good Democrat.

  Gifford Pinchot

  Citizens, Republican, Democrat

  113 Copy quote

• The object of our forest policy is not to preserve the forests because they are beautiful-or because they are refuges for the wild creatures of the wilderness-but the making of prosperous homes-every other consideration becomes secondary.

  Gifford Pinchot

  Beautiful, Home, Forests

  100 Copy quote

• The vast possibilities of our great future will become realities only if we make ourselves responsible for those realities.

  Gifford Pinchot

  Future, Reality, Accountability

  63 Copy quote

• Where conflicting interests must be reconciled, the question shall always be answered from the standpoint of the greatest good of the greatest number in the long run.

  Gifford Pinchot

  Running, Numbers, Long

  105 Copy quote

• A vision is not a vision unless it says yes to some ideas and no to others, inspires people and is a reason to get out of bed in the morning and come to work.

  Gifford Pinchot

  Morning, Ideas, People

  74 Copy quote

• Learning is the gradual replacement of fantasy with fact.

  Gifford Pinchot

  Facts, Fantasy, Replacements

  40 Copy quote

• If you aren't getting flak, you aren't over the target.

  Gifford Pinchot

  Target, Ifs

  32 Copy quote

• The goal of coaching is not in fixing what is broken, but in discovering new talents and new ways to use old talents that lead to far greater effectiveness.

  Gifford Pinchot

  Effectiveness, Broken, Goal

  37 Copy quote

• The lumbermen...regarded forest devastation as normal and second growth as a delusion of fools....And as for sustained yield, no such idea had ever entered their heads. The few friends the forest had were spoken of, when they were spoken of at all, as impractical theorists, fanatics, or "denudatics," more or less touched in the head. What talk there was about forest protection was no more to the average American that the buzzing of a mosquito, and just about as irritating.

  Gifford Pinchot

  Ideas, Yield, Average

  63 Copy quote

• World-wide practice of Conservation and the fair and continued access by all nations to the resources they need are the two indispensable foundations of continuous plenty and of permanent peace

  Gifford Pinchot

  Practice, Two, Foundation

  55 Copy quote

• I had no more conception of what it meant to be a forester than the man in the moon....But at least a forester worked in the woods and with the woods - and I loved the woods and everything about them....My Father's suggestion settled the question in favor of forestry.

  Gifford Pinchot

  Father, Moon, Men

  54 Copy quote

• By exposing yourself to risk, you're exposing yourself to heavy-duty learning, which gets you on all levels. It becomes a very emotional experience as well as an intellectual experience. Each time you make a mistake, you're learning from the school of hard knocks, which is the best education available.

  Gifford Pinchot

  Mistake, School, Emotional

  32 Copy quote

• The American Colossus was fiercely intent on appropriating and exploiting the riches of all continents - grasping with both hands, reaping where he had not sown, wasting what he thought would last forever. New railroads were opening new territory. The exploiters were pushing farther and farther into the wilderness. The man who could get his hands on the biggest slice of natural resources was the best citizen. Wealth and virtue were supposed to trot in double harness.

  Gifford Pinchot

  Men, Hands, Land

  Gifford Pinchot (1998). “Breaking New Ground”, p.23, Island Press

  52 Copy quote

• I have been governor every now and then, but I am a forester all the time.

  Gifford Pinchot

  Now And Then, Has Beens, Governors

  Gifford Pinchot (1998). “Breaking New Ground”, p.137, Island Press

  34 Copy quote

• Innovation never happens as planned.

  Gifford Pinchot

  Innovation, Happens

  Gifford Pinchot (1986). “Intrapreneuring: why you don't have to leave the corporation to become an entrepreneur”, HarperCollins

  12 Copy quote

• The outgrowth of conservation, the inevitable result, is national efficiency

  Gifford Pinchot

  Conservation, Efficiency, Results

  28 Copy quote

• I ran into the gigantic and gigantically wasteful lumbering of great Sequoias, many of whose trunks were so huge they had to be blown apart before they could be handled. I resented then, and I still resent, the practice of making vine stakes hardly bigger than walking sticks out of these greatest of living things.

  Gifford Pinchot

  Science, Practice, Walking Sticks

  27 Copy quote

• In the old world that is passing, in the new world that is coming, national efficiency has been and will be a controlling factor in national safety and welfare

  Gifford Pinchot

  Safety, World, Welfare

  Gifford Pinchot (1998). “Breaking New Ground”, p.505, Island Press

  19 Copy quote

• Innovations never happen as planned.

  Gifford Pinchot

  Innovation, Happens

  Gifford Pinchot (1986). “Intrapreneuring: why you don't have to leave the corporation to become an entrepreneur”, HarperCollins

  8 Copy quote

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