Power is always dangerous. Power attracts the worst and corrupts the best. Edward Abbey More Quotes by Edward Abbey More Quotes From Edward Abbey If the end does not justify the means - what can? Edward Abbey ends doe mean The only thing left worth saving is wilderness. Edward Abbey wilderness left saving The ideal kitchen-sink novel: Throw in everything but the kitchen sink. Then add the kitchen sink. Edward Abbey kitchen novel add Edmund Wilson was our greatest American literary critic because he was more than a literary critic: He was a fearless, even radical judge of the society he lived in. (See, for example, _A Piece of My Mind_; _The Cold War and the Income Tax_; the introduction to _Patriotic Gore_.) Our conventional critics cannot forgive him for those scandalous lapses in good taste. Edward Abbey patriotic judging war I would not sacrifice a single living mesquite tree for any book ever written. One square mile of living desert is worth a hundred 'great books' - and one brave deed is worth a thousand. Edward Abbey sacrifice squares book We're all undesirable elements from somebody's point of view. Edward Abbey point-of-view elements views A society that feels itself too poor to afford the preservation of wilderness is not worthy of the name civilization. Edward Abbey nature names civilization So I write mainly for the fun of it, the hell of it, the duty of it. I enjoy writing and will probably be a scribbler on my dying day, sprawled on some stony trail halfway between two dry waterholes. Edward Abbey writing fun two I am hopeful, though not full of hope, and the only reason I don't believe in happy endings is because I don't believe in endings. Edward Abbey happy-endings hopeful believe I don't see how poetry can ever be easy... Real poetry, the thick, dense, intense, complicated stuff that lives and endures, requires blood sweat; blood and sweat are essential elements in poetry as well as behind it. Edward Abbey sweat real blood Anarchism? You bet your sweet betsy. The only cure for the ills of democracy is more democracy. Much more. Edward Abbey cures democracy sweet Lightning streaks like gunfire through the clouds, volleys of thunder shake the air. Edward Abbey air clouds weather In the afternoon I watch the clouds drift past the bald peak of Mount Tukuhnikivats. (Someone has to do it.) Edward Abbey clouds watches past Desert springtime, with flowers popping up all over the place, trees leafing out, streams gushing down from the mountains. Great time of year for hiking, camping, exploring, sleeping under the new moon and the old stars. At dawn and at evening we hear the coyotes howling with excitement—mating season. Edward Abbey stars flower sleep To the question: Wilderness, who needs it? Doc would say: Because we like the taste of freedom, comrades. Because we like the smell of danger. But, thought Hayduke, what about the smell of fear, Dad? Edward Abbey smell dad fear The knowledge that refuge is available, when and if needed, makes the silent inferno of the desert more easily bearable. Mountains complement desert as desert complements city, as wilderness complements and completes civilization. Edward Abbey nature cities civilization Writing on the wall: Will trade three blind crabs for two with no teeth. Edward Abbey wall writing two I understand and sympathize with the reasonable needs of a reasonable number of people on a finite continent. All life depends upon other life. But what is happening today, in North America, is not rational use but irrational massacre. Man the Pest, multiplied to the swarming stage, is attacking the remaining forests like a plague of locusts on a field of grain. Edward Abbey numbers men america All governments require enemy governments. Edward Abbey government enemy A writer must be hard to live with: when not working he is miserable, and when he is working he is obsessed. Edward Abbey hard miserable obsessed
