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Home > Dictionary of Science Quotations > Scientist Names Index P > Gifford Pinchot Quotes

Thumbnail of Gifford Pinchot (source)
Gifford Pinchot
(11 Aug 1865 - 4 Oct 1946)

American forester , who as the first chief of the U.S. Forest Service popularized the conservation of natural resources.


Science Quotes by Gifford Pinchot (13 quotes)

Gifford Pinchot - head and shoulders facing front - colorization © todayinsci.com
Gifford Pinchot (source)
Conservation is the foresighted utilization, preservation. And/or renewal of forest, waters, lands and minerals, for the greatest good of the greatest number for the longest time.
— Gifford Pinchot
In Breaking New Ground (1947, 1998), 505.
Science quotes on:  |  Conservation (187)  |  Forest (161)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Land (131)  |  Long (778)  |  Mineral (66)  |  Number (710)  |  Preservation (39)  |  Renewal (4)  |  Time (1911)  |  Utilization (16)  |  Water (503)

Conservation means the wise use of the earth and its resources for the lasting good of men.
— Gifford Pinchot
In Breaking New Ground (1947, 1998), 505.
Science quotes on:  |  Conservation (187)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Good (906)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Resource (74)  |  Use (771)  |  Wise (143)

How to start on my adventure—how to become a forester—was not so simple. There were no schools of Forestry in America. … Whoever turned his mind toward Forestry in those days thought little about the forest itself and more about its influences, and about its influence on rainfall first of all. So I took a course in meteorology, which has to do with weather and climate. and another in botany, which has to do with the vegetable kingdom—trees are unquestionably vegetable. And another in geology, for forests grow out of the earth. Also I took a course in astronomy, for it is the sun which makes trees grow. All of which is as it should be, because science underlies the forester’s knowledge of the woods. So far I was headed right. But as for Forestry itself, there wasn’t even a suspicion of it at Yale. The time for teaching Forestry as a profession was years away.
— Gifford Pinchot
In Breaking New Ground (1947, 1998), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Adventure (69)  |  America (143)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Become (821)  |  Biography (254)  |  Botany (63)  |  Climate (102)  |  Course (413)  |  Do (1905)  |  Earth (1076)  |  First (1302)  |  Forest (161)  |  Forester (4)  |  Forestry (17)  |  Geology (240)  |  Grow (247)  |  Growth (200)  |  Influence (231)  |  Kingdom (80)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Little (717)  |  Meteorology (36)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Profession (108)  |  Right (473)  |  School (227)  |  Simple (426)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Start (237)  |  Sun (407)  |  Suspicion (36)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Tree (269)  |  Turn (454)  |  Underlie (19)  |  Vegetable (49)  |  Weather (49)  |  Whoever (42)  |  Wood (97)  |  Year (963)

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.
Gifford's thoughts, when upon entering Yale (1885) his father asked 'How would you like to be a forester?'
— Gifford Pinchot
In Breaking New Ground (1947, 1998), 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (420)  |  Conception (160)  |  Everything (489)  |  Father (113)  |  Forester (4)  |  Forestry (17)  |  Man (2252)  |  Moon (252)  |  More (2558)  |  Thought (995)  |  Wood (97)  |  Work (1402)

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
In Breaking New Ground (1947, 1998), 102-3.
Science quotes on:  |  Big (55)  |  Blow (45)  |  Environment (239)  |  Giant (73)  |  Gigantic (40)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Handle (29)  |  Huge (30)  |  Living (492)  |  Lumber (5)  |  Making (300)  |  Practice (212)  |  Redwood (8)  |  Resentment (6)  |  Sequoia (4)  |  Stake (20)  |  Stick (27)  |  Still (614)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Tree (269)  |  Trunk (23)  |  Vine (4)  |  Walking (3)  |  Waste (109)

The outgrowth of conservation, the inevitable result, is national efficiency.
— Gifford Pinchot
In The Fight for Conservation (1910), 50.
Science quotes on:  |  Conservation (187)  |  Efficiency (46)  |  Inevitable (53)  |  National (29)  |  Outgrowth (3)  |  Result (700)

The planned and orderly development and conservation of our natural resources is the first duty of the United States. It is the only form of insurance that will certainly protect us against disasters that lack of foresight has repeatedly brought down on nations since passed away.
— Gifford Pinchot
In 'The Conservation of Natural Resources', The Outlook (12 Oct 1907), 87, 294.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Development (441)  |  Disaster (58)  |  Down (455)  |  Duty (71)  |  First (1302)  |  Foresight (8)  |  Form (976)  |  Insurance (12)  |  Lack (127)  |  Nation (208)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Resource (23)  |  Orderly (38)  |  Pass (241)  |  Plan (122)  |  Protect (65)  |  State (505)  |  United States (31)  |  Will (2350)

