Edward Abbey Quotes

Quotes about:

• Why is it that the destruction of something created by humans is called vandalism, yet the destruction of something created by God is called development?

  Edward Abbey

  Rivers, Lakes, Sea

  185 Copy quote

• To the intelligent man or woman, life appears infinitely mysterious. But the stupid have an answer for every question.

  Edward Abbey

  Stupid, Men, Intelligent

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.28, RosettaBooks

  655 Copy quote

• Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit.

  Edward Abbey

  Nature, Insperational, Hiking

  Edward Abbey (1968). “Desert Solitaire”, p.169, Simon and Schuster

  91 Copy quote

• May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.

  Edward Abbey

  Inspirational, Nature, Adventure

  Edward Abbey (1988). “Desert Solitaire”, p.12, University of Arizona Press

  404 Copy quote

• The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.

  Edward Abbey

  Inspirational, Funny, Life

  996 Copy quote

• The love of wilderness is more than a hunger for what is always beyong reach; it is also an expression of loyalty to the earth, the earth which bore us and sustains us, the only paradise we shall ever know, the only paradise we ever need, if only we had the eyes to see.

  Edward Abbey

  Inspirational, Loyalty, Nature

  Edward Abbey (1988). “Desert Solitaire”, p.147, University of Arizona Press

  168 Copy quote

• The one thing ... that is truly ugly is the climate of hate and intimidation, created by a noisy few, which makes the decent majority reluctant to air in public their views on anything controversial. ... Where all pretend to be thinking alike, it's likely that no one is thinking at all.

  Edward Abbey

  Hate, Thinking, Air

  98 Copy quote

• Society is like a stew. If you don't stir it up every once in a while then a layer of scum floats to the top.

  Edward Abbey

  Funny, Political, Scum

  103 Copy quote

• Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.

  Edward Abbey

  Inspirational, Nature, Cancer

  Quoted in Reader's Digest, Jan. 1970

  107 Copy quote

• If America could be, once again, a nation of self-reliant farmers, craftsmen, hunters, ranchers, and artists, then the rich would have little power to dominate others. Neither to serve nor to rule: That was the American dream.

  Edward Abbey

  Dream, Artist, Self

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

  69 Copy quote

• We need wilderness whether or not we ever set foot in it. We need a refuge even though we may never need to go there. We need the possibility of escape as surely as we need hope.

  Edward Abbey

  Feet, Needs, May

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

  10 Copy quote

• May your rivers flow without end... down into a desert of red rock, blue mesas, domes and pinnacles and grottos of endless stone, and down again into a deep vast ancient unknown chasm where bars of sunlight blaze on profiled cliffs... where something strange and more beautiful and more full of wonder than your deepest dreams waits for you-beyond that next turning of the canyon walls.

  Edward Abbey

  Beautiful, Dream, Wall

  32 Copy quote

• Be as I am - a reluctant enthusiast....a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic....So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space.

  Edward Abbey

  Running, Sweet, Rivers

  76 Copy quote

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

  Edward Abbey

  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.

  61 Copy quote

• Nature is indifferent to our love, but never unfaithful.

  Edward Abbey

  Nature, Our Love, Unfaithful

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

  10 Copy quote

• 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.

  Edward Abbey

  Mean, Leader, Example

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

  29 Copy quote

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

  Edward Abbey

  Enemy, Truth Is

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

  33 Copy quote

• There is no force more potent in the modern world than stupidity fueled by greed.

  Edward Abbey

  Stupidity, Greed, World

  "A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto): Notes from a Secret Journal". Book by Edward Abbey (Chapter 11 "Money Et Cetera", p. 100), 1989.

  15 Copy quote

• There is beauty, heartbreaking beauty, everywhere.

  Edward Abbey

  Beauty Everywhere, Heartbreaking

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

  20 Copy quote

• 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.

  Edward Abbey

  Hate, Fire, Sheep

  "A Voice Crying in the Wilderness".

  73 Copy quote

• How to Overthrow the System: brew your own beer; kick in your Tee Vee; kill your own beef; build your own cabin and piss off the front porch whenever you bloody well feel like it.

  Edward Abbey

  Beer, Beef, Cabins

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

  45 Copy quote

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

  Edward Abbey

  Inspirational, Country, Freedom

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

  99 Copy quote

• Representative government has broken down. Our politicians represent not the people who vote for them but the commercial interests who finance their election campaigns. We have the best politicians that money can buy.

  Edward Abbey

  Government, People, Broken

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

  21 Copy quote

• The idea of wilderness needs no defense, it only needs defenders.

  Edward Abbey

  Ideas, Environmental, Needs

  28 Copy quote

• Better a cruel truth than a comfortable delusion.

  Edward Abbey

  Truth, Delusion, Comfortable

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.13, RosettaBooks

  18 Copy quote

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