Quote

Running the big rapids is like sex: half the fun lies in the anticipation. Two thirds of the thrill with the approach. The remainder is only ecstasy-or darkness.

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
Fun
Anticipation
Lying
Thrill
Half
Ecstasy
Bigs
Thirds
Running
Sex
Two
Lies
Like
Approach
Remainder
Darkness
Rapids

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All governments need enemies. How else to justify their existence?
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I am hopeful, though not full of hope, and the only reason I don't believe in happy endings is because I don't believe in endings.
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I would prefer to write about everything what else is there? But one must be selective.
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I hate intellectual discussion. When I hear the words 'phenomenology' or 'structuralism', I reach for my buck knife.
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Mozart, striving for perfection, wrote the same symphony forty-one times. In his case, it worked. He wrote a perfect symphony.
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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.
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It is not enough to understand the natural world the point is to defend and preserve it.
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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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The result of this bestial lust is an indiscriminate and promiscuous splaying of all of my energies- wanting all, I accomplish nothing desiring everything, I satisfy nothing and am satisfied by nothing.
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Suicide: Don't knock it if you ain't tried it.
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I have written much about many good places. But the best places of all, I have never mentioned.
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Anarchism is founded on the observation that since few men are wise enough to rule themselves, even fewer are wise enough to rule others.
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Life is too short for grief. Or regret. Or bullshit.
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Pure science is a myth: Both mathematical theoreticians like Albert Einstein and practical crackpots like Henry Ford dealt with different aspects of the same world.
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When a writer has done the best that he can do, he should then withdraw from the book-writing business and take up an honest trade like shoe repair, cattle stealing, or screwworm management.
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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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Without courage, all other virtues are useless.
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It is not death or dying that is tragic, but rather to have existed without fully participating in life- that is the deepest personal tragedy.
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All governments require enemy governments.
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Grown men do not need leaders.
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