EDWARD ABBEY QUOTES V

American author (1927-1989)

If the life of natural things, millions of years old, does not seem sacred to us, then what can be sacred? Human vanity alone?

EDWARD ABBEY

Beyond the Wall: Essays from the Outside


Civilization is the wild river; culture, 592,000 tons of cement; civilization flows; culture thickens and coagulates.

EDWARD ABBEY

"Episodes and Visions", Desert Solitaire

Tags: culture


I hold no preference among flowers, so long as they are wild, free, spontaneous.

EDWARD ABBEY

"Cliffrose and Bayonets", Desert Solitaire

Tags: flowers


The tank, the B-52, the fighter-bomber, the state-controlled police and military are the weapons of dictatorship. The rifle is the weapon of democracy.

EDWARD ABBEY

Abbey's Road

Tags: guns


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

preface, Desert Solitaire


The industrial way of life leads to the industrial way of death. From Shiloh to Dachau, from Antietam to Stalingrad, from Hiroshima to Vietnam and Afghanistan, the great specialty of industry and technology has been the mass production of human corpses.

EDWARD ABBEY

A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto)

Tags: technology


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

EDWARD ABBEY

"Come On In", The Journey Home


Edinburgh. A soft gray loveliness, fog-shrouded, gray-green, gray-blue, gray-gray, mauve, melting, misting over, grave.

EDWARD ABBEY

The Serpents of Paradise


A house built on greed cannot long endure.

EDWARD ABBEY

Postcards from Ed

Tags: greed


Cynicism is a cheap emotion, a craven substitute for thought and action.

EDWARD ABBEY

Hayduke Lives

Tags: cynicism


The very poor are materialistic. It takes money to be a mystic.

EDWARD ABBEY

A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto)

Tags: poverty


The highest treason, the meanest treason, is to deny the holiness of this little blue planet on which we journey through the cold void of space.

EDWARD ABBEY

A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto)


The public lands should be managed for three purposes only: wildlife habitat, watershed protection, and human adventure.

EDWARD ABBEY

One Life at a Time, Please


Water, water, water.... There is no shortage of water in the desert but exactly the right amount , a perfect ratio of water to rock, water to sand, insuring that wide free open, generous spacing among plants and animals, homes and towns and cities, which makes the arid West so different from any other part of the nation. There is no lack of water here unless you try to establish a city where no city should be.

EDWARD ABBEY

Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness

Tags: desert, cities


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

EDWARD ABBEY

A Voice Crying in the Wilderness

Tags: anarchy


When life is cheap death is rich.

EDWARD ABBEY

One Life at a Time, Please

Tags: life


An empty man is full of himself.

EDWARD ABBEY

A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto)


To be everywhere at once is to be nowhere forever, if you ask me.

EDWARD ABBEY

"Walking", The Journey Home


Heaven is home. Utopia is here. Nirvana is now.

EDWARD ABBEY

Abbey's Road

Tags: utopia


Freedom begins between the ears.

EDWARD ABBEY

A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto)

Tags: freedom