Edward Abbey Quotes and Sayings
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“I wish to be an inspector of volcanoes. I want to study cloud formations and memorize the wind and learn by heart the habits of the ponderosa pine.”
-- Edward Abbey -
“Under the desert sun, in the dogmatic clarity, the fables of theology and the myths of classical philosophy dissolve like mist. The air is clean, the rock cuts cruelly into flesh; shatter the rock and the odor of flint rises to your nostrils, bitter and sharp. Whirlwinds dance across the salt flats, a pillar of dust by day; the thornbush breaks into flame at night. What does it mean? It means nothing. It is as it is and has no need for meaning. The desert lies beneath and soars beyond any possible human qualification. Therefore, sublime.”
-- Edward Abbey -
“So I lived alone. The first thing I did was take off my pants. Naturally.”
-- Edward Abbey -
“Without courage, all other virtues are useless.”
-- Edward Abbey -
“When I write "paradise" I mean not only apple trees and golden women but also scorpions and tarantulas and flies, rattlesnakes and Gila monsters, sandstorms, volcanoes and earthquakes, bacteria and bear, cactus, yucca, bladderweed, ocotillo and mesquite, flash floods and quicksand, and yes - disease and death and the rotting of flesh.”
-- Edward Abbey -
“There are some places so beautiful they can make a grown man break down and weep.”
-- Edward Abbey -
“Life is unfair. And it's not fair that life is unfair.”
-- Edward Abbey -
“In the American Southwest, I began a lifelong love affair with a pile of rock.”
-- Edward Abbey -
“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