Quote

The ideal society can be described, quite simply, as that in which no man has the power of means to coerce others.

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
Mean
Ideal
Men
Ideals
Simply
Quite
Society
Means
Others
Coerce
Power
Described

More quotes by Edward Abbey

Image
The nuclear bomb took all the fun out of war.
Edward Abbey
Image
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
Image
The one thing ... that is truly ugly is the climate of hate and intimidation, created by a noisy few, which makes the decent majority reluctant to air in public their views on anything controversial. ... Where all pretend to be thinking alike, it's likely that no one is thinking at all.
Edward Abbey
Image
Girls: I never wanted them all. Just all the ones I wanted.
Edward Abbey
Image
Humans were free before the word freedom became necessary.
Edward Abbey
Image
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.
Edward Abbey
Image
The true, unacknowledged purpose of capital punishment is to inspire fear and awe -- fear and awe of the State.
Edward Abbey
Image
Balance, that's the secret. Moderate extremism. The best of both worlds.
Edward Abbey
Image
Most of what we call the classics of world literature suggest artifacts in a wax museum. We have to hire and pay professors to get them read and talked about.
Edward Abbey
Image
In the modern world, all literary art is necessarily political -- especially that which pretends not to be.
Edward Abbey
Image
It's a fool's life, a rogue's life, and a good life if you keep laughing all the way to the grave.
Edward Abbey
Image
In social institutions, the whole is always less than the sum of its parts. There will never be a state as good as its people, or a church worthy of its congregation, or a university equal to its faculty and students.
Edward Abbey
Image
Men have never loved one another much, for reasons we can readily understand: Man is not a lovable animal.
Edward Abbey
Image
I despise my own nation most. Because I know it best. Because I still love it, suffering from Hope. For me, that's patrotism.
Edward Abbey
Image
God is love? Not bloody likely.
Edward Abbey
Image
Counterpart to the knee-jerk liberal is the new knee-pad conservative, always groveling before the rich and the powerful.
Edward Abbey
Image
Opera: I like it, except for all those howling sopranos and caterwauling tenors. (Why can't tenors sing like men?)
Edward Abbey
Image
My sole literary ambition is to write one good novel, then retire to my hut in the desert, assume the lotus position, compose my mind and senses, and sink into meditation, contemplating my novel.
Edward Abbey
Image
Our contemporary Tories prefer the term 'ordered liberty' to 'freedom'. The word 'freedom' scares them it has too much of a paleolithic ring to it.
Edward Abbey
Image
It's all still there in heart and soul. The walk, the hills, the sky, the solitary pain and pleasure-they will grow larger, sweeter, lovelier in the days and years to come.
Edward Abbey