Freedom begins between the ears.

You cannot reshape human nature without mutilating human beings.

No man is wise enough to be another man's master. Each man's as good as the next -- if not a damn sight better.

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.

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

There's nothing so obscene and depressing as an American Christmas.

We are slaves in the sense that we depend for our daily survival upon an expand-or-expire agro-industrial empire—a crackpot machine—that the specialists cannot comprehend and the managers cannot manage. Which is, furthermore, devouring world resources at an exponential rate. We are, most of us, dependent employees. …Edward Abbey (1927-1989)