Edward Abbey
Edward Abbey
Edward Paul Abbeywas an American author and essayist noted for his advocacy of environmental issues, criticism of public land policies, and anarchist political views. His best-known works include the novel The Monkey Wrench Gang, which has been cited as an inspiration by radical environmental groups, and the non-fiction work Desert Solitaire...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionActivist
Date of Birth29 January 1927
CountryUnited States of America
men jail giving
Nothing can excel a few days in jail for giving a young man or woman a quick education in the basis of industrial society.
human-nature social institutions
Our big social institutions do not reflect human nature; they distort it.
human-nature humans human-beings
You cannot reshape human nature without mutilating human beings.
practice might dueling
We should restore the practice of dueling. It might improve manners around here.
reality trying quotation-marks
Beware the writer who always encloses the word *reality* in quotation marks: He's trying to slip something over on you. Or into you.
jesus reason spartacus
Spartacus, like Jesus, was also crucified by the Romans. And for equally good reasons.
would-be insult life-without-music
Life without music would be an intolerable insult.
passion speak melancholy
Indolence and melancholy: Each generates the other. If one can speak of such feeble passions as generating anything.
disorder improvisation chaotic
Most of us lead lives of chaotic improvisation from day to day, bawling for peace while plunging grimly into fresh disorders.
dream suffering ancestor
If you feel that you must suffer, then plan your suffering carefully -- as you choose your dreams, as you conceive your ancestors.
beautiful mother sorrow
A mother's sorrow is more true, honorable, and beautiful than the detachment of the sage.
men lucky lucky-man
I have been a lucky man. But someone has to be.
men once-upon-a-time honor
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.
sloth heroic enterprise
I was once invited to take part in a heroic, possibly fatal enterprise, but I declined, mainly on account of sloth.