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Edward Abbey Quotes - Page 2

All Quotes Adventure Age Anarchy Appearance Army Art Atheism Atheist Beer Belief Business Challenges Character Children Coffee Common Sense Communication Country Critics Culture Democracy Desire Doubt Duty Dying Earth Evil Fate Fear Football Freedom Fun Funny Giving Grace Greed Growth Guru Hate Heart Heaven Hell Home Honor Human Nature Ideology Inspirational Jesus Journey Joy Laughter Liberty Life Love Lying Madness Metaphysics Military Nature Pain Passion Peace Philosophy Police Positive Pride Purpose Rain Reading Reality Regret Revolution Revolver Risk Running School Seven Silence Simplicity Sin Solitude Soul Sports Study Stupidity Suffering Survival Taxes Technology Terrorism Theology Tragedy Travel Virtue Waiting Wall Water Wilderness Wit Writing

Those who fear death most are those who enjoy life least.

Those who fear death most are those who enjoy life least.

Enjoy Life, Fear Of Death, Enjoy

Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.27, RosettaBooks

You can't study the darkness by flooding it with light.

Education, Light, Illumination

Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.49, RosettaBooks

A leader leads from in front, by the power of example. A ruler pushes from behind, by means of the club, the whip, the power of fear.

Mean, Leader, Example

Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.22, RosettaBooks

If there's anyone still present whom I've failed to insult . . . I apologize.

Apologizing, Insult, I Apologize

Edward Abbey (1988). “One Life at a Time, Please”, p.5, Macmillan

The earth is not a mechanism but an organism, a being with its own life and its own reasons, where the support and sustenance of the human animal is incidental. If man in his newfound power and vanity persists in the attempt to remake the planet in his own image, he will succeed only in destroying himself - not the planet. The earth will survive our most ingenious folly.

Animal, Men, Vanity

"The Journey Home: Some Words in Defense of the American West". Book by Edward Abbey ("Shadows from the Big Woods", p. 225), 1977.

If people persist in trespassing upon the grizzlies' territory, we must accept the fact that the grizzlies, from time to time, will harvest a few trespassers.

People, Territory, Facts

Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.47, RosettaBooks

Only the half-mad are wholly alive.

Mad, Half, Alive

Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.24, RosettaBooks

Truth is always the enemy of power. And power the enemy of truth.

Enemy, Truth Is

Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.20, RosettaBooks

The only thing worse than a knee-jerk liberal is a knee-pad conservative.

Pads, Knee Jerk Reactions, Knees

"A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto): Notes from a Secret Journal". Book by Edward Abbey, 1989.

A man could be a lover and defender of the wilderness without ever in his lifetime leaving the boundaries of asphalt, powerlines, and right-angled surfaces. We need wilderness whether or not we ever set foot in it. We need a refuge even though we may never need to set foot in it. We need the possibility of escape as surely as we need hope; without it the life of the cities would drive all men into crime or drugs or psychoanalysis.

Men, Cities, Feet

Edward Abbey (1968). “Desert Solitaire”, p.129, Simon and Schuster

Freedom begins between the ears.

Freedom, Liberty, Ears

Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.21, RosettaBooks

Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul.

Inspiring, Peace, Diversity

Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.25, RosettaBooks

Where all think alike there is little danger of innovation.

Thinking, Thought Provoking, Innovation

Edward Abbey (1988). “Desert Solitaire”, p.158, University of Arizona Press

Anarchism is founded on the observation that since few men are wise enough to rule themselves, even fewer are wise enough to rule others.

Wise, Wisdom, Men

Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.18, RosettaBooks

I have been called a curmudgeon, which my obsolescent dictionary defines as a "surly, illmannered, badtempered fellow." ... Nowadays, curmudgeon is likely to refer to anyone who hates hypocrisy, cant, sham, dogmatic ideologies, the pretenses and evasions of euphemism, and has the nerve to point out unpleasant facts and takes the trouble to impale these sins on the skewer of humor and roast them over the fires of empiric fact, common sense, and native intelligence. In this nation of bleating sheep and braying jackasses, it then becomes an honor to be labeled curmudgeon.

Hate, Fire, Sheep

"A Voice Crying in the Wilderness".

There is beauty, heartbreaking beauty, everywhere.

Beauty Everywhere, Heartbreaking

Edward Abbey (1984). “Beyond the Wall: Essays from the Outside”, p.153, Macmillan

Night and day the river flows. If time is the mind of space, the River is the soul of the desert. Brave boatmen come, they go, they die, the voyage flows on forever. We are all canyoneers. We are all passengers on this little mossy ship, this delicate dory sailing round the sun that humans call the earth. Joy, shipmates, joy.

Night, Rivers, Space

It is not the writer's task to answer questions but to question answers. To be impertinent, insolent, and, if necessary, subversive.

Tasks, Answers, Subversive

Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.36, RosettaBooks

The purpose of love, sex, and marriage is the production and raising of children. But look about you: Most people have no business having children. They are unqualified, either genetically or culturally or both, to reproduce such sorry specimens as themselves. Of all our privileges, the license to breed is the one most grossly abused.

Sex, Children, Sorry

Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.44, RosettaBooks

I come more and more to the conclusion that wilderness, in America or anywhere else, is the only thing left that is worth saving.

America, Saving, Wilderness

Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.46, RosettaBooks

My loyalties will not be bound by national borders, or confined in time by one nation's history, or limited in the spiritual dimension by one language and culture. I pledge my allegiance to the damned human race, and my everlasting love to the green hills of Earth, and my intimations of glory to the singing stars, to the very end of space and time.

Love, Loyalty, Spiritual

Edward Abbey, David Petersen (2003). “Confessions of a Barbarian: Selections from the Journals of Edward Abbey”, p.92, Big Earth Publishing

There are some good things to be said about walking. Not many, but some. Walking takes longer, for example, than any other known form of locomotion except crawling. Thus it stretches time and prolongs life. Life is already too short to waste on speed. I have a friend who's always in a hurry; he never gets anywhere. Walking makes the world much bigger and thus more interesting. You have time to observe the details. The utopian technologists foresee a future for us in which distance is annihilated... To be everywhere at once is to be nowhere forever, if you ask me.

Distance, Interesting, Forever

"The Journey Home : Some Words in Defense of the American West" by Edward Abbey, (p. 205), 1977.

I choose to listen to the river for a while, thinking river thoughts, before joining the night and the stars.

Stars, Memorable, Night

Edward Abbey (1988). “Desert Solitaire”, p.140, University of Arizona Press

It is not enough to understand the natural world; the point is to defend and preserve it.

Nature, World, Enough

Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.47, RosettaBooks

A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.

Inspirational, Country, Freedom

Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.17, RosettaBooks

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