Edward Abbey was an American author and environmental activist known for his outspoken and often controversial opinions. His quotes on life emphasized the importance of living fully and authentically, while his quotes on success encouraged people to find their own definition of achievement. Abbey was also a vocal critic of war and government oppression, and his quotes on these topics expressed a deep skepticism towards authority and the military-industrial complex.
Top 10 Most Famous Edward Abbey Quotes
The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.
— Edward Abbey
The idea of wilderness needs no defense, it only needs defenders.
— Edward Abbey
Better a cruel truth than a comfortable delusion.
— Edward Abbey
To the intelligent man or woman, life appears infinitely mysterious. But the stupid have an answer for every question.
— Edward Abbey
Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.
— Edward Abbey
May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.
— Edward Abbey
Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit.
— Edward Abbey
A man on foot, on horseback or on a bicycle will see more, feel more, enjoy more in one mile than the motorized tourists can in a hundred miles.
— Edward Abbey
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.
— Edward Abbey
A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.
— Edward Abbey
Inspirational Edward Abbey Quotes
The love of wilderness is more than a hunger for what is always beyond reach; it is also an expression of loyalty to the earth, the earth which bore us and sustains us, the only paradise we shall ever know, the only paradise we ever need, if only we had the eyes to see.
— Edward Abbey
There are some places so beautiful they can make a grown man break down and weep.
— Edward Abbey
We need wilderness whether or not we ever set foot in it. We need a refuge even though we may not ever need to go there.
— Edward Abbey
I am not an atheist but an earthiest. Be true to the earth.
— Edward Abbey
If people persist in trespassing upon the grizzlies’ territory, we must accept the fact that the grizzlies, from time to time, will harvest a few trespassers.
— Edward Abbey
I hold no preference among flowers, so long as they are wild, free, spontaneous.
— Edward Abbey
Each thing in its way, when true to its own character, is equally beautiful.
— Edward Abbey
Power is always dangerous. Power attracts the worst and corrupts the best.
— Edward Abbey
…where tigers belch and monkeys howl, through miasmal and mysterious swamps and down into a desert of red rock, blue mesas, domes and pinnacles and grottos of endless stone, and down again into a deep vast ancient unknown chasm.
— Edward Abbey
May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view, May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.
— Edward Abbey
Grown men do not need leaders.
— Edward Abbey
Life is already too short to waste on speed.
— Edward Abbey
Edward Abbey Quotes on Success
Where there is no joy there can be no courage; and without courage all other virtues are useless.
— Edward Abbey
Freedom begins between the ears.
— Edward Abbey
Where all think alike there is little danger of innovation.
— Edward Abbey
Love implies anger. The man who is angered by nothing cares about nothing.
— Edward Abbey
One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain’t nothin’ can beat teamwork.
— Edward Abbey
Ah yes, the head is full of books. The hard part is to force them down through the bloodstream and out through the fingers.
— Edward Abbey
I stand for what I stand on.
— Edward Abbey
When the situation is hopeless, there’s nothing to worry about.
— Edward Abbey
Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul.
— Edward Abbey
There’s no limit to the human capacity for the homing sentiment.
— Edward Abbey
Balance, that’s the secret. Moderate extremism.
— Edward Abbey
Edward Abbey quotes from ‘Desert Solitaire’
A man on foot, on horseback or on a bicycle will see more, feel more, enjoy more in one mile than the motorized tourist can in a hundred miles.
— Edward Abbey
Industrial tourism is a threat to the national parks. But the chief victims of the system are the motorized tourists.
— Edward Abbey
Men come and go, cities rise and fall, whole civilizations appear and disappear – the Earth remains, slightly modified.
— Edward Abbey
Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread.
— Edward Abbey
An economic system which can only expand or expire must be false to all that is human.
— Edward Abbey
We need wilderness whether or not we ever set foot in it.
— Edward Abbey
We need the possibility of escape as surely as we need hope.
— Edward Abbey
Famous Edward Abbey Quotes
The fear of death follows from the fear of life.
— Edward Abbey
A civilization which destroys what little remains of the wild, the spare, the original, is cutting itself off from its origins and betraying the principle of civilization itself.
— Edward Abbey
The love of wilderness is more than a hunger for what is always beyond reach.
— Edward Abbey
The best thing about graduating from university was that I finally had time to sit on a log and read a good book.
