Edward Abbey citations

Page 2

“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”

“Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul.”

“Anarchism is not a romantic fable but the hardheaded realization, based on five thousand years of experience, that we cannot entrust the management of our lives to kings, priests, politicians, generals, and county commissioners.”

“If my decomposing carcass helps nourish the roots of a Juniper tree or the wings of a vulture-that is immortality enough for me. And as much as anyone deserves.”

“Freedom begins between the ears.”

“The best thing about graduating from the university was that I finally had time to sit on a log and read a good book.”

“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.”

“I am not an atheist but an earthiest.”

“If people persist in trespassing upon the grizzlies' territory, we must accept the fact that the grizzlies, from time to time, will harvest a few trespassers.”

“Anarchism is democracy taken seriously.”

“Abolition of a woman's right to abortion, when and if she wants it, amounts to compulsory maternity: a form of rape by the State.”

“Our 'neoconservatives' are neither new nor conservative, but old as Babylon and evil as Hell.”

“The tragedy of modern war is that the young men die fighting each other - instead of their real enemies back home in the capitals.”

“The idea of wilderness needs no defense. It only needs more defenders.”

“Be loyal to what you love, be true to the earth, fight your enemies with passion and laughter.”

“There is science, logic, reason; there is thought verified by experience. And then there is California.”

“A drink a day keeps the shrink away.”

“I stand for what I stand on.”

“There's beauty, heartbreaking beauty, everywhere.”

“An economic system which can only expand or expire must be false to all that is human.”

“Somewhere in the depths of solitude, beyond wilderness and freedom, lay the trap of madness.”

“Whenever I see a photograph of some sportsman grinning over his kill, I am always impressed by the striking moral and esthetic superiority of the dead animal to the live one.”

“Where all think alike there is little danger of innovation.”

“A crowded society is a restrictive society; an overcrowded society becomes an authoritarian, repressive and murderous society.”

“I took the other road, all right, but only because it was the easy road for me, the way I wanted to go. If I've encountered some unnecessary resistance that's because most of the traffic is going the other way.”

“I despise my own nation most. Because I know it best. Because I still love it, suffering from Hope. For me, that's patrotism.”

“When the situation is hopeless, there's nothing to worry about.”

“When guns are outlawed, only the Government will have guns. The Government - and a few outlaws. If that happens, you can count me among the outlaws.”

“When a man's best friend is his dog, that dog has a problem.”