Quote

The tragic sense of life: our heroic acceptance of the suffering of 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
Suffering
Sense
Others
Life
Heroic
Tragic
Acceptance

More quotes by Edward Abbey

Image
In America, as elsewhere, the general irritability level keeps rising.
Edward Abbey
Image
Tofu and futons. The adepts of Orientalism seem to spend most of their lives reclining. They can't quite summon the energy to crawl up onto a chair. Even their Yogic exercises are carried out in a prone or sitting position.
Edward Abbey
Image
I have written much about many good places. But the best places of all, I have never mentioned.
Edward Abbey
Image
Why can't we simply borrow what is useful to us from Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, especially Zen, as we borrow from Christianity, science, American Indian traditions and world literature in general, including philosophy, and let the rest go hang? Borrow what we need but rely principally upon our own senses, common sense and daily living experience.
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
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
Little boys love machines girls adore horses grown-up men and women like to walk.
Edward Abbey
Image
Indolence and melancholy: Each generates the other. If one can speak of such feeble passions as generating anything.
Edward Abbey
Image
My computer tells me that in twenty-five years there will be no more computers.
Edward Abbey
Image
What is the purpose of the giant sequoia tree? The purpose of the giant sequoia tree is to provide shade for the tiny titmouse.
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
One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain't nothing can beat teamwork.
Edward Abbey
Image
But of the seven deadly sins, wrath is the healthiest - next only to lust.
Edward Abbey
Image
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
Image
I’m tired of doing what I don’t want to do to live the way I don’t want to live.
Edward Abbey
Image
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
Image
In the dog-eat-dog economy, the Doberman is boss.
Edward Abbey
Image
We are slaves in the sense that we depend for our daily survival upon an expand-or-expire agro-industrial empire—a crackpot machine—that the specialists cannot comprehend and the managers cannot manage. Which is, furthermore, devouring world resources at an exponential rate. We are, most of us, dependent employees. …Edward Abbey (1927-1989)
Edward Abbey
Image
Guns don't kill people people kill people. Of course, people with guns kill more people. But that's only natural. It's hard. But it's fair.
Edward Abbey
Image
My Aunt Ida at age eighty-three: 'Yeah,' she said, 'I'll be dead pretty soon. And frankly, I don't give a damn.'
Edward Abbey