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
heart mind relaxation
Orthodoxy is a relaxation of the mind accompanied by a stiffening of the heart.
writing trying may
I always write with my .357 magnum handy. Why? Well, you never know when God may try to interfere.
horse plato cows
Reply to Plato: I seen horses I seen cows I haint never yet seen horsiness nor that there bovinity neither.
may world illusion
This world may be only illusion -- but it's the only illusion we've got.
rainbow giving matter
Only a fool would leave the enjoyment of rainbows to the opticians. Or give the science of optics the last word on the matter.
two giving superstitions
We live in a time of twin credulities: the hunger for the miraculous combined with a servile awe of science. The mating of the two gives us superstition plus scientism -- a Mongoloid metaphysic.
sports butterfly example
Vladimir Nabokov was a writer who cared nothing for music and whose favorite sport was the pursuit, capture, and murder of butterflies. This explains many things; for example, the fact that Nabokov's novels, for all their elegance and wit, resemble nothing so much as butterflies pinned to a board: pretty but dead; symmetrical but stiff.
real earth cows
The earth is real. Only a fool, milking his cow, denies the cow's reality.
book enemy lasts
There comes a time in the life of us all when we must lay aside our books or put down our tools and leave our place of work and walk forth on the road to meet the enemy face-to-face. Once and for all and at last
art honesty clean
In both metaphysics and art, honesty is the best policy. Keep it clean.
reason
Reason has seldom failed us because it has seldom been tried.
dark moon sides
Is there a God? Who knows? Is there an angry unicorn on the dark side of the moon?
jesus feet water
Jesus don't walk on water no more; his feet leak.
believe afterlife feet
Belief in God? An afterlife? I believe in rock: this apodictic rock beneath my feet.