Quotes from Edward Abbey

We need wilderness whether or not we ever set foot in it. We need a refuge even though we may never need to go there. We need the possibility of escape as surely as we need hope.

Whenever I see a photograph of some sportsman grinning over his kill, I am always impressed by the striking moral and esthetic superiority of the dead animal to the live one.

Belief in the supernatural reflects a failure of the imagination.

The best people, like the best wines, come from the hills.

All power rests on hierarchy: An army is nothing but a well-organized lynch mob.

Filling out the form: Race? Human. Religion? Paiute. Occupation? Criminal anarchy. Hobbies? Survival with honor.

Art, science, philosophy, religion -- each offers at best only a crude simplification of actual living experience.

Through logic and inference we can prove anything. Therefore, logic and inference, in contrast to ordinary daily living experience, are secondary instruments of knowledge. Probably tertiary.

The gurus come from the sickliest nation on earth to tell us how to live. And we pay them for it.

The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.

Our culture runs on coffee and gasoline, the first often tasting like the second.

Taxation: how the sheep are shorn.

Only a fool would leave the enjoyment of rainbows to the opticians. Or give the science of optics the last word on the matter.

Anywhere, anytime, I'd sacrifice the finest nuance for a laugh, the most elegant trope for a smile.

The ideal society can be described, quite simply, as that in which no man has the power of means to coerce others.

Life is too short for grief. Or regret. Or bullshit.

Walking takes longer... 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.

The extreme clarity of the desert light is equaled by the extreme individuation of desert life forms. Love flowers best in openness and freedom.

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

Every important change in our society, for the good, at least, has taken place because of popular pressure-pressure from below, from the great mass of people.

Life is too tragic for sadness: Let us rejoice.

Those who fear death most are those who enjoy life least.

Life is already too short to waste on speed.

There is a deep, abiding, unshakable satisfaction in a life of complete failure.