Edward Abbey: Trending quotes

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Edward Abbey: 292 quotes15 likes

“In the land of bleating sheep and braying jackasses, one brave and honest man is bound to create a scandal.”

Source: Postcards from Ed: Dispatches and Salvos from an American Iconoclast

“If it's knowledge and wisdom you want, then seek out the company of those who do real work for an honest purpose.”

Source: Postcards from Ed: Dispatches and Salvos from an American Iconoclast

“A great thirst is a great joy when quenched in time.”

Edward Abbey book Desert Solitaire

"Water", p. 104
Source: Desert Solitaire (1968)

“We need the possibility of escape as surely as we need hope.”

Edward Abbey book Desert Solitaire

Source: Desert Solitaire

“The rifle and handgun are 'equalizers' -- the weapons of a democracy. Tanks and bombers represent dictatorship.”

“Where there is no joy there can be no courage; and without courage all other virtues are useless.”

Edward Abbey book Desert Solitaire

"Water", p. 113; this is often quoted as simply: Without courage, all other virtues are useless. 
Source: Desert Solitaire (1968)
Context: Has joy any survival value in the operations of evolution? I suspect that it does; I suspect that the morose and fearful are doomed to quick extinction. Where there is no joy there can be no courage; and without courage all other virtues are useless.

“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.”

“Music clouds the intellect but clarifies the heart.”

Source: A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto): Notes from a Secret Journal

“Capitalism: Nothing so mean could be right. Greed is the ugliest of the capital sins.”

Source: A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990), Ch. 11 : Money Et Cetera, p. 100

“[Concerning river runners:] If we were going into war again I can't think of any I'd rather have on our side. I mean, all of these good men and women. And if they were on the other side I'd join the other side.”

Edward Abbey book Down the River

Down the River (1982)

“Most academic economists know nothing of economy. In fact, they know little of anything.”

Source: A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990), Ch. 11 : Money Et Cetera, p. 97

“We need wilderness whether or not we ever set foot in it. We need a refuge even though we may not ever need to go there.”

Edward Abbey book Desert Solitaire

"The Heart of Noon", p. 116
Desert Solitaire (1968)

“Nothing could be older than the daily news, nothing deader than yesterday's newspaper.”

Source: A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990), Ch. 11 : Money Et Cetera, p. 100

“Poor Hayduke: won all his arguments but lost his immortal soul.”

Edward Abbey book The Monkey Wrench Gang

The Monkey Wrench Gang (1975)

“Business: Busyness.”

Source: A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990), Ch. 11 : Money Et Cetera, p. 100

“Don't let yourself become cynical. Cynicism is a cheap emotion, a craven substitute for thought and action. Cynicism corrodes the will, dulls the conscience, blunts your sense of right and wrong… Stay alert to fine distinctions: become a pessimist like me.”

Edward Abbey book Hayduke Lives

Hayduke Lives (1990)

“God is a sound people make when they're too tired to think anymore.”

A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990)

“Hierarchical institutions are like giant bulldozers — obedient to the whim of any fool who takes the controls.”

A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990)

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

A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990)

“I once sat on the rim of a mesa above the Rio Grande for three days and nights, trying to have a vision. I got hungry and saw God in the form of a beef pie.”

"How It Was", page 55
Beyond the Wall: Essays from the Outside (1984)