Edward Abbey Quotes

When a man's best friend is his dog, that dog has a problem.

There is science, logic, reason; there is thought verified by experience. And then there is California.

If the end does not justify the means - what can?

Grown men do not need leaders.

Say what you like about my bloody murderous government,' I says, 'but don't insult me poor bleedin' country.

Civilization is a youth with a molotov cocktail in his hand. Culture is the Soviet tank or L.A. cop that guns him down.

You can't study the darkness by flooding it with light.

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

Our 'neoconservatives' are neither new nor conservative, but old as Bablyon and evil as Hell.

Belief in the supernatural reflects a failure of the imagination.

For myself I hold no preferences among flowers, so long as they are wild, free, spontaneous. Bricks to all greenhouses! Black thumb and cutworm to the potted plant!

The idea of wilderness needs no defense, it only needs defenders.

A drink a day keeps the shrink away.

The missionaries go forth to Christianize the savages - as if the savages weren't dangerous enough already.

The tragedy of modern war is that the young men die fighting each other - instead of their real enemies back home in the capitals.

Anarchism is founded on the observation that since few men are wise enough to rule themselves, even fewer are wise enough to rule others.

Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit.

Abolition of a woman's right to abortion, when and if she wants it, amounts to compulsory maternity: a form of rape by the State.

Power is always dangerous. Power attracts the worst and corrupts the best.

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

Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.

A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.

Society is like a stew. If you don't stir it up every once in a while then a layer of scum floats to the top.

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.

Love implies anger. The man who is angered by nothing cares about nothing.