— Edward Abbey
May your rivers flow without end, meandering through pastoral valleys tinkling with bells past temples and castles and poets towers into a dark primeval forest…
— Edward Abbey
Anarchism is not a romantic fable but the hardheaded realization, based on five thousand years of experience, that we cannot entrust the management of our lives to kings, priests, politicians, generals, and county commissioners.
— Edward Abbey
I’ve never yet read a review of one of my own books that I couldn’t have written much better myself.
— Edward Abbey
There is no lack of water here unless you try to establish a city where no city should be.
— Edward Abbey
Every man, every woman, carries in heart and mind the image of the ideal place, the right place, the one true home, known or unknown, actual or visionary.
— Edward Abbey
A world without open country would be universal jail.
— Edward Abbey
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
In the first place you can’t see anything from a car, you’ve got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk, better yet crawl, on hands and knees, over the sandstone and through the thorn bush and cactus.
— Edward Abbey
I despise my own nation the most. Because I know it best. Because I still love it, suffering from Hope. For me, that’s patriotism.
— Edward Abbey
More Edward Abbey Quotes
There is science, logic, reason; there is thought verified by experience. And then there is California.
— Edward Abbey
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!
— Edward Abbey
You can’t study the darkness by flooding it with light.
— Edward Abbey
A drink a day keeps the shrink away.
— Edward Abbey
The tragedy of modern war is that the young men die fighting each other – instead of their real enemies back home in the capitals.
— Edward Abbey
When a man’s best friend is his dog, that dog has a problem.
— Edward Abbey
Civilization is a youth with a molotov cocktail in his hand. Culture is the Soviet tank or L.A. cop that guns him down.
— Edward Abbey
Anarchism is founded on the observation that since few men are wise enough to rule themselves, even fewer are wise enough to rule others.
— Edward Abbey
That which today calls itself science gives us more and more information, and indigestible glut of information, and less and less understanding.
— Edward Abbey
Taxation: how the sheep are shorn.
— Edward Abbey
Say what you like about my bloody murderous government,’ I says, ‘but don’t insult me poor bleedin’ country.
— Edward Abbey
If the end does not justify the means – what can?
— Edward Abbey
Our ‘neoconservatives’ are neither new nor conservative, but old as Bablyon and evil as Hell.
— Edward Abbey
Our culture runs on coffee and gasoline, the first often tasting like the second.
— Edward Abbey
The missionaries go forth to Christianize the savages – as if the savages weren’t dangerous enough already.
— Edward Abbey
What is the purpose of the giant sequoia tree? The purpose of the giant sequoia tree is to provide shade for the tiny titmouse.
— Edward Abbey
Climbing K2 or floating the Grand Canyon in an inner tube; there are some things one would rather have done than do.
— Edward Abbey
Belief in the supernatural reflects a failure of the imagination.
— Edward Abbey
Biography of Edward Abbey
Edward Abbey was an American author, essayist, and environmental advocate. He was born on January 29, 1927, in Indiana, Pennsylvania, to Mildred and Paul Abbey. He spent his childhood in various locations, including Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan.
Abbey attended the University of New Mexico, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy and English in 1951. He then went on to earn a Master of Arts degree in Philosophy from the same institution in 1956. After completing his studies, Abbey worked as a park ranger at Arches National Monument in Utah from 1956 to 1957.
Abbey’s most notable occupation was as a writer. He began his writing career in the 1950s, and his first book, “Jonathan Troy,” was published in 1954. He is best known for his environmental advocacy and his works that celebrate the American Southwest, including “Desert Solitaire,” “The Monkey Wrench Gang,” and “Hayduke Lives!”
Abbey was married four times in his life. His first marriage was to Jean Schmechal in 1952, and the couple had one son, Benjamin. Abbey later married Rita Deanin in 1958, with whom he had two children, Joshua and Aaron. His third marriage was to Judith Pepper in 1961, and they had one son, Adam. Abbey’s final marriage was to Clarke Cartwright in 1980.
Abbey was a prolific writer, and his works continue to be influential in the fields of environmentalism and nature writing. “Desert Solitaire,” published in 1968, is perhaps his most famous work and is considered a classic of American nature writing. “The Monkey Wrench Gang,” published in 1975, is a novel that celebrates the natural beauty of the American Southwest and inspired the formation of the environmental group Earth First!.
Abbey died on March 14, 1989, in Tucson, Arizona, at the age of 62. He is remembered for his passionate advocacy for the protection of the natural world and his contributions to American literature.
