Background Image
I Am Delighted, One More Time, By The Daring Of My Species And The Audacity Of Our Flying Machines. There Is Poetry And Music In Our Technology, A Beauty As Touching As That Of Eagle, Moss Campion, Raven Or Yonder Limestone Boulder Shining Under The Arctic Sun.
-Edward Abbey
Please Wait....
Translating....

I Am Delighted, One

Edward Abbey
I Am Delighted, One More Time, By The Daring Of My Species And The Audacity Of Our Flying Machines. There Is Poetry And Music In Our Technology, A Beauty As Touching As That Of Eagle, Moss Campion, Raven Or Yonder Limestone Boulder Shining Under The Arctic Sun.
Views: 85209
Topic
Technology
Eagles
Ravens
More From Edward Abbey
Little Boys Love Machines; Girls Adore Horses; Grown-up Men And Women Like To Walk.
Girl
Horse
Boys
Jack Kerouac, Like A Sick Refrigerator, Worked Too Hard At Keeping Cool And Died On His Mama's Lap From Alcohol And Infantilism.
Sick
Alcohol
Mama
All Forms Of Government Are Pernicious, Including Good Government.
Government
Liberty
Form
One Can Imagine A Sane, Healthy, Cheerful Human Society Based On No More Than The Principles Of Common Sense, As Validated Each Day By Work, Play, And Living Experience. But This Remains The Most Utopian And Fantastic Of Ideals.
Play
Common Sense
Healthy
In Social Institutions, The Whole Is Always Less Than The Sum Of Its Parts. There Will Never Be A State As Good As Its People, Or A Church Worthy Of Its Congregation, Or A University Equal To Its Faculty And Students.
People
Church
Students
Music Endures And Ages Far Better Than Books. Books, Made Of Words, Are Unavoidably Attached To Ideas, Events, Conflict, And History, But Music Has The Power To Transcend Time. At Least For A Time. Palestrina Sounds As Fresh Today As He Did In 1555, But Dante, Only Three Centuries Older, Already Smells Of The Archaic, The Medieval, The Catacombs.
Book
Ideas
Smell
Sentiment Without Action Is The Ruin Of The Soul.
Inspiring
Peace
Diversity
Women Truly Are Better Than Men. Otherwise, They'd Be Intolerable.
Men
You Cannot Reshape Human Nature Without Mutilating Human Beings.
Human Nature
Humans
Human Beings
Original Sin, The True Original Sin, Is The Blind Destruction For The Sake Of Greed Of This Natural Paradise Which Lies All Around Us-if Only We Were Worthy Of It.
Lying
Greed
Paradise
A Drink A Day Keeps The Shrink Away.
Drinking
Beer
Drunk
Women Who Love Only Women May Have A Good Point.
May
The Industrial Way Of Life Leads To The Industrial Way Of Death. From Shiloh To Dachau, From Antietam To Stalingrad, From Hiroshima To Vietnam And Afghanistan, The Great Specialty Of Industry And Technology Has Been The Mass Production Of Human Corpses.
War
Technology
Dachau
The Extreme Clarity Of The Desert Light Is Equaled By The Extreme Individuation Of Desert Life Forms. Love Flowers Best In Openness And Freedom.
Flower
Light
Desert
Recorded History Is Largely An Account Of The Crimes And Disasters Committed By Banal Little Men At The Levers Of Imperial Machines.
Men
Machines
Levers
The Consolation Of Reading Biography: Most Great Men Have Led Lives Even More Miserable Than Our Own.
Reading
Men
Biographies
One Single Act Of Defiance Against Power, Against The State That Seems Omnipotent But Is Not, Transforms And Transfigures The Human Personality. At Least For A Time. For A While. Perhaps That Is Enough.
Personality
Enough
States
May Your Trails Be Crooked, Winding, Lonesome, Dangerous, Leading To The Most Amazing View. May Your Mountains Rise Into And Above The Clouds.
Inspirational
Nature
Adventure
A City Man Is A Home Anywhere, For All Big Cities Are Much Alike. But A Country Man Has A Place Where He Belongs, Where He Always Returns, And Where, When The Time Comes, He Is Willing To Die.
