“Even as they sought their destruction, many considered them [wolves] "possessed of near human intelligence," according Stanley Young, one so refined and subtle that it "at times caused the greatest wonderment.”

“Quipped one frustrated Colorado rancher in the early 1920s, "Wolves have all been trapped at, shot at, and poisoned at so long that they can damn near speak English!"...To the specter of the rancher, the most we can say today is that wolves have yet to learn the language of humans, while we, if only in the most primitive fashion, have begun listening to theirs.”

“According to the Iroquois, when the Creator made the animals of the earth, He shot each one in the left hind leg so that humans would be able to catch them, but He missed the wolf.”

“Pimlott foresaw a time when wolves would be reintroduced to national parks in both Canada and the United States, and people would begin to see woulds "as they are --one of the most interesting and intelligent animals that has ever lived on our globe." Such thoughts, Pimlott assured readers, "are not mere fanciful daydreams.”

“In that respect, the fate of wolves in inextricably woven with that of humanity.”

“One day during his time in the Southwest, Leopold and several companions chanced upon a female wolf ans shot her. "We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes. I realized then and have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those eyes --something known only to her and to the mountain. I was young then, and full of trigger itch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunters' paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view.”

“Deer needed predators to trim their numbers and keep them from destroying their environment, he said. To do away with predators such as wolves was tantamount to "ecological murder," with far-reaching consequences both to deer and their habitat. "I now suspect that just as a deer herd lives in mortal fear of its wolves, so does a mountain live in mortal fear of its deer.”