Edward Abbey Quotes

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

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

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

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

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

It is not an easy thing to inflate a dog.

The night I filled an inside straight: Even a blind hog's gonna root up an acorn once in a while.

In marriage, the occasional catastrophic crisis is easier to manage than the daily routine.

Home is where, when you have to go there, you probably shouldn't.

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

As Mark Twain said, 'I love Wagner -- if only they'd cut out all that damned singing!'

The world of employer and employee, like that of master and slave, debases both.

I, too, believe in fidelity. But how can I be true to one woman without being false to all the others?

Anywhere, anytime, I'd sacrifice the finest nuance for a laugh, the most elegant trope for a smile.

Music begins where words leave off. Music expresses the inexpressible. If there is a Kingdom of Heaven, it lies in music.

Poetry -- even bad poetry -- may be our final hope.

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

Longevity, like intelligence and good looks and health and strength of character, is largely a matter of genetic heritage. Choose your parents with care.

Mental degeneracy may be caused by lead poisoning. Or by a poor dip in the gene pool.

For this world that men have made, none of us is bad enough. For the world that made us, none is good enough.

Once upon a time, I dreamed of becoming a great man. Later, a good man. Now, finally, I find it difficult enough and honor enough to be -- a man.

Christian theology: nothing so grotesque could possibly be true.

The rifle and handgun are 'equalizers' -- the weapons of a democracy. Tanks and bombers represent dictatorship.

Spartacus, like Jesus, was also crucified by the Romans. And for equally good reasons.

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

Music is a savage art, a measured madness.

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.

My books always make the best-seller lists in Wolf Hole, Arizona, and Hanksville, Utah.

Scientific method: There's a madness in the method.

We're all undesirable elements from somebody's point of view.

A pretty girl can do no wrong.

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.

A crude meal, no doubt, but the best of all sauces is hunger.

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

Through logic and inference we can prove anything. Therefore, logic and inference, in contrast to ordinary daily living experience, are secondary instruments of knowledge. Probably tertiary.

The New Age orgy: The flesh was willing but the spirit's weak.

The artist in our time has two chief responsibilities: (1) art; and (2) sedition.

I intend to be good for the rest of my natural life -- if I live that long.

The great question of life is not the question of death but the question of life. Fear of death shames us all.

Cowboys make better lovers: Ask any cow.

My Aunt Ida at age eighty-three: 'Yeah,' she said, 'I'll be dead pretty soon. And frankly, I don't give a damn.'

Some lives are tragic, some ridiculous. Most are both at once.

The best people, like the best wines, come from the hills.

I was once invited to take part in a heroic, possibly fatal enterprise, but I declined, mainly on account of sloth.

We judge individual man and women as we do nations and races -- by the character of their achievement and by their achievement of character.

Our contemporary Tories prefer the term 'ordered liberty' to 'freedom'. The word 'freedom' scares them; it has too much of a paleolithic ring to it.

Most academic economists know nothing of economy. In fact, they know little of anything.

When the biggest, richest, glassiest buildings in town are the banks, you know that town's in trouble.

Belief in God? An afterlife? I believe in rock: this apodictic rock beneath my feet.

Terrorism: deadly violence against humans and other living things, usually conducted by government against its own people.