Quotes by Edward Abbey

“The ideal society can be described, quite simply, as that in which no man has the power of means to coerce others.”

“Growth and progress are among the key words in our national vocabulary. But modern man now carries Strontium 90 in his bones ... DDT in his fat, asbestos in his lungs. A little more of this progress and growth, and this man will be dead.”

“Only a fool is astonished by the foolishness of mankind.”

“For there is a cloud on my horizon. A small dark cloud no bigger than my hand. Its name is Progress.”

“What kind of society, given the choice between recycling a mountain of paper and denuding a mountainside of trees would make a decision to do the latter? The answer: our kind. And it is time to change that.”

“It seems clear at last that our love for the natural world—Nature—is the only means by which we can requite God’s obvious love for it.”

“Reason has seldom failed us because it has seldom been tried.”

A man could be a lover and defender of the wilderness without ever in his lifetime leaving the boundaries of asphalt, powerlines, and right-angled surfaces. We need wilderness whether or not we ever set foot in it. We need a refuge even though we may never need to set foot in it. We need the possibility of escape as surely as we need hope; without it the life of the cities would drive all men into crime or drugs or psychoanalysis.

Philosophy without action is the ruin of the soul. One brave deed is worth a hundred books, a thousand theories, a million words. Now as always we need heroes. And heroines! Down with the passive and the limp.

This sweet virginal primitive land will metaphorically breathe a sigh of relief --like a whisper of wind--when we are all and finally gone and the place and its creations can return to their ancient procedures unobserved and undisturbed by the busy, anxious, brooding consciousness of man.

Better a cruel truth than a comfortable delusion.

But it is a writers duty to write and speak and record the truth, always the truth, no matter whom may be offended.

The novel should tell the truth, as I see the truth, or as the novelist persuades me to see it. And one more demand: I expect the novelist to aspire to improve the world. ... As a novelist, I want to be more than one more dog barking at the other dogs barking at me. Not out of any foolish hope that one novelist, or all virtuous novelists in chorus, can make much of a difference for good, except in the long run, but out of the need to prevent the human world from relaxing into something worse. To maintain the tension between truth and falsity, beauty and ugliness, good and evil. ... I believe the highest duty of the serious novelist is, whatever the means or technique, to be a critic of his society, to hold society to its own ideals, or if these ideals are unworthy, to suggest better ideals.

Anarchism is founded on the observation that since few men are wise enough to rule themselves, even fewer are wise enough to rule others.

If its knowledge and wisdom you want, then seek out the company of those who do real work for an honest purpose.

I am hopeful, though not full of hope, and the only reason I dont believe in happy endings is because I dont believe in endings.

One mile farther and I come to a second grave beside the road, nameless like the other, marked only with the dull blue-black stones of the badlands. I do not pause this time. The more often you stop the more difficult it is to continue. Stop too long and they cover you with rocks.

Ah yes, the head is full of books. The hard part is to force them down through the bloodstream and out through the fingers.

As for writing, thats a cruel hard business. Unless youre very lucky itll break your heart.

What is the essence of the art of writing? Part One: Have something to say. Part Two: Say it well.