American author (1927-1989)
If the life of natural things, millions of years old, does not seem sacred to us, then what can be sacred? Human vanity alone?
EDWARD ABBEY
Beyond the Wall: Essays from the Outside
Civilization is the wild river; culture, 592,000 tons of cement; civilization flows; culture thickens and coagulates.
EDWARD ABBEY
"Episodes and Visions", Desert Solitaire
The tank, the B-52, the fighter-bomber, the state-controlled police and military are the weapons of dictatorship. The rifle is the weapon of democracy.
EDWARD ABBEY
Abbey's Road
I hold no preference among flowers, so long as they are wild, free, spontaneous.
EDWARD ABBEY
"Cliffrose and Bayonets", Desert Solitaire
May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.
EDWARD ABBEY
preface, Desert Solitaire
Edinburgh. A soft gray loveliness, fog-shrouded, gray-green, gray-blue, gray-gray, mauve, melting, misting over, grave.
EDWARD ABBEY
The Serpents of Paradise
The industrial way of life leads to the industrial way of death. From Shiloh to Dachau, from Antietam to Stalingrad, from Hiroshima to Vietnam and Afghanistan, the great specialty of industry and technology has been the mass production of human corpses.
EDWARD ABBEY
A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto)
The earth, like the sun, like the air, belongs to everyone -- and to no one.
EDWARD ABBEY
"Come On In", The Journey Home
A house built on greed cannot long endure.
EDWARD ABBEY
Postcards from Ed
Cynicism is a cheap emotion, a craven substitute for thought and action.
EDWARD ABBEY
Hayduke Lives
The highest treason, the meanest treason, is to deny the holiness of this little blue planet on which we journey through the cold void of space.
EDWARD ABBEY
A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto)
When life is cheap death is rich.
EDWARD ABBEY
One Life at a Time, Please
Freedom begins between the ears.
EDWARD ABBEY
A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto)
The very poor are materialistic. It takes money to be a mystic.
EDWARD ABBEY
A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto)
Anarchism is founded on the observation that since few men are wise enough to rule themselves, even fewer are wise enough to rule others.
EDWARD ABBEY
A Voice Crying in the Wilderness
Culture is that inert mass of institutions and organizations which accumulate around and tend to drag down the advance of life.
EDWARD ABBEY
"Episodes and Visions", Desert Solitaire
The public lands should be managed for three purposes only: wildlife habitat, watershed protection, and human adventure.
EDWARD ABBEY
One Life at a Time, Please
Water, water, water.... There is no shortage of water in the desert but exactly the right amount , a perfect ratio of water to rock, water to sand, insuring that wide free open, generous spacing among plants and animals, homes and towns and cities, which makes the arid West so different from any other part of the nation. There is no lack of water here unless you try to establish a city where no city should be.
EDWARD ABBEY
Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness
The conservatives love their cheap labor; the liberals love their cheap cause.
EDWARD ABBEY
The Serpents of Paradise
Heaven is home. Utopia is here. Nirvana is now.
EDWARD ABBEY
Abbey's Road