Edward Abbey Quotes

War? The one war I'd be happy to join is the war against officers.

I despise my own nation most. Because I know it best. Because I still love it, suffering from Hope. For me, that's patrotism.

If there's anyone still present whom I've failed to insult . . . I apologize.

Why do I live in the desert? Because the desert is the *locus Dei*.

Our “neoconservatives” are neither new nor conservative, but old as Babylon and evil as Hell.

Indolence and melancholy: Each generates the other. If one can speak of such feeble passions as generating anything.

One thing more dangerous than getting between a grizzly sow and her cub is getting between a businessman and a dollar bill.

Anyone not paranoid in this world must be crazy. . . . Speaking of paranoia, it's true that I do not know exactly who my enemies are. But that of course is exactly why I'm paranoid.

Each thing in its way, when true to its own character, is equally beautiful. (p 41)

Humans were free before the word freedom became necessary.

Desire, said the Buddha, is the cause of suffering. But without desire, what delight?

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

We spend more time working for our labor-saving machines than they do working for us.

Say what you like about my bloody murderous government,' I says, 'but don't insult me poor bleedin' country.

A good writer must have more than vin rosé in his veins, use more than Chablis for ink.

We live in a time of twin credulities: the hunger for the miraculous combined with a servile awe of science. The mating of the two gives us superstition plus scientism -- a Mongoloid metaphysic.

Taxation: how the sheep are shorn.

Readers, not critics, are the people who determine a book's eventual fate.

In the land of bleating sheep and braying jackasses, one brave and honest man is bound to create a scandal.

A genius is always on duty; even his dreams are tax deductible.

Tee Vee football: one team wins, one team loses -- they tie -- who cares? And why?

The earth, like the sun, like the air, belongs to everyone - and to no one.

What we need now are heroes and heroines, about a million of them, one brave deed is worth a thousand books. Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul.

The "terror" of the French Revolution lasted for ten years. The terror that preceded and led to it lasted for a thousand years.

When riding my old Harley a ninety per at midnight down the Via Roma in Naples, I kept one consolation firmly in mind: If anything goes wrong, I'll never have time to regret it.

Is it possible to grow wiser without knowing it? One hopes so. We all hope so.

Men have never loved one another much, for reasons we can readily understand: Man is not a lovable animal.

Why must love always be accompanied--sooner or later--by sorrow and pain? Why not? Because pure bliss is for pure idiots.

It's a fool's life, a rogue's life, and a good life if you keep laughing all the way to the grave.

I wouldn't trade a good horse for the best Rolls-Royce ever made -- unless I could trade the Rolls for two good horses.

Those who dream of the joys of living in a space colony should live in a space colony.

One thing worse than self-hatred is chiggers.

I love America because it is a confused, chaotic mess - and I hope we can keep it this way for at least another thousand years. The permissive society is the free society.

How long does it take to write a good book? All of the years that you've lived.

By the age of forty, a man is responsible for his face. And his fate.

Beauty is only skin deep; ugliness goes all the way through.

Some of my ancestors fought in the American Revolution. A few more wore red coats, a few wore blue coats, and the rest wore no coats at all. We never did figure out who won that war.

Doctrines like Christianity or Islam or Marxism require unanimity of belief. One dissenter casts doubt on the creed of millions.

There has never been a day in my life when I was not in love.

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

Our job is to record, each in his own way, this world of light and shadow and time that will never come again exactly as it is today.

Nobody has so many friends that he can afford to lose one.

I do not believe in personal immortality; it seems so unnecessary. Show me one man who deserves to live forever.

Some people write to please, to soothe, to console. Others to provoke, to challenge, to exasperate and infuriate. I've always found the second approach the more pleasing.

The industrial corporation is the natural enemy of nature.

WEALTH AND HOW TO ACHIEVE IT: Let us define the wealthy man as he who has everything he desires. How to reach that happy condition? Two ways

If, as some say, evil lies in the hearts and not the institutions of men, then there's hardly a distinction worth making between, say, Hitler's Germany and Rebecca's Sunnybrook Farm.

Saving the world was merely a hobby. My *vocation* has been that of inspector of desert water holes.

The world is older and bigger than we are. This is a hard truth for some folks to swallow.

God is a sound people make when they're too tired to think anymore.