Edward Abbey
Edward Abbey
Edward Paul Abbeywas an American author and essayist noted for his advocacy of environmental issues, criticism of public land policies, and anarchist political views. His best-known works include the novel The Monkey Wrench Gang, which has been cited as an inspiration by radical environmental groups, and the non-fiction work Desert Solitaire...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionActivist
Date of Birth29 January 1927
CountryUnited States of America
abiding satisfaction unshakable
There is a deep, abiding, unshakable satisfaction in a life of complete failure.
texas utah space
Alaska is our biggest, buggiest, boggiest state. Texas remains our largest unfrozen state. But mountainous Utah, if ironed out flat, would take up more space on a map than either.
men numbers succeed
If industrial man continues to multiply his numbers and expand his operations he will succeed in his apparent intention, to seal himself off from the natural and isolate himself within a synthetic prison of his own making.
joy giants thirst
A giant thirst is a great joy when quenched in time.
eye men light
There's another disadvantage to the use of the flashlight: like many other mechanical gadgets it tends to separate a man from the world around him. If I switch it on my eyes adapt to it and I can see only the small pool of light it makes in front of me; I am isolated. Leaving the flashlight in my pocket where it belongs, I remain a part of the environment I walk through and my vision though limited has no sharp or definite boundary.
war army hands
War: First day in the U.S. Army, the government placed a Bible in my left hand, a bayonet in the other.
sick normal abnormal
We live in a society in which it is normal to be sick; and sick to be abnormal.
gun hands molotov-cocktail
Civilization is a youth with a molotov cocktail in his hand. Culture is the Soviet tank or L.A. cop that guns him down.
mean leader clubs
A leader leads from in front, by the power of example. A ruler pushes from behind, by means of the club, the whip, the power of fear.
mother pie tradition
Except for the scale of the operation, there was nothing unusual about Hitler's massacre of the Jews. Genocide's an old tradition, as human as mother love or cherry pie.
dream atheist imagination
Belief in the supernatural reflects a failure of the imagination.
book graduates best-things
The best thing about graduating from the university was that I finally had time to sit on a log and read a good book.
water desert world
Saving the world was merely a hobby. My *vocation* has been that of inspector of desert water holes.
errors trials duress
I have found through trial and error that I work best under duress. In fact I work only under duress.