Country
Home
Men
Trout Fishing. One Must Be A Stickler For Proper Form. Use Nothing But #4 Blasting Caps, Or A Hand Grenade, If Handy, Or At A Pool Well-lined With Stone, One Blast From A .44 Magnum Will Bring A Few Stunned Brookies Quietly To The Surface.
Lakes
Hands
Sea
In The Dog-eat-dog Economy, The Doberman Is Boss.
Funny
Dog
Boss
The Sense Of Justice Springs From Self-respect; Both Are Coeval With Our Birth. Children Are Born With An Innate Sense Of Justice; It Usually Takes Twelve Years Of Public Schooling And Four More Years Of College To Beat It Out Of Them.
Children
Spring
College
Nature Is Indifferent To Our Love, But Never Unfaithful.
Nature
Our Love
Unfaithful
In The Soviet Union, Government Controls Industry. In The United States, Industry Controls Government. That Is The Principal Structural Difference Between The Two Great Oligarchies Of Our Time.
Government
Two
Differences
The Longest Journey Begins With A Single Step, Not With A Turn Of The Ignition Key.
Journey
Keys
Hiking
John Updike: Our Greatest Suburban Chic-boutique Man Of Letters. A Smug And Fatal Complacency Has Stunted His Growth Beyond Hope Of Surgical Repair. Not Enough Passion In His Collected Works To Generate Steam In A Beer Can. Nevertheless, He Is Considered By Some Critics To Be America's Finest *living* Author: Hold A Chilled Mirror To His Lips And You Will See, Presently, A Fine And Dewy Moisture Condensing -- Like A Faery Breath! -- Upon The Glass.
Passion
Beer
Men
I Must Confess That I Know Nothing Whatsoever About True Underlying Reality, Never Having Met Any.
Reality
Mets
Knows
Fence Straddlers Have No Balls. In Compensation, However, They Enjoy A Comfortable Seat And Can Retreat Swiftly, When Danger Threatens, To Either Side Of The Fence. There Is Something To Be Said For Every Position.
Balls
Retreat
Sides
The Purpose Of Love, Sex, And Marriage Is The Production And Raising Of Children. But Look About You: Most People Have No Business Having Children. They Are Unqualified, Either Genetically Or Culturally Or Both, To Reproduce Such Sorry Specimens As Themselves. Of All Our Privileges, The License To Breed Is The One Most Grossly Abused.
Sex
Children
Sorry
No Man Is Wise Enough To Be Another Man's Master. Each Man's As Good As The Next -- If Not A Damn Sight Better.
Wise
Men
Sight
Baseball Serves As A Good Model For Democracy In Action: Every Player Is Equally Important And Each Has A Chance To Be A Hero.
Baseball
Hero
Player
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.
Mean
Exercise
Doe
Man's Deliberate Destruction Of His Own Habitat -- Planet Earth -- Could Serve As A Mighty Theme For A Mighty Book Worthy Of A Modern Melville Or Tolstoy. But Our Best Fictioneers Confine Themselves To Domestic Drama -- Soap Opera With Literary Trimmings.
Drama
Book
Men
Writing On The Wall: Will Trade Three Blind Crabs For Two With No Teeth.
Wall
Writing
Two
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.
Sea
Critics
Rail
Girls, Like Flowers, Bloom But Once. But Once Is Enough.
Girl
Flower
Enough
Every Man Has Two Vocations: His Own And Philosophy.
Philosophy
Men
Two
I Would Give Ten Years Off The Beginning Of My Life To See, Only Once, Tyrannosaurus Rex Come Rearing Up From The Elms Of Central Park, A Morgan Police Horse Screaming In Its Jaws. We Can Never Have Enough Of Nature.
Horse
Central Park
Years
Life Imitates Art -- But Badly.
Art
Our Modern Industrial Economy Takes A Mountain Covered With Trees, Lakes, Running Streams And Transforms It Into A Mountain Of Junk, Garbage, Slime Pits, And Debris.
