At some point we must draw a line across the ground of our home and our being, drive a spear into the land and say to the bulldozers, earthmovers, government and corporations, “thus far and no further.” If we do not, we shall later feel, instead of pride, the regret of Thoreau, that good but overly-bookish man, who wrote, near the end of his life, “If I repent of anything it is likely to be my good behaviour.
– Edward Abbey
The most common form of terrorism in the U.S.A. is that carried on by bulldozers and chain saws.
– Edward Abbey
The plow has probably done more harm – in the long run – than the sword.
– Edward Abbey
The real work of men was hunting meat. The invention of agriculture was a giant step in the wrong direction, leading to serfdom, cities, and empire. From a race of hunters, artists, warriors, and tamers of horses, we degraded ourselves to what we are now: clerks, functionaries, laborers, entertainers, processors of information.
– Edward Abbey
The rancher strings barbed wire across the range, drills wells and bulldozes stock ponds everywhere, drives off the elk and antelope and bighorn sheep, poisons coyotes and prairie dogs, shoots eagle and bear and cougar on sight, supplants the native bluestem and grama grass with tumbleweed, cow shit, cheat grass, snakeweed, anthills, poverty weed, mud and dust and flies – and then leans back and smiles broadly at the Tee Vee cameras and tells us how much he loves the West.
– Edward Abbey
The idea of wilderness needs no defense, it only needs defenders.
– Edward Abbey
If wilderness is outlawed, only outlaws can save wilderness.
– Edward Abbey
When a man’s best friend is his dog, that dog has a problem.
– Edward Abbey
I’m in favor of animal liberation. Why? Because I’m an animal.
– Edward Abbey
From the point of view of a tapeworm, man was created by God to serve the appetite of the tapeworm.
– Edward Abbey
Anarchism is not a romantic fable but the hardheaded realization, based on five thousand years of experience, that we cannot entrust the management of our lives to kings, priests, politicians, generals, and county commissioners.
– Edward Abbey
The ideal society can be described, quite simply, as that in which no man has the power of means to coerce others.
– Edward Abbey
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
The industrial corporation is the natural enemy of nature.
– Edward Abbey
In social affairs, I’m an optimist. I really do believe that our military-industrial civilization will soon collapse.
– Edward Abbey
We live in a society in which it is normal to be sick; and sick to be abnormal.
– Edward Abbey
Science is the whore of industry and the handmaiden of war.
– Edward Abbey
The mad scientist was once only a creature of gothic romance; now he is everywhere, busy torturing atoms and animals in his laboratory.
– Edward Abbey
Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul. One brave deed is worth a thousand books.
– Edward Abbey
Freedom begins between the ears.
– Edward Abbey
Truth is always the enemy of power. And power the enemy of truth.
– Edward Abbey
The artist in our time has two chief responsibilities: (1) art; and (2) sedition.
– Edward Abbey
The rebel is doomed to a violent death. The rest of us can look forward to sedated expiration in a coma inside an oxygen tent, with tubes inserted in every bodily orifice.
– Edward Abbey
Better a cruel truth than a comfortable delusion.
– Edward Abbey
Beware of the man who has no enemies.
– Edward Abbey
The greater your dreams, the more terrible your nightmares.
– Edward Abbey
Life is too short for grief. Or regret. Or bullshit.
– Edward Abbey
“The ideal society can be described, quite simply, as that in which no man has the power of means to coerce others.
– Edward Abbey”
Or maybe a quote from Stalin?:)
BIT OF HISTORY
In ancient Athens, popular and increasingly powerful citizens were ostracized (banished, thrown out of the city walls, forced to immigration) from the city for five or ten years by popular vote. This is not a joke. Great men who fought in defense of Athens or shaped ”greek history” died in exile because they were ostracized due to their popularity and fear of becoming tyrants.
Few Names include some notable figures:
– Thucydides, charismatic statesman (not really a threat, they just had to take him out of the way so that the other political fraction can act freely)
– Themistocles, one of the greatest athenian politicians and army generals. (Wikipedia ”As a politician, Themistocles was a populist, having the support of lower class Athenians, and generally being at odds with the Athenian nobility.”). Died in exile pursued to death by Greeks everywhere (not just Athenians) and into the grip of the enemies he had defeated previously (Persians) in service to Athenian Republic.
– Aristides, army leader and rival of Themistocles, ostracized for 3 years cause of the sheer rivalry issue with Themistocles and not because he was becoming popular. In the end he was called back for military service to Themistocles which he was more than happy to offer:)
– Megacles, non-important and non-popular, ostracized nevertheless…propably slander victim (not the first not the last). This guy was praised by Pindar the Poet ;/
From all these the one that is really sad is Themistocles, who today is considered mega-example of politician and army general alike and to him is attributed a lot of things like saving Europe (Greece at the time) from Persian invasion and occupation that would alter history of the west etc.
This shows that the quote above is like communism, perfect in theory, nasty in practice…
I admit Abbey’s politics were problematic, but these are meant to showcase some gems of wisdom, not endorse his problematic political views, his anarchism aside. But you skip over the institutional achievements of Athenian direct democracy to toe other ancient Greeks to Stalin, and this somehow to Abbey and to a denunication of all communism? You overlook the entire history of direct democracy, popular assemblage, paedia for the training of individuals to be excellent citisens, free medieval cities, autonomous workers; associations, the Paris Commune, American town hall meetings, the early days of the Soviet councils, and othersignificant moments of democracy, community, and mutual aid. The strong of connections are bizarre, your argument is not clear, its not transparent what you are against or for, and how Abbey triggered all this, and why reduce his many insights and contributions to the radical ecology movement to Stalinism and a surrealistic rendering of ancient society. This is ad hominem and reductio ad absurdem to the highest order, And none of it changes my appreciation for his many insights and bon mots, however reactionary, sexist, or xenophobic his politics in many ways was,
Very well stated and thank you for the page.