Edward Abbey Quotes

Quotes about:

• 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

  569 Copy quote

• The best people, like the best wines, come from the hills.

  Edward Abbey

  Wine, People, Independence

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

  56 Copy quote

• The earth, like the sun, like the air, belongs to everyone - and to no one.

  Edward Abbey

  Nature, Air, Earth

  "The Journey Home: Some Words in Defense of the American West". Book by Edward Abbey ("Come On In", p. 88), 1977.

  61 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

  195 Copy quote

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

  Edward Abbey

  Inspirational, Funny, Life

  460 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

  101 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

  76 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

  87 Copy quote

• 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

  66 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

  92 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

  94 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

  59 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

  28 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.

  13 Copy quote

• Every moment is precious. And precarious.

  Edward Abbey

  Moments, Precarious

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

  3 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

  25 Copy quote

• The real work of men was hunting meat. The invention of agriculture was a giant step in the wrong direction, leading to serfdom, cities, and empire. From a race of hunters, artists, warriors, and tamers of horses, we degraded ourselves to what we are now: clerks, functionaries, laborers, entertainers, processors of information.

  Edward Abbey

  Horse, Real, Warrior

  26 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

  72 Copy quote

• 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.

  Edward Abbey

  Sex, Children, Sorry

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

  25 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

  18 Copy quote

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

  Edward Abbey

  Education, Light, Illumination

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

  23 Copy quote

• All governments require enemy governments.

  Edward Abbey

  Government, Enemy

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

  3 Copy quote

• Without courage, all other virtues are useless.

  Edward Abbey

  Useless, Virtue, Morose

  Edward Abbey (1988). “Desert Solitaire”, p.113, University of Arizona Press

  8 Copy quote

• 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.

  Edward Abbey

  Distance, Interesting, Forever

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

  43 Copy quote

• Government: If you refuse to pay unjust taxes, your property will be confiscated. If you attempt to defend your property, you will be arrested. If you resist arrest, you will be clubbed. If you defend yourself against clubbing, you will be shot dead. These procedures are known as the Rule of Law.

  Edward Abbey

  Government, Law, Liberty

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

  19 Copy quote

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