The vast possibilities of our great future will become realities only if we make ourselves, in a sense, responsible for that future.
— Gifford Pinchot
In 'The Conservation of Natural Resources', The Outlook (12 Oct 1907), 87, 294.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Future (467)  |  Great (1610)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Reality (274)  |  Responsible (19)  |  Sense (785)  |  Vast (188)  |  Will (2350)

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
In The Fight for Conservation (1910), 3-4.
Science quotes on:  |  Conservation (187)  |  Degradation (18)  |  Failure (176)  |  Misery (31)  |  Pay (45)  |  Practice (212)  |  Price (57)  |  Progress (492)  |  Prosperity (31)  |  Will (2350)

When I came home not a single acre of Government, state, or private timberland was under systematic forest management anywhere on the most richly timbered of all continents. … When the Gay Nineties began, the common word for our forests was 'inexhaustible.' To waste timber was a virtue and not a crime. There would always be plenty of timber. … 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
In Breaking New Ground (1947, 1998), 27.
Science quotes on:  |  Acre (13)  |  Average (89)  |  Common (447)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Continent (79)  |  Crime (39)  |  Delusion (26)  |  Devastation (6)  |  Enter (145)  |  Fool (121)  |  Forest (161)  |  Forestry (17)  |  Friend (180)  |  Government (116)  |  Growth (200)  |  Home (184)  |  Idea (881)  |  Inexhaustible (26)  |  Management (23)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (71)  |  Mosquito (16)  |  Most (1728)  |  Natural Resource (23)  |  Protection (41)  |  Regard (312)  |  Single (365)  |  State (505)  |  Sustain (52)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Theorist (44)  |  Touch (146)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Waste (109)  |  Word (650)  |  Yield (86)

With little more knowledge of what I was after than a cat has about catalysts … I set out to become a professional forester.
— Gifford Pinchot
In Breaking New Ground (1947, 1998), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Career (86)  |  Cat (52)  |  Catalyst (9)  |  Forester (4)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Little (717)  |  More (2558)  |  Professional (77)  |  Set (400)

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
In Breaking New Ground (1947, 1998), 505.
Science quotes on:  |  Abundant (23)  |  Birth (154)  |  Comfort (64)  |  Convenience (54)  |  Death (406)  |  Depend (238)  |  Human (1512)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Material (366)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Resource (23)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Prosperity (31)  |  Protection (41)  |  Reach (286)  |  Shelter (23)  |  Transform (74)  |  Transport (31)  |  Use (771)

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
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Access (21)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Continue (179)  |  Continuous (83)  |  Fair (16)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Indispensable (31)  |  Nation (208)  |  Need (320)  |  Peace (116)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Plenty (5)  |  Practice (212)  |  Resource (74)  |  Two (936)  |  Wide (97)  |  World (1850)



Quotes by others about Gifford Pinchot (1)

Gifford Pinchot is the man to whom the nation owes most for what has been accomplished as regards the preservation of the natural resources of our country. He led, and indeed during its most vital period embodied, the fight for the preservation through use of our forests … He was the foremost leader in the great struggle to coordinate all our social and governmental forces in the effort to secure the adoption of a rational and far-seeing policy for securing the conservation of all our national resources. … I believe it is but just to say that among the many, many public officials who under my administration rendered literally invaluable service to the people of the United States, he, on the whole, stood first.
'The Natural Resources of the Nation' Autobiography (1913), ch. 11. Quoted in Douglas M. Johnston, The International Law of Fisheries (1987), 44
Science quotes on:  |  Conservation (187)  |  Country (269)  |  Effort (243)  |  Far-Seeing (3)  |  First (1302)  |  Force (497)  |  Forest (161)  |  Great (1610)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Invaluable (11)  |  Leader (51)  |  Literally (30)  |  Man (2252)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nation (208)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Resource (23)  |  Owe (71)  |  People (1031)  |  Period (200)  |  Rational (95)  |  Regard (312)  |  Render (96)  |  Say (989)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Service (110)  |  Social (261)  |  State (505)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Through (846)  |  Use (771)  |  Vital (89)  |  Whole (756)


See also:

Carl Sagan Thumbnail In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) -- Carl Sagan
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