Quote

Men come and go, cities rise and fall, whole civilizations appear and disappear-the earth remains, slightly modified. The earth remains, and the heartbreaking beauty where there are no hearts to break....I sometimes choose to think, no doubt perversely, that man is a dream, thought an illusion, and only rock is real. Rock and sun.

Edward Abbey

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Edward Abbey
Age: 62 †
Born: 1927
Born: January 29
Died: 1989
Died: March 14
Author
Environmentalist
Essayist
Novelist
Philosopher
Screenwriter
Writer
Edward Paul Abbey
Think
Thought
Civilization
Disappear
Thinking
Earth
Choose
Rise
Come
Cities
Illusion
Perversely
Whole
Doubt
Hearts
Modified
Sometimes
Break
Rock
Civilizations
Real
Beauty
Sun
Heartbreaking
Heart
Fall
Remains
Slightly
Men
Dream
Rocks
Appear

More quotes by Edward Abbey

Image
I am delighted, one more time, by the daring of my species and the audacity of our flying machines. There is poetry and music in our technology, a beauty as touching as that of eagle, moss campion, raven or yonder limestone boulder shining under the Arctic sun.
Edward Abbey
Image
The best thing about graduating from the university was that I finally had time to sit on a log and read a good book.
Edward Abbey
Image
The death penalty would be even more effective, as a deterrent, if we executed a few innocent people more often.
Edward Abbey
Image
The artist in our time has two chief responsibilities: (1) art and (2) sedition.
Edward Abbey
Image
Some people write to please, to soothe, to console. Others to provoke, to challenge, to exasperate and infuriate. I've always found the second approach the more pleasing.
Edward Abbey
Image
The ever-rising cost of living: Someday soon, the corporate technicians will be locking meters on our noses and charging us a royalty on the air we breathe.
Edward Abbey
Image
Proust again: One can only wish that a man with such powers of total recall had led a less tedious life, moved among somewhat livelier circles.
Edward Abbey
Image
Why do I write? I write to entertain my friends and to exasperate our enemies. To unfold the folded lie, to record to truth of our time, and, of course, to promote esthetic bliss.
Edward Abbey
Image
I must confess that I know nothing whatsoever about true underlying reality, never having met any.
Edward Abbey
Image
A world without open country would be universal jail.
Edward Abbey
Image
I wait. Now the night flows back, the mighty stillness embraces and includes me I can see the stars again and the world of starlight. I am twenty miles or more from the nearest fellow human, but instead of loneliness I feel loveliness. Loveliness and a quiet exultation.
Edward Abbey
Image
Liberty cannot be guaranteed by law. Nor by any thing else except the resolution of free citizens to defend their liberties.
Edward Abbey
Image
The tank, the B-52, the fighter-bomber, the state-controlled police and military are the weapons of dictatorship. The rifle is the weapon of democracy. Not for nothing was the revolver called an equalizer.
Edward Abbey
Image
A good philosopher is one who does not take ideas seriously.
Edward Abbey
Image
I am hopeful, though not full of hope, and the only reason I don't believe in happy endings is because I don't believe in endings.
Edward Abbey
Image
Reincarnation? There is such a thing. What could be more Mozartian than the Nutcracker Suite?
Edward Abbey
Image
Suicide: Don't knock it if you ain't tried it.
Edward Abbey
Image
Come with me, the river said, close your eyes and quiet your limbs and float with me into the wonder and mystery of the canyons, see the unknown and the little known, look upon the stone gods face to face, see Medusa, drink my waters, hear my song, feel my power, come along and drift with me toward the distant, ultimate and legendary sea.
Edward Abbey
Image
Nothing can excel a few days in jail for giving a young man or woman a quick education in the basis of industrial society.
Edward Abbey
Image
A society that feels itself too poor to afford the preservation of wilderness is not worthy of the name civilization.
Edward Abbey