Edward Abbey: Trending quotes

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Edward Abbey: 292 quotes15 likes

“One wishes to go on. On this great river one could glide forever — and here we discover the definition of bliss, salvation, Heaven, all the old Mediterranean dreams: a journey from wonder to wonder, drifting through eternity into ever-deeper, always changing grandeur, through beauty continually surpassing itself: the ultimate Homeric voyage.”

Edward Abbey

On the Colorado River, in “Down the River with Major Powell”, p. 201
The Journey Home (1977)

“When the biggest, richest, glassiest buildings in town are the banks, you know that town's in trouble.”

Edward Abbey

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

“There is no situation so bad that the cops can't make it worse.”

Edward Abbey book Hayduke Lives

Hayduke Lives (1990)

“The plow has probably done more harm — in the long run — than the sword.”

Edward Abbey

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

“When I write "paradise" I mean not only apple trees and golden women but also scorpions and tarantulas and flies, rattlesnakes and Gila monsters, sandstorms, volcanoes and earthquakes, bacteria and bear, cactus, yucca, bladderweed, ocotillo and mesquite, flash floods and quicksand, and yes — disease and death and the rotting of flesh.”

Edward Abbey book Desert Solitaire

"Down the River", p. 147
Desert Solitaire (1968)

“An empty man is full of himself.”

Edward Abbey

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

“Counterpart to the knee-jerk liberal is the new knee-pad conservative, always groveling before the rich and powerful.”

Edward Abbey

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

“Orthodoxy is a relaxation of the mind accompanied by a stiffening of the heart.”

Edward Abbey

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

“All living things on earth are kindred.”

Edward Abbey book Desert Solitaire

"Serpents of Paradise", p. 22
Desert Solitaire (1968)

“With the neutron bomb, which destroys life but not property, capitalism has found the weapon of its dreams.”

Edward Abbey

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

“What do we know? What do we really know? He licks his dried cracked lips. We know this apodictic rock beneath our feet. That dogmatic sun above our heads. The world of dreams, the agony of love and the foreknowledge of death. That is all we know. And all we need to know? Challenge that statement. I challenge that statement. With what? I don't know.”

Edward Abbey book The Monkey Wrench Gang

page 312
The Monkey Wrench Gang (1975)

“But the love of wilderness is more than a hunger for what is always beyond reach; it is also an expression of loyalty to the earth, the earth which bore us and sustains us, the only home we shall ever know, the only paradise we ever need — if only we had the eyes to see. Original sin, the true original sin, is the blind destruction for the sake of greed of this natural paradise which lies all around us — if only we were worthy of it.”

Edward Abbey book Desert Solitaire

"Down the River", p. 147
Desert Solitaire (1968)

“No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets.”

Edward Abbey

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

“Of course I litter the public highway. Every chance I get. After all, it's not the beer cans that are ugly; it's the highway that is ugly.”

Edward Abbey

"The Second Rape of the West," The Journey Home, 1977
The Journey Home (1977)

“One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain't nothing can beat teamwork.”

Edward Abbey book The Monkey Wrench Gang

Seldom Seen Smith, page 313
The Monkey Wrench Gang (1975)

“I come more and more to the conclusion that wilderness, in America or anywhere else, is the only thing left that is worth saving.”

Edward Abbey

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

“I'd sooner exchange ideas with the birds on earth than learn to carry on intergalactic communications with some obscure race of humanoids on a satellite planet from the world of Betelgeuse.”

Edward Abbey book Desert Solitaire

"The First Morning", p. 7
Desert Solitaire (1968)

“What's more American than violence?" Hayduke wanted to know. "Violence, it's as American as pizza pie.”

Edward Abbey book The Monkey Wrench Gang

The Monkey Wrench Gang (1975)

“One thing more dangerous than getting between a grizzly sow and her cub is getting between a businessman and a dollar bill.”

Edward Abbey

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