Edward Abbey Quotes

But of the seven deadly sins, wrath is the healthiest - next only to lust.

~ Edward Abbey

One of the pleasant things about small town life is that everyone, whether rich or poor, liked or disliked, has some kind of a role and place in the community. I never felt that living in a city -- as I once did for a couple of years.

~ Edward Abbey

A house built on greed cannot long endure.

~ Edward Abbey

We are preoccupied with time. If we could learn to love space as deeply as we are now obsessed with time, we might discover a new meaning in the phrase 'to live like men.

~ Edward Abbey

My loyalties will not be bound by national borders, or confined in time by one nation's history, or limited in the spiritual dimension by one language and culture. I pledge my allegiance to the damned human race, and my everlasting love to the green hills of Earth, and my intimations of glory to the singing stars, to the very end of space and time.

~ Edward Abbey

If wilderness is outlawed, only outlaws can save wilderness.

~ Edward Abbey

There is a way of being wrong which is also sometimes necessarily right.

~ Edward Abbey

A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.

~ Edward Abbey

Not all questions can be answered.

~ Edward Abbey

Grown men do not need leaders.

~ Edward Abbey

Yes, there are plenty of heroes and heroines everywhere you look. They are not famous people. They are generally obscure and modest people doing useful work, keeping their families together and taking an active part in the health of their communities, opposing what is evil (in one way or another) and defending what is good. Heroes do not want power over others.

~ Edward Abbey

Me, I'm living under a sword too, as Jack may have told you. An old wino's disease, which could lay me in the grave most anytime. Not that I mind too much; I've done everything I ever wanted to do. But ... as you know, one would like to continue doing the good things over and over again, so long as there's pleasure in it.

~ Edward Abbey

We need the possibility of escape as surely as we need hope.

~ Edward Abbey

The tragedy of modern war is that the young men die fighting each other - instead of their real enemies back home in the capitals.

~ Edward Abbey

Belief in the supernatural reflects a failure of the imagination.

~ Edward Abbey

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.

~ Edward Abbey

Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit.

~ Edward Abbey

For myself I hold no preferences among flowers, so long as they are wild, free, spontaneous. Bricks to all greenhouses! Black thumb and cutworm to the potted plant!

~ Edward Abbey

There is science, logic, reason; there is thought verified by experience. And then there is California.

~ Edward Abbey

When a man's best friend is his dog, that dog has a problem.

~ Edward Abbey

Love implies anger. The man who is angered by nothing cares about nothing.

~ Edward Abbey

One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain't nothin' can beat teamwork.

~ Edward Abbey