Pinchot Quotes & Sayings

The vast possibilities of our great future will become realities only if we make ourselves responsible for that future. — Gifford Pinchot

'Restoring' is a very arrogant concept. If you're taking a house from 1812, do you restore it to how it looked the day after it was built, or restore it to the way it looked in 1828, or the way it looked in 1872? Do the minimum to stop it from falling apart, and then get away. — Bronson Pinchot

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

I go to the gym a lot, and I see these guys, these young actors or models there, really punishing themselves - I mean, just killing themselves. And then I'll see one of them on a billboard, with the artfully messy hair, looking as though it's just natural and easy to have a body like that. — Bronson Pinchot

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

Conservation means the wise use of the earth and its resources for the lasting good of men. — Gifford Pinchot

Though a degree from Yale was not required, Pinchot wanted his foresters to be able to write well, for the numerous reports that their enemies in Congress would be second-guessing. — Timothy Egan

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

If someone's 20 years old and every third line out of their mouth is anti-something specific, then draw your own conclusion. — Bronson Pinchot

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

Innovations never happen as planned. — Gifford Pinchot

If you aren't getting flak, you aren't over the target. — Gifford Pinchot

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

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

The earth and its resources belong of right to its people. — Gifford Pinchot

The outgrowth of conservation, the inevitable result, is national efficiency. — Gifford Pinchot

It is a greater thing to be a good citizen than to be a good Republican or a good Democrat, — Gifford Pinchot

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

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

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

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

Innovation never happens as planned. — Gifford Pinchot

Conservation is the application of common sense to the common problems for the common good. — Gifford Pinchot

In Pinchot, he saw someone "who could relish, not run from a rainstorm," as he wrote. Just like himself. — Timothy Egan

Char Miller's lively, insightful account of the life and world of American forester Gifford Pinchot fills a vitally important gap in environmental and conservation history. Anyone captivated by the issues and controversies surrounding the preservation and development of the nation's natural heritage should read this engaging, carefully researched biography. — Carolyn Merchant

You can have a knack for dancing, but you still have to practice till your feet are bleeding to be worthy of being in front of an audience. — Bronson Pinchot

I think I'm going to pull a Charlie Chaplin and have kids when I'm 60. — Bronson Pinchot

I never did love Hollywood, I just loved the work. — Bronson Pinchot

'Beverly Hills Cop' opened up a whole world. I got the television show and movies, and I would go sign autographs for one hour and get paid $25,000. — Bronson Pinchot

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

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

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

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

The purpose of conservation: The greatest good to the greatest number of people for the longest time. — Gifford Pinchot

Learning is the gradual replacement of fantasy with fact. — Gifford Pinchot