Quotes from book
Down the River

Name: Down the River
Author: Edward Abbey

Down the River is a book by Edward Abbey, published in 1982. It is a loose collection of autobiographical and philosophical essays about the wilderness, written between 1978 and 1982.

“[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)

“I would give ten years off the beginning of my life to see, only once, Tyrannosaurus rex come rearing up from the elms of Central Park, a Morgan police horse screaming in its jaws. We can never have enough of nature.”

Edward Abbey book Down the River

Down the River (1982)

“Our culture runs on coffee and gasoline, the first often tasting like the second.”

Edward Abbey book Down the River

Source: Down the River (1982), p. 81

“Love can defeat that nameless terror. Loving one another, we take the sting from death.”

Edward Abbey book Down the River

Down the River (1982)
Context: Love can defeat that nameless terror. Loving one another, we take the sting from death. Loving our mysterious blue planet, we resolve riddles and dissolve all enigmas in contingent bliss.

“Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread. A civilization which destroys what little remains of the wild, the spare, the original, is cutting itself off from its origins and betraying the principle of civilization itself.”

Edward Abbey book Down the River

"Down the River", p. 148
Desert Solitaire (1968)