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The death penalty would be even more effective, as a deterrent, if we executed a few innocent people more often.

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
Penalties
Effective
Innocent
Often
Death
Even
Deterrent
Would
Executed
People
Penalty

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In the dog-eat-dog economy, the Doberman is boss.
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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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Humankind will not be free until the last Kremlin commissar is strangled with the entrails of the last Pentagon chief of staff.
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Belief? What do I believe in? I believe in sun. In rock. In the dogma of the sun and the doctrine of the rock. I believe in blood, fire, woman, rivers, eagles, storm, drums, flutes, banjos, and broom-tailed horses.
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If we had the power of ten Shakespeares or a dozen Mozarts, we could not produce anything half so marvelous as one ordinary human child.
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It is an author's most solemn obligation to honor truth. If the free and independent writer does not speak truth to power, who will?
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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.
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This world may be only illusion -- but it's the only illusion we've got.
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A cowboy is a farm boy in leather britches and a comical hat.
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If wilderness is outlawed, only outlaws can save wilderness.
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The gurus come from the sickliest nation on earth to tell us how to live. And we pay them for it.
Edward Abbey
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It is not the writer's task to answer questions but to question answers. To be impertinent, insolent, and, if necessary, subversive.
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This is the most beautiful place on Earth. There are many such places. Every man, every woman, carries in heart and mind the image of the ideal place, the right place, the one true home, known or unknown, actual or visionary.
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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 ideal society can be described, quite simply, as that in which no man has the power of means to coerce others.
Edward Abbey
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Wilderness begins in the human mind.
Edward Abbey
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James Joyce buried himself in his great work. _Finnegan's Wake_ is his monument and his tombstone. A dead end.
Edward Abbey
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It may be true that there are no atheists in foxholes. But you don't find many Christians there, either. Or, about as many of one as the other.
Edward Abbey
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The purpose and function of government is not to preside over change but to prevent change. By political methods when unavoidable, by violence when convenient.
Edward Abbey
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Why the critics, like a flock of ducks, always move in perfect unison: Their authority with the public depends upon an appearance of unanimous agreement. One dissenting voice would shatter the whole fragile structure.
Edward Abbey