Presumably a paraphrase of "A peculiar virtue in wildlife ethics is that the hunter ordinarily has no gallery to applaud or disapprove of his conduct" or of "Hunting for sport is an improvement ..." above.
• (Unlikely to be by Leopold, who knew that ethics involves not only doing the right thing, but also determining the right thing in the face of competing desirable criteria.)

Ethical behavior is doing the right thing when no one else is watching — even when doing the wrong thing is legal.

— Aldo Leopold

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Ethical behavior is doing the right thing when no one else is watching — even when doing the wrong thing is legal." in the context of "Presumably a paraphrase of "A peculiar virtue in wildlife ethics is that the hunter ordinarily has no gallery to applaud or disapprove of his conduct" or of "Hunting for sport is an improvement ..." above.
• (Unlikely to be by Leopold, who knew that ethics involves not only doing the right thing, but also determining the right thing in the face of competing desirable criteria.)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Aldo Leopold" (Misattributed) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Aldo Leopold

About Aldo Leopold

Aldo Leopold (January 11, 1887 – April 21, 1948) was a United States wildlife biologist and conservationist. He was a professor at the University of Wisconsin and is best known for his book A Sand County Almanac (1949), which has sold more than two million copies.