Henry James was our master of periphrasis -- the fine art of saying as little as possible in the greatest number of words. Edward Abbey More Quotes by Edward Abbey More Quotes From Edward Abbey To the intelligent man or woman, life appears infinitely mysterious. But the stupid have an answer for every question. Edward Abbey intelligent stupid men The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government. Edward Abbey inspirational life funny 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 nature adventure inspirational The love of wilderness is more than a hunger for what is always beyong reach; it is also an expression of loyalty to the earth, the earth which bore us and sustains us, the only paradise we shall ever know, the only paradise we ever need, if only we had the eyes to see. Edward Abbey loyalty nature inspirational The one thing ... that is truly ugly is the climate of hate and intimidation, created by a noisy few, which makes the decent majority reluctant to air in public their views on anything controversial. ... Where all pretend to be thinking alike, it's likely that no one is thinking at all. Edward Abbey hate air thinking Be as I am - a reluctant enthusiast....a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic....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. Edward Abbey rivers running sweet There are some good things to be said about walking. Not many, but some. Walking takes longer, for example, than any other known form of locomotion except crawling. Thus it stretches time and prolongs life. Life is already too short to waste on speed. I have a friend who's always in a hurry; he never gets anywhere. Walking makes the world much bigger and thus more interesting. You have time to observe the details. The utopian technologists foresee a future for us in which distance is annihilated... To be everywhere at once is to be nowhere forever, if you ask me. Edward Abbey distance forever interesting Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit. Edward Abbey insperational hiking nature 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 loyalty spiritual love Society is like a stew. If you don't stir it up every once in a while then a layer of scum floats to the top. Edward Abbey scum political funny If 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 Abbey artist self dream I choose to listen to the river for a while, thinking river thoughts, before joining the night and the stars. Edward Abbey stars memorable night I have been called a curmudgeon, which my obsolescent dictionary defines as a "surly, illmannered, badtempered fellow." ... Nowadays, curmudgeon is likely to refer to anyone who hates hypocrisy, cant, sham, dogmatic ideologies, the pretenses and evasions of euphemism, and has the nerve to point out unpleasant facts and takes the trouble to impale these sins on the skewer of humor and roast them over the fires of empiric fact, common sense, and native intelligence. In this nation of bleating sheep and braying jackasses, it then becomes an honor to be labeled curmudgeon. Edward Abbey hate fire sheep Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell. Edward Abbey cancer nature inspirational Life is hard? True - but let's love it anyhow, though it breaks every bone in our bodies. Edward Abbey true-love hard-life life-is-hard Power is always dangerous. Power attracts the worst and corrupts the best. Edward Abbey anarchy worst power 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. Edward Abbey realization kings years Why is it that the destruction of something created by humans is called vandalism, yet the destruction of something created by God is called development? Edward Abbey sea lakes rivers If people persist in trespassing upon the grizzlies' territory, we must accept the fact that the grizzlies, from time to time, will harvest a few trespassers. Edward Abbey territory facts people May your rivers flow without end... down into a desert of red rock, blue mesas, domes and pinnacles and grottos of endless stone, and down again into a deep vast ancient unknown chasm where bars of sunlight blaze on profiled cliffs... where something strange and more beautiful and more full of wonder than your deepest dreams waits for you-beyond that next turning of the canyon walls. Edward Abbey wall dream beautiful
