Edward Abbey Quotes - Page 19

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• So I write mainly for the fun of it, the hell of it, the duty of it. I enjoy writing and will probably be a scribbler on my dying day, sprawled on some stony trail halfway between two dry waterholes.

  Edward Abbey

  Fun, Writing, Two

  4 Copy quote

• The moral duty of the free writer is to begin his work at home: to be a critic of his own community, his own country, his own government, his own culture. The more freedom the writer possesses, the greater the moral obligation to play the role of critic.

  Edward Abbey

  Country, Home, Government

  Edward Abbey (1996). “The Serpents of Paradise: A Reader”, p.373, Macmillan

  5 Copy quote

• Reason has seldom failed us because it has seldom been tried.

  Edward Abbey

  Reason

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.9, RosettaBooks

  4 Copy quote

• A critic is to an author as a fungus to an oak.

  Edward Abbey

  Fungi, Critics, Oaks

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.34, RosettaBooks

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• I am my brother's keeper, says the chickenshit liberal. Perhaps he does not
  realize that he now has more than 2 1/2 billion brothers.

  Edward Abbey

  Brother, Doe, Realizing

  8 Copy quote

• The ideal kitchen-sink novel: Throw in everything but the kitchen sink. Then add the kitchen sink.

  Edward Abbey

  Kitchen, Add, Novel

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.35, RosettaBooks

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• I would not sacrifice a single living mesquite tree for any book ever written. One square mile of living desert is worth a hundred 'great books' - and one brave deed is worth a thousand.

  Edward Abbey

  Book, Sacrifice, Squares

  Edward Abbey (2006). “Postcards from Ed: Dispatches and Salvos from an American Iconoclast”

  9 Copy quote

• Epitaphs for a gravestone: 'Please: no hooliganism'; or 'Es prohibe se hace agua aqui'; or 'No comment'.

  Edward Abbey

  Gravestone, Epitaph, Please

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.25, RosettaBooks

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• Simplicity is always a virtue. One kid on a riverbank working out a Stephen Foster tune on his new harmonica heard from the correct esthetic distance projects more magic and power than the entire Vienna Philharmonic and Chorus laboring (once again) through the Mozart Requiem or Bach's B Minor Mass.

  Edward Abbey

  Distance, Kids, Work Out

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.41, RosettaBooks

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• I wait. Now the night flows back, the mighty stillness embraces and includes me; I can see the stars again and the world of starlight. I am twenty miles or more from the nearest fellow human, but instead of loneliness I feel loveliness. Loveliness and a quiet exultation.

  Edward Abbey

  Stars, Loneliness, Night

  Edward Abbey (1988). “Desert Solitaire”, p.15, University of Arizona Press

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• Only a fool would leave the enjoyment of rainbows to the opticians. Or give the science of optics the last word on the matter.

  Edward Abbey

  Giving, Rainbow, Matter

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.13, RosettaBooks

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• Henry James was our master of periphrasis -- the fine art of saying as little as possible in the greatest number of words.

  Edward Abbey

  Art, Numbers, Littles

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.30, RosettaBooks

  4 Copy quote

• When I hear the word 'culture', I reach for my checkbook.

  Edward Abbey

  Culture, Goering, Revolver

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.10, RosettaBooks

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• Women: We cannot love them all. But we must try.

  Edward Abbey

  Trying

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.43, RosettaBooks

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• Capitalism: Nothing so mean could be right. Greed is the ugliest of the capital sins.

  Edward Abbey

  Mean, Greed, Sin

  "A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto): Notes from a Secret Journal". Book by Edward Abbey (Chapter 11 "Money Et Cetera", p. 100), 1989.

  4 Copy quote

• Motherhood is an essential, difficult, and full-time job. Women who do not wish to be mothers should not have babies.

  Edward Abbey

  Mother, Baby, Jobs

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.44, RosettaBooks

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• I am happy to be a regional writer. My region is the American West, old Mexico, West Virginia, New York, Europe, Australia, the human heart, and the male groin.

  Edward Abbey

  New York, Heart, Virginia

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.30, RosettaBooks

  6 Copy quote

• Saving the world is only a hobby. Most of the time I do nothing.

  Edward Abbey

  Favorite Hobby, Hobbies, World

  Edward Abbey (2006). “Postcards from Ed: Dispatches and Salvos from an American Iconoclast”

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• Industrial tourism is a threat to the national parks. But the chief victims of the system are the motorized tourists. They are being robbed and robbing themselves. So long as they are unwilling to crawl out of their cars they will not discover the treasures of the national parks and will never escape the stress and turmoil of the urban-suburban complexes which they had hoped, presumably, to leave behind for a while.

  Edward Abbey

  Stress, Long, Car

  Edward Abbey (1988). “Desert Solitaire”, p.49, University of Arizona Press

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• Balance, that's the secret. Moderate extremism. The best of both worlds.

  Edward Abbey

  Secret, Balance, World

  Edward Abbey (1988). “Desert Solitaire”, p.233, University of Arizona Press

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• In metaphysics, the notion that earth and all that's on it is a mental construct is the product of people who spend their lives inside rooms. It is an indoor philosophy.

  Edward Abbey

  Philosophy, People, Earth

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.11, RosettaBooks

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• Within minutes my 115-mile walk through the desert hills becomes a thing apart, a disjunct reality on the far side of a bottomless abyss, immediately beyond physical recollection.But it's all still there in my heart and soul. The walk, the hills, the sky, the solitary pain and pleasure-they will grow larger, sweeter, lovelier in the days to come, like a treasure found and then, voluntarily, surrendered. Returned to the mountains with my blessing. It leaves a golden glowing on the mind.

  Edward Abbey

  Pain, Heart, Blessing

  10 Copy quote

• What did Jesus say to the headwaiter at the Last Supper? 'Separate checks, please.'

  Edward Abbey

  Jesus, Lasts, Checks

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.10, RosettaBooks

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• I once sat on the rim of a mesa above the Rio Grande for three days and nights, trying to have a vision. I got hungry and saw God in the form of a beef pie.

  Edward Abbey

  Night, Pie, Vision

  Edward Abbey (1996). “The Serpents of Paradise: A Reader”, p.34, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• I have written much about many good places. But the best places of all, I have never mentioned.

  Edward Abbey

  Best Place, Written, Good Place

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.56, RosettaBooks

  4 Copy quote

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