Quote

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

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Edward Abbey
Age: 62 †
Born: 1927
Born: January 29
Died: 1989
Died: March 14
Author
Environmentalist
Essayist
Novelist
Philosopher
Screenwriter
Writer
Edward Paul Abbey
Environment
Spontaneous
Preferences
Free
Sunshine
Blossoming
Black
Flowers
Greenhouses
Long
Wild
Thumb
Plant
Thumbs
Flower
Bricks
Among
Preference
Hold
Grandchildren
Potted

More quotes by Edward Abbey

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What is the purpose of the giant sequoia tree? The purpose of the giant sequoia tree is to provide shade for the tiny titmouse.
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Any hack can safely rail away at foreign powers beyond the sea but a good writer is a critic of the society he lives in.
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Whatever we cannot easily understand we call God this saves much wear and tear on the brain tissues.
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A true libertarian supports free enterprise, opposes big business supports local self-government, opposes the nation-state supports the National Rifle Association, opposes the Pentagon.
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The earth is real. Only a fool, milking his cow, denies the cow's reality.
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There has never yet been a human society worthy of the name of civilization. Civilization remains a remote ideal.
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You can't belay a man who's falling in love.
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I am happy to be a regional writer. My region is the American West, old Mexico, West Virginia, New York, Europe, Australia, the human heart, and the male groin.
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I have found through trial and error that I work best under duress. In fact I work only under duress.
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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.
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In America, as elsewhere, the general irritability level keeps rising.
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Civilization is a youth with a molotov cocktail in his hand. Culture is the Soviet tank or L.A. cop that guns him down.
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The great question of life is not the question of death but the question of life. Fear of death shames us all.
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The hawk's cry is as sharp as its beak.
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Each thing in its way, when true to its own character, is equally beautiful. (p 41)
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Why can't we simply borrow what is useful to us from Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, especially Zen, as we borrow from Christianity, science, American Indian traditions and world literature in general, including philosophy, and let the rest go hang? Borrow what we need but rely principally upon our own senses, common sense and daily living experience.
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A society that feels itself too poor to afford the preservation of wilderness is not worthy of the name civilization.
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Might does not make right but it sure makes what is.
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I would give ten years off the beginning of my life to see, only once, Tyrannosaurus rex come rearing up from the elms of Central Park, a Morgan police horse screaming in its jaws. We can never have enough of nature.
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There comes a time in the life of us all when we must lay aside our books or put down our tools and leave our place of work and walk forth on the road to meet the enemy face-to-face. Once and for all and at last
Edward Abbey