Power is always dangerous. Power attracts the worst and corrupts the best. Edward Abbey More Quotes by Edward Abbey More Quotes From Edward Abbey Some of my ancestors fought in the American Revolution. A few more wore red coats, a few wore blue coats, and the rest wore no coats at all. We never did figure out who won that war. Edward Abbey coats blue war Liberty cannot be guaranteed by law. Nor by any thing else except the resolution of free citizens to defend their liberties. Edward Abbey citizens liberty law Belief? What do I believe in? I believe in sun. In rock. In the dogma of the sun and the doctrine of the rock. I believe in blood, fire, woman, rivers, eagles, storm, drums, flutes, banjos, and broom-tailed horses. Edward Abbey horse crazy religious A venturesome minority will always be eager to set off on their own, and no obstacles should be placed in their path; let them take risks, for godsake, let them get lost, sunburnt, stranded, drowned, eaten by bears, buried alive under avalanches - that is the right and privilege of any free American. Edward Abbey minorities risk alive We know so very little about this strange planet we live on, this haunted world where all answers lead only to more mystery. Edward Abbey answers littles world To meet God or Medusa face to face, even if it means risking everything human in myself. I dream of a hard and brutal mysticism in which the naked self merges with the nonhuman world and yet somehow survives still intact individual, separate. Paradox and bedrock. Edward Abbey self dream mean No man-made structure in all of American history has been hated so much, by so many, for so long, with such good reason, as that Glen Canyon Dam at Page, Arizona, Shithead Capital of Coconino County. Edward Abbey dams men long Don't talk to me about other worlds, separate realities, lost continents or invisible realms -- I know where I belong. Heaven is home. Utopia is here. Nirvana is now. Edward Abbey other-worlds home reality Humans were free before the word freedom became necessary. Edward Abbey humans How long does it take to write a good book? All of the years that you've lived. Edward Abbey writing book years I am my brother's keeper, says the chickenshit liberal. Perhaps he does not Edward Abbey realizing brother doe Be a half-assed crusader, a part-time fanatic. Don't worry to much about the fate of the world. Saving the world is only a hobby. Get out there and enjoy the world, your girlfriend, your boyfriend, husbands wives; climb mountains, run rivers, get drunk, do whatever you want to do while you can, before it's too late. Edward Abbey girlfriend husband running If, as some say, evil lies in the hearts and not the institutions of men, then there's hardly a distinction worth making between, say, Hitler's Germany and Rebecca's Sunnybrook Farm. Edward Abbey heart men lying Those who dream of the joys of living in a space colony should live in a space colony. Edward Abbey space dream joy Most of what we call the classics of world literature suggest artifacts in a wax museum. We have to hire and pay professors to get them read and talked about. Edward Abbey world-literature pay museums Counterpart to the knee-jerk liberal is the new knee-pad conservative, always groveling before the rich and the powerful. Edward Abbey pads knees powerful One single act of defiance against power, against the State that seems omnipotent but is not, transforms and transfigures the human personality. At least for a time. For a while. Perhaps that is enough. Edward Abbey states personality enough If a man’s imagination were not so weak, so easily tired, if his capacity for wonder not so limited, he would abandon forever such fantasies of the supernal. He would learn to perceive in water, leaves and silence more than sufficient of the absolute and marvelous, more than enough to console him for the loss of the ancient dream. Edward Abbey tired dream loss I want my body to help fertilize the growth of a cactus or cliff rose or sagebrush or tree. Edward Abbey growth rose tree The sneakiest form of literary subtlety, in a corrupt society, is to speak the plain truth. The critics will not understand you; the public will not believe you; your fellow writers will shake their heads. Laughter, praise, honors, money, and the love of beautiful girls will be your only reward. Edward Abbey laughter girl beautiful
