Edward Abbey Quote Thread

[DirtyDog]

This is killer stuff:



....... Yeah wow real words of wisdom there!

Already posted this elsewhere but this thread would not be complete without it:

Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul

 

[home skillet]

"I would like to grow wise and venerable......but I haven't figured out how to do it yet."

This was spoken by Abbey in his later years........I think he had figured it out, but didn't even know it.

Home Skillet

 

[Overland Hadley]

I have this on my desktop, seems to be true.

As Ed Abbey once said, "All rental cars are 4WD".

 

[dsrtrat]

Here are two from his little read- A Voice Crying in the Wilderness- Notes From a Secret Journal-

"I come more and more to the conclusion that wilderness in America or anywhere else,is the only thing left that is worth saving"

"Though men now pocess the power to dominate and exploit every corner of the natural world, nothing in that fact implies that they have the right or the need to do so."

Dsrtrat

 

[DirtyDog]

Freedom begins between the ears. The Good Life starts where servitude ends. In a nation of sheep, one brave man is a majority.

- The Fools Progress

Henry felt that by contributing less to the annual Gross National Product he was thereby subtracting even less from what was left of the Net National Heritage.

- The Fools Progress

 

[dsrtrat]

From- The Fool's Progress-

The picture showed a court jester in cap and bells contemplating a doughnut. A poem served as as explanatory caption:

As you travel through life,brother
Whatever be your goal;
Keep your eye upon the doughnut,
And not upon the hole

 

[ski3pin]

One final paragraph of advice: do 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. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards.




This is really a great quote, thanks for posting.

 

[ski3pin]

The idea of wilderness needs no defense, it only needs defenders.
– Edward Abbey

 

[DirtyDog]

Never knew a pig as stupid as a sheep, as goofy as a horse, as mean as a dog. Or as greedy as a man. Furthermore they're good to eat.

 

[ski3pin]

Ah, but back to Abbey. We all need some more Abbey.

"For myself I hold no preference among flowers, so long as they are wild, free, spontaneous."

 

[Missing Link]

Not particularly philisophical, but a cute line "Rudolf the Red knows rain, dear" from MWG

 

[ski3pin]

"Anarchism is not a romantic fable but the hardheaded realization, based on five thousand years of experience, that we cannot entrust the management of our lives to kings, priests, politicians, generals, and county commissioners."

 

[chnlisle]

One of the greatest discoveries we made after moving to Tucson was the Phoenix by-pass through Gila Bend. Abbey knew what he was talking about when he said "Phoenix, Arizona: an oasis of ugliness in the midst of a beautiful wasteland."

 

[brett13]

Not sure if this has been posted yet, but this one speaks to me as a finance/econ guy:

"Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell"

from Desert Solitaire, I believe.

 

[ski3pin]

Bump, time for more Abbey. Spring is around the corner.

"Has joy any survival value in the operations of evolution? I suspect that it does; I suspect that the morose and fearful are doomed to quick extinction. Where there is no joy there can be no courage; and without courage all other virtues are useless." Edward Abbey

 

[Lighthawk]

Bump, time for more Abbey. Spring is around the corner.

"Has joy any survival value in the operations of evolution? I suspect that it does; I suspect that the morose and fearful are doomed to quick extinction. Where there is no joy there can be no courage; and without courage all other virtues are useless." Edward Abbey


Thanks Ski. This is good stuff.

 

[Sock Puppet]

“Gluttony - that's my vice & curse. I want too much of everything. Books... Love... Music... Color & Form... Philosophy... Travel & Adventure... the result of this bestial lust is the indiscriminate and promiscuous splaying of my energies - wanting all, I accomplish nothing; desiring everything, I satisfy nothing and am satisfied by nothing.”

I just started Desert Solitaire this week.

 

[Wandering Sagebrush]

"For God's sake, leave this country alone!" - Abbey

"For Abbey's sake, leave this country alone" - God (Bob Waterman)

 

[SeldomSeen]

Glad I found this thread. One of my all-time favorite authors, if you couldn't tell from my handle.

"If my decomposing carcass helps nourish the roots of a juniper tree or the wings of a vulture--that is immortality enough for me. And as much as anyone deserves."

 

[Lighthawk]

Well, this isn't Abbey, but I thought it should be shared somewhere on WTW.

THE OLD CURIOSITY SHOP, by Charles Dickens (1840-41)


'One half of it... was carpeted, and so partitioned off at the further end as to accommodate a sleeping-place, constructed after the fashion of a berth on board ship, which was shaded, like the windows, with fair white curtains... The other half served for a kitchen, and was fitted up with a stove whose small chimney passed through the roof. It also held a closet or larder, several chests, a great pitcher of water, and a few cooking-utensils and articles of crockery. These latter necessaries hung upon the walls, which in that portion of the establishment devoted to the lady of the caravan, were ornamented with such gayer and lighter decorations as a triangle and a couple of well-thumbed tambourines.'