Edward Abbey Quotes - Page 23

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• Edmund Wilson was our greatest American literary critic because he was more than a literary critic: He was a fearless, even radical judge of the society he lived in. (See, for example, _A Piece of My Mind_; _The Cold War and the Income Tax_; the introduction to _Patriotic Gore_.) Our conventional critics cannot forgive him for those scandalous lapses in good taste.

  Edward Abbey

  War, Patriotic, Judging

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• When the writer has done his best, he then should proceed to do his second best.

  Edward Abbey

  Done, Second Best, Should

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.33, RosettaBooks

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• The dog's life is a good life, for a dog.

  Edward Abbey

  Dog, Good Life, Life Is

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• The author: an imaginary person who writes real books.

  Edward Abbey

  Real, Book, Writing

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.37, RosettaBooks

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• To the question: Wilderness, who needs it? Doc would say: Because we like the taste of freedom, comrades. Because we like the smell of danger. But, thought Hayduke, what about the smell of fear, Dad?

  Edward Abbey

  Dad, Fear, Smell

  edward abbey (1976). “the monkey wrench gang”

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• Susan Sontag: What she really wanted, throughout her career, was to grow up to be a Frenchman.

  Edward Abbey

  Growing Up, Careers, Grows

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.33, RosettaBooks

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• it will be objected that a constantly increasing population makes resistance and conservation a hopeless battle. this is true. unless a way is found to stabilize the nation's population, the parks can not be saved. or anything else worth a damn. wilderness preservation, like a hundred other good causes, will be forgotten under the overwhelming pressure of a struggle for mere survival and sanity in a completely urbanized, completely industrialized, ever more crowded environment. for my own part i would rather take my chances in a thermonuclear war than live in such a world.

  Edward Abbey

  War, Struggle, Survival

  Edward Abbey (1968). “Desert Solitaire”, p.52, Simon and Schuster

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• Good writing can be defined as having something to say and saying it well. When one has nothing to say, one should remain silent. Silence is always beautiful at such times.

  Edward Abbey

  Beautiful, Writing, Silence

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.32, RosettaBooks

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• Men love their ideas more than their lives. And the more preposterous the idea, the more eager they are to die for it. And to kill for it.

  Edward Abbey

  Fear, Military, War

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.19, RosettaBooks

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• Quantum mechanics provides us with an approximate, plausible, conjectural explanation of what actually is, or was, or may be taking place inside a cyclotron during a dark night in February.

  Edward Abbey

  Dark, Night, May

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

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• A city man is a home anywhere, for all big cities are much alike. But a country man has a place where he belongs, where he always returns, and where, when the time comes, he is willing to die.

  Edward Abbey

  Country, Home, Men

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.56, RosettaBooks

  10 Copy quote

• The one great gift to humankind from our nuclear physicists has been the nuclear bomb. How can we ever thank them?

  Edward Abbey

  Nuclear, Bombs, Physicist

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

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• I was once invited to take part in a heroic, possibly fatal enterprise, but I declined, mainly on account of sloth.

  Edward Abbey

  Sloth, Heroic, Enterprise

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

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• A mother's sorrow is more true, honorable, and beautiful than the detachment of the sage.

  Edward Abbey

  Beautiful, Mother, Sorrow

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.26, RosettaBooks

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• The most common form of terrorism in the U.S.A. is that carried on by bulldozers and chainsaws. It is not enough to understand the natural world; the point is to defend and preserve it. Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul.

  Edward Abbey

  Soul, Ruins, World

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• Nearly all of Latin America, from Chile to Mexico, is one long rack of torture. Financed, equipped, and refined by the U.S. government.

  Edward Abbey

  Latin, Government, America

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.57, RosettaBooks

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• I wouldn't trade a good horse for the best Rolls-Royce ever made -- unless I could trade the Rolls for two good horses.

  Edward Abbey

  Horse, Two, Rolls Royce

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• Places: a cold, bleak, lonely day on the rim at Muley Point, Utah. And the heart-cracking loveliness of the blood-smeared, bitter, incomprehensible slaughterhouse of a world.

  Edward Abbey

  Lonely, Heart, Blood

  "A Voice Crying in the Wilderness".

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• I always wanted to be a cowboy. But alas! I was burdened early with certain inescapable obligations to world literature.

  Edward Abbey

  Cowboy, World Literature, Certain

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• Pure science is a myth: Both mathematical theoreticians like Albert Einstein and practical crackpots like Henry Ford dealt with different aspects of the same world.

  Edward Abbey

  Different, World, Aspect

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

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• Indolence and melancholy: Each generates the other. If one can speak of such feeble passions as generating anything.

  Edward Abbey

  Passion, Speak, Melancholy

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.26, RosettaBooks

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• The longest journey begins with a single step, not with the turn of an ignition key. That’s the best thing about walking, the journey itself. It doesn’t much matter whether you get where you’re going or not. You’ll get there anyway. Every good hike brings you eventually back home. Right where you started.

  Edward Abbey

  Home, Journey, Keys

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

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• The world is what it is, no less and no more, and therein lies its entire and sufficient meaning.

  Edward Abbey

  Lying, World, Sufficient

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.48, RosettaBooks

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• There comes a time in the life of us all when we must lay aside our books or put down our tools and leave our place of work and walk forth on the road to meet the enemy face-to-face. Once and for all and at last

  Edward Abbey

  Book, Enemy, Tools

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

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• The world is full of burled and gnarly knobs on which you can hang a metaphysical system. If you must.

  Edward Abbey

  Gnarly, World, Metaphysical

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.9, RosettaBooks

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