Quote

Any hack can safely rail away at foreign powers beyond the sea but a good writer is a critic of the society he lives in.

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
Critics
Sea
Hack
Beyond
Hacks
Writer
Rail
Society
Safely
Lives
Critic
Away
Powers
Good
Foreign

More quotes by Edward Abbey

Image
Every important change in our society, for the good, at least, has taken place because of popular pressure-pressure from below, from the great mass of people.
Edward Abbey
Image
Congress is always willing to appropriate money for more and bigger paved roads, anywhere -- particularly if they form loops.
Edward Abbey
Image
The rich can buy everything but health, virtue, friendship, wit, good looks, love, pride, intelligence, grace, and, if you need it, happiness.
Edward Abbey
Image
Once upon a time, I dreamed of becoming a great man. Later, a good man. Now, finally, I find it difficult enough and honor enough to be -- a man.
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
When the philosopher's argument becomes tedious, complicated, and opaque, it is usually a sign that he is attempting to prove as true to the intellect what is plainly false to common sense.
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 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
Power is always dangerous. Power attracts the worst and corrupts the best.
Edward Abbey
Image
The great question of life is not the question of death but the question of life. Fear of death shames us all.
Edward Abbey
Image
The most striking thing about the rich is the gracious democracy of their manners -- and the crude vulgarity of their way of life.
Edward Abbey
Image
I know my own nation best. That's why I despise it the most. And know and love my own people, too, the swine. I'm a patriot. A dangerous man.
Edward Abbey
Image
Simply because humankind have the power now to meddle or 'manage' or 'exercise stewardship' in every nook and cranny of the world does not mean that we have a right to do so. Even less, the obligation.
Edward Abbey
Image
There are no vacant lots in nature.
Edward Abbey
Image
In writing, fidelity to fact leads eventually to the poetry of truth.
Edward Abbey
Image
A crude meal, no doubt, but the best of all sauces is hunger.
Edward Abbey
Image
Simplicity is always a virtue.
Edward Abbey
Image
In the modern world, all literary art is necessarily political -- especially that which pretends not to be.
Edward Abbey
Image
The nuclear bomb took all the fun out of war.
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