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
adventure cutting civilization
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.
enough-already savages missionary
The missionaries go forth to Christianize the savages - as if the savages weren't dangerous enough already.
depressing obscene
There's nothing so obscene and depressing as an American Christmas.
friendship dog silly
When a man's best friend is his dog, that dog has a problem.
enemy states
I am an enemy of the State. But isn't everyone?
betrayal fall may
I would never betray a friend to serve a cause. Never reject a friend to help an institution. Great nations may fall in ruin before I would sell a friend to save them.
war government insanity
As war and government prove, insanity is the most contagious of diseases.
god-is-love bloody
God is love? Not bloody likely.
men empty
An empty man is full of himself.
Not all questions can be answered.
suffering sloth action
As a confirmed melancholic, I can testify that the best and maybe only antidote for melancholia is action. However, like most melancholics, I suffer also from sloth.
philosophy buddhism common-sense
Why can't we simply borrow what is useful to us from Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, especially Zen, as we borrow from Christianity, science, American Indian traditions and world literature in general, including philosophy, and let the rest go hang? Borrow what we need but rely principally upon our own senses, common sense and daily living experience.
rain american-west space
The fire. The odor of burning juniper is the sweetest fragrance on the face of the earth, in my honest judgment; I doubt if all the smoking censers of Dante's paradise could equal it. One breath of juniper smoke, like the perfume of sagebrush after rain, evokes in magical catalysis, like certain music, the space and light and clarity and piercing strangeness of the American West. Long may it burn.
book focus force
Ah yes, the head is full of books. The hard part is to force them down through the bloodstream and out through the fingers.