No man is wise enough to be another man's master. Each man's as good as the next -- if not a damn sight better. Edward Abbey More Quotes by Edward Abbey More Quotes From Edward Abbey Those who fear death most are those who enjoy life least. Edward Abbey enjoy-life enjoy fear-of-death A house built on greed cannot long endure. Edward Abbey greed house long Why this cult of wilderness?... because we like the taste of freedom; because we like the smell of danger. Edward Abbey wilderness smell taste Concrete is heavy; iron is hard - but the grass will prevail. Edward Abbey iron strength nature Heaven is home. Utopia is here. Nirvana is now. Edward Abbey utopia home heaven Our suicidal poets (Plath, Berryman, Lowell, Jarrell, et al.) spent too much of their lives inside rooms and classrooms when they should have been trudging up mountains, slogging through swamps, rowing down rivers. The indoor life is the next best thing to premature burial. Edward Abbey suicidal journey should-have Life is too short for grief. Or regret. Or bullshit. Edward Abbey regret grief life One must be reasonable in one's demands on life. For myself, all that I ask is: (1) accurate information; (2) coherent knowledge; (3) deep understanding; (4) infinite loving wisdom; (5) no more kidney stones, please. Edward Abbey demand deep-understanding stones Men come and go, cities rise and fall, whole civilizations appear and disappear-the earth remains, slightly modified. The earth remains, and the heartbreaking beauty where there are no hearts to break....I sometimes choose to think, no doubt perversely, that man is a dream, thought an illusion, and only rock is real. Rock and sun. Edward Abbey real dream fall A drink a day keeps the shrink away. Edward Abbey drunk drinking beer Baseball is a slow, sluggish game, with frequent and trivial interruptions, offering the spectator many opportunities to reflect at leisure upon the situation on the field: This is what a fan loves most about the game Edward Abbey baseball games opportunity I'm in favor of animal liberation. Why? Because I'm an animal. Edward Abbey liberation favors animal I wish to be Edward Abbey nature clouds heart There is a deep, abiding, unshakable satisfaction in a life of complete failure. Edward Abbey unshakable abiding satisfaction I thought of the wilderness we had left behind us, open to sea and sky, joyous in its plenitude and simplicity, perfect yet vulnerable, unaware of what is coming, defended by nothing, guarded by no one. Edward Abbey sea perfect sky I'm happy to respect authority when it's genuine authority, based on moral or intellectual or even technical superiority. I'm eager to follow a hero if we can find one. But I tend to resist or evade any kind of authority based merely on the power to coerce. Government, for example. The Army tried to train us to salute the uniform, not the man. Failed. I will salute the man, maybe, if I think he's worthy of it, but I don't salute uniforms anymore. Edward Abbey army hero men Paradise is the here and now, the actual, tangible, dogmatically real Earth on which we stand. Yes, God bless America, the Earth upon which we stand. Edward Abbey hiking real journey Let the people walk. Or ride horses, bicycles, mules, wild pigs-anything-but keep the automobiles and the motorcycles and all their motorized relatives out. We have agreed not to drive our automobiles into cathedrals, concert halls, art museums, legislative assemblies, private bedrooms and other sanctums of our culture; we should treat our national parks with the same deference, for they, too, are holy places. Edward Abbey horse museums art It is not death or dying that is tragic, but rather to have existed without fully participating in life- that is the deepest personal tragedy. Edward Abbey tragic dying tragedy Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread. A civilization which destroys what little remains of the wild, the spare, the original, is cutting itself off from its origins and betraying the principle of civilization itself. Edward Abbey cutting adventure civilization
