Edward Abbey Quotes

Freedom begins between the ears.

The one thing ... that is truly ugly is the climate of hate and intimidation, created by a noisy few, which makes the decent majority reluctant to air in public their views on anything controversial. ... Where all pretend to be thinking alike, it's likely that no one is thinking at all.

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.

My loyalties will not be bound by national borders, or confined in time by one nation's history, or limited in the spiritual dimension by one language and culture. I pledge my allegiance to the damned human race, and my everlasting love to the green hills of Earth, and my intimations of glory to the singing stars, to the very end of space and time.

Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit.

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

The idea of wilderness needs no defense, it only needs defenders.

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

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

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.

A drink a day keeps the shrink away.

Where all think alike there is little danger of innovation.

The missionaries go forth to Christianize the savages - as if the savages weren't dangerous enough already.

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

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

Love implies anger. The man who is angered by nothing cares about nothing.

The distrust of wit is the beginning of tyranny.

A giant thirst is a great joy when quenched in time.

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

Grown men do not need leaders.

God bless America. Let's try to save some of it.

For myself I hold no preferences among flowers, so long as they are wild, free, spontaneous. Bricks to all greenhouses! Black thumb and cutworm to the potted plant!

An empty man is full of himself.

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

One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain't nothin' can beat teamwork.

That which today calls itself science gives us more and more information, and indigestible glut of information, and less and less understanding.

High technology has done us one great service: It has retaught us the delight of performing simple and primordial tasks - chopping wood, building a fire, drawing water from a spring

Belief in the supernatural reflects a failure of the imagination.

What is the purpose of the giant sequoia tree? The purpose of the giant sequoia tree is to provide shade for the tiny titmouse.

In social institutions, the whole is always less than the sum of its parts. There will never be a state as good as its people, or a church worthy of its congregation, or a university equal to its faculty and students.

If the end does not justify the means - what can?

Baseball is a slow, sluggish game, with frequent and trivial interruptions, offering the spectator many opportunities to reflect at leisure upon the situation on the field: This is what a fan loves most about the game

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

Climbing K2 or floating the Grand Canyon in an inner tube; there are some things one would rather have done than do.

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

Men love their ideas more than their lives. And the more preposterous the idea, the more eager they are to die for it. And to kill for it.

My sole literary ambition is to write one good novel, then retire to my hut in the desert, assume the lotus position, compose my mind and senses, and sink into meditation, contemplating my novel.

For there is a cloud on my horizon. A small dark cloud no bigger than my hand. Its name is Progress.

When the philosopher's argument becomes tedious, complicated, and opaque, it is usually a sign that he is attempting to prove as true to the intellect what is plainly false to common sense.