One single act of defiance against power, against the State that seems omnipotent but is not, transforms and transfigures the human personality. At least for a time. For a while. Perhaps that is enough.
Edward AbbeyOur modern industrial economy takes a mountain covered with trees, lakes, running streams and transforms it into a mountain of junk, garbage, slime pits, and debris.
Edward AbbeyThere are circumstances in which suicide presents a viable option; a workable alternative; the only sensible solution.
Edward AbbeyJane Austen: Getting into her books is like getting in bed with a cadaver. Something vital is lacking; namely, life.
Edward AbbeyThe great question of life is not the question of death but the question of life. Fear of death shames us all.
Edward AbbeyEvery important change in our society, for the good, at least, has taken place because of popular pressure-pressure from below, from the great mass of people.
Edward AbbeyOne thing more dangerous than getting between a grizzly sow and her cub is getting between a businessman and a dollar bill.
Edward AbbeyCivilization is a youth with a molotov cocktail in his hand. Culture is the Soviet tank or L.A. cop that guns him down.
Edward AbbeyI would not sacrifice a single living mesquite tree for any book ever written. One square mile of living desert is worth a hundred 'great books' - and one brave deed is worth a thousand.
Edward AbbeySomewhere in the depths of solitude, beyond wilderness and freedom, lay the trap of madness.
Edward AbbeyRunning the big rapids is like sex: half the fun lies in the anticipation. Two thirds of the thrill with the approach. The remainder is only ecstasy-or darkness.
Edward AbbeyIt is an author's most solemn obligation to honor truth. If the free and independent writer does not speak truth to power, who will?
Edward AbbeyIn 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.
Edward AbbeyI thought of the wilderness we had left behind us, open to sea and sky, joyous in its plenitude and simplicity, perfect yet vulnerable, unaware of what is coming, defended by nothing, guarded by no one.
Edward AbbeyEpitaphs for a gravestone: 'Please: no hooliganism'; or 'Es prohibe se hace agua aqui'; or 'No comment'.
Edward AbbeyDo not burn yourselves out. Be as I am - a reluctant enthusiast... a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure.
Edward AbbeyThere is a wine called Easy Days and Mellow Nights, well-known on the outskirts of the Navajo reservation. It is an economical wine, fortified with the best of intentions, and I recommend it to every serious wino.
Edward AbbeyMen love their ideas more than their lives. And the more preposterous the idea, the more eager they are to die for it. And to kill for it.
Edward AbbeyQuantum mechanics provides us with an approximate, plausible, conjectural explanation of what actually is, or was, or may be taking place inside a cyclotron during a dark night in February.
Edward AbbeyA true libertarian supports free enterprise, opposes big business; supports local self-government, opposes the nation-state; supports the National Rifle Association, opposes the Pentagon.
Edward AbbeyOpera: I like it, except for all those howling sopranos and caterwauling tenors. (Why can't tenors sing like men?)
Edward AbbeyWe are befouling and destroying our own home, we are committing a slow but accelerating race suicide and life murder - planetary biocide. Now there is a mighty theme for a mighty book but a challenge to which no modern novelist or poet has yet responded. Where is our Melville, our Milton, our Thomas Mann when we need him most?
Edward AbbeyAnton Bruckner wrote the same symphony nine times, trying to get it just right. He failed.
Edward AbbeyWe 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)
Edward AbbeyAnd if the computer gives you any back talk, pour some well-sugared office coffee into its evil little silicon brain.
Edward AbbeyThree words remain that can yet stir the blood of man: the word 'rebellion'; the word 'revolt'; the word 'revolution'.
Edward AbbeyLate in August the lure of the mountains becomes irresistible. Seared by the everlasting sunfire, I want to see running water again, embrace a pine tree, cut my initials in the bark of an aspen, get bit by a mosquito, see a mountain bluebird, find a big blue columbine, get lost in the firs, hike above timberline, sunbathe on snow and eat some ice, climb the rocks and stand in the wind at the top of the world on the peak of Tukuhnikivats.
Edward AbbeyThere's another disadvantage to the use of the flashlight: like many other mechanical gadgets it tends to separate a man from the world around him. If I switch it on my eyes adapt to it and I can see only the small pool of light it makes in front of me; I am isolated. Leaving the flashlight in my pocket where it belongs, I remain a part of the environment I walk through and my vision though limited has no sharp or definite boundary.
Edward AbbeyIf America could be, once again, a nation of self-reliant farmers, craftsmen, hunters, ranchers, and artists, then the rich would have little power to dominate others. Neither to serve nor to rule: That was the American dream.
Edward AbbeyCold morning on Aztec Peak Fire Lookout. First, build fire in old stove. Second, start coffee. Then, heat up last night's pork chops and spinach for breakfast. Why not? And why the hell not?
Edward Abbey