Quote

My notion of a great novel is something like a five-hundred-page shaggy-dog story, with only the punch line omitted.

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
Story
Notion
Stories
Pages
Great
Dog
Something
Line
Like
Hundred
Shaggy
Novel
Omitted
Lines
Punch
Five
Page

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You can't study the darkness by flooding it with light.
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Be loyal to what you love, be true to the earth, fight your enemies with passion and laughter.
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Opera: I like it, except for all those howling sopranos and caterwauling tenors. (Why can't tenors sing like men?)
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Anywhere, anytime, I'd sacrifice the finest nuance for a laugh, the most elegant trope for a smile.
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What our economists call a depressed area almost always turns out to be a cleaner, freer, more livable place than most.
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A life without tragedy would not be worth living.
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What did Jesus say to the headwaiter at the Last Supper? 'Separate checks, please.'
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That which today calls itself science gives us more and more information, and indigestible glut of information, and less and less understanding.
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I would prefer to write about everything what else is there? But one must be selective.
Edward Abbey
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The death penalty would be even more effective, as a deterrent, if we executed a few innocent people more often.
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For myself I hold no preferences among flowers, so long as they are wild, free, spontaneous. Bricks to all greenhouses! Black thumb and cutworm to the potted plant!
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Walking takes longer... than any other known form of locomotion except crawling. Thus it stretches time and prolongs life. Life is already too short to waste on speed.
Edward Abbey
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Government: If you refuse to pay unjust taxes, your property will be confiscated. If you attempt to defend your property, you will be arrested. If you resist arrest, you will be clubbed. If you defend yourself against clubbing, you will be shot dead. These procedures are known as the Rule of Law.
Edward Abbey
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Baseball serves as a good model for democracy in action: Every player is equally important and each has a chance to be a hero.
Edward Abbey
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There's nothing so obscene and depressing as an American Christmas.
Edward Abbey
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In the dog-eat-dog economy, the Doberman is boss.
Edward Abbey
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In the end, for all our differences and conflicts, most women and men share the same food, work, shelter, bed, life, joy, anguish, and fate. We need each other.
Edward Abbey
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There is beauty, heartbreaking beauty, everywhere.
Edward Abbey
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Poor Dimitri Shostakovich: In the Soviet Union, he was condemned as being too radical in the West, for being too conservative. He could please no one but the musical public. He revenged himself on both by writing a short piece called 'March of the Soviet Police.'
Edward Abbey
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Life is hard? True - but let's love it anyhow, though it breaks every bone in our bodies.
Edward Abbey