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Our big social institutions do not reflect human nature they distort it.

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
Bigs
Social
Nature
Human
Humans
Distort
Reflect
Institutions

More quotes by Edward Abbey

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Life: another day, another dolor.
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A giant thirst is a great joy when quenched in time.
Edward Abbey
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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.
Edward Abbey
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Salome had but seven veils the artist has a thousand.
Edward Abbey
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One of the pleasant things about small town life is that everyone, whether rich or poor, liked or disliked, has some kind of a role and place in the community. I never felt that living in a city - as I once did for a couple of years.
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Literary critics, like a herd of cows or a school of fish, always face in the same direction, obeying that love for unity that every critic requires.
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The domination of nature leads to the domination of human nature.
Edward Abbey
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Heaven is home. Utopia is here. Nirvana is now.
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Critics are like ticks on a dog or tits on a motor: ornamental but dysfunctional.
Edward Abbey
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And if the computer gives you any back talk, pour some well-sugared office coffee into its evil little silicon brain.
Edward Abbey
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In marriage, the occasional catastrophic crisis is easier to manage than the daily routine.
Edward Abbey
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Hierarchical institutions are like giant bulldozers -- obedient to the whim of any fool who takes the controls.
Edward Abbey
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Balance, that's the secret. Moderate extremism. The best of both worlds.
Edward Abbey
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All dams are ugly, but the Glen Canyon Dam is sinful ugly.
Edward Abbey
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The feminists have a legitimate grievance. But so does everyone else.
Edward Abbey
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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
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How can I be so evil? It ain't easy.
Edward Abbey
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Literature, like anything else, can become a wearisome business if you make a lifetime specialty of it. A healthy, wholesome man would no more spend his entire life reading great books than he would packing cookies for Nabisco.
Edward Abbey
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We are befouling and destroying our own home, we are committing a slow but accelerating race suicide and life murder - planetary biocide. Now there is a mighty theme for a mighty book but a challenge to which no modern novelist or poet has yet responded. Where is our Melville, our Milton, our Thomas Mann when we need him most?
Edward Abbey
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Music is a savage art, a measured madness.
Edward Abbey