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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
Reflect
Institutions
Bigs
Social
Nature
Human
Humans
Distort

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Great art is never perfect perfect art is never great.
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Why is it that the destruction of something created by humans is called vandalism, yet the destruction of something created by God is called development?
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Has joy any survival value in the operations of evolution? I suspect that it does I suspect that the morose and fearful are doomed to quick extinction. Where there is no joy there can be no courage and without courage all other virtues are useless.
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For women, the sexual act is a means to a higher end. For a man, it is an end in itself.
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Each thing in its way, when true to its own character, is equally beautiful. (p 41)
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In the modern world, all literary art is necessarily political -- especially that which pretends not to be.
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We need the possibility of escape as surely as we need hope.
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I have been a lucky man. But someone has to be.
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Charity should be spontaneous. Calculated altruism is an affront.
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I intend to be good for the rest of my natural life -- if I live that long.
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I've never yet read a review of one of my own books that I couldn't have written much better myself.
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Tee Vee football: one team wins, one team loses -- they tie -- who cares? And why?
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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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The love of wilderness is more than a hunger for what is always beyong 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.
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In the dog-eat-dog economy, the Doberman is boss.
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Jane Austen: Getting into her books is like getting in bed with a cadaver. Something vital is lacking namely, life.
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The very poor are strictly materialistic. It takes money to be a mystic.
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I would not sacrifice a single living mesquite tree for any book ever written. One square mile of living desert is worth a hundred 'great books' - and one brave deed is worth a thousand.
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To the question: Wilderness, who needs it? Doc would say: Because we like the taste of freedom, comrades. Because we like the smell of danger. But, thought Hayduke, what about the smell of fear, Dad?
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In a nation of sheep, one brave man forms a majority.
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