Running
Lakes
Tree
Baseball Is A Slow, Sluggish Game, With Frequent And Trivial Interruptions, Offering The Spectator Many Opportunities To Reflect At Leisure Upon The Situation On The Field: This Is What A Fan Loves Most About The Game
Baseball
Opportunity
Games
One Man Alone Can Be Pretty Dumb Sometimes, But For Real Bona Fide Stupidity, There Ain't Nothing Can Beat Teamwork.
Teamwork
Stupid
Real
God Is Love? Not Bloody Likely.
God Is Love
Bloody
There Are Some Good Things To Be Said About Walking. Not Many, But Some. Walking Takes Longer, For Example, 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. I Have A Friend Who's Always In A Hurry; He Never Gets Anywhere. Walking Makes The World Much Bigger And Thus More Interesting. You Have Time To Observe The Details. The Utopian Technologists Foresee A Future For Us In Which Distance Is Annihilated... To Be Everywhere At Once Is To Be Nowhere Forever, If You Ask Me.
Distance
Interesting
Forever
Humans Were Free Before The Word Freedom Became Necessary.
Humans
Let Us Hope Our Weapons Are Never Needed - But Do Not Forget What The Common People Of This Nation Knew When They Demanded The Bill Of Rights: An Armed Citizenry Is The First Defense, The Best Defense, And The Final Defense Against Tyranny.
Military
Gun
Rights
As War And Government Prove, Insanity Is The Most Contagious Of Diseases.
War
Government
Insanity
A Good Writer Must Have More Than Vin Rosé In His Veins, Use More Than Chablis For Ink.
Rose
Ink
Use
It Will Be Objected That A Constantly Increasing Population Makes Resistance And Conservation A Hopeless Battle. This Is True. Unless A Way Is Found To Stabilize The Nation's Population, The Parks Can Not Be Saved. Or Anything Else Worth A Damn. Wilderness Preservation, Like A Hundred Other Good Causes, Will Be Forgotten Under The Overwhelming Pressure Of A Struggle For Mere Survival And Sanity In A Completely Urbanized, Completely Industrialized, Ever More Crowded Environment. For My Own Part I Would Rather Take My Chances In A Thermonuclear War Than Live In Such A World.
War
Struggle
Survival
We Are Kindred All Of Us, Killer And Victim, Predator And Prey, Me And The Sly Coyote, The Soaring Buzzard, The Elegant Gopher Snake, And Trembling Cottontail, The Foul Worms That Feed On Our Entrails; All Of Them, All Of Us. Long Live Diversity, Long Live The Earth!
Journey
Snakes
Hiking
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)
Survival
Machines
World
When The Situation Is Desperate, It Is Too Late To Be Serious. Be Playful.
Serious
Too Late
Desperate
The "terror" Of The French Revolution Lasted For Ten Years. The Terror That Preceded And Led To It Lasted For A Thousand Years.
Positive
Years
Atheism
All Serious Writers Want The Obvious Rewards: Fame, Money, Women, Love -- And Most Of All, An Audience!
Want
Rewards
Serious
In A Nation Of Sheep, One Brave Man Forms A Majority.
Men
Sheep
Brave
The Missionaries Go Forth To Christianize The Savages - As If The Savages Weren't Dangerous Enough Already.
Enough Already
Missionary
Savages
If There's Anyone Still Present Whom I've Failed To Insult . . . I Apologize.
Apologizing
Insult
I Apologize
Going To Bed With Gertrude Stein, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Susan Sontag, Or Margaret Thatcher: There Are Some Things One Prefers Neither To Do Nor To Have Done.
Bed
Gertrude
Done
The Developers And Entrepreneurs Must Somehow Be Taught A New Vocabulary Of Values.
Vocabulary
Entrepreneur
Taught
If America Could Be, Once Again, A Nation Of Self-reliant Farmers, Craftsmen, Hunters, Ranchers, And Artists, Then The Rich Would Have Little Power To Dominate Others. Neither To Serve Nor To Rule: That Was The American Dream.
Dream
Artist
Self
I’m Tired Of Doing What I Don’t Want To Do To Live The Way I Don’t Want To Live.
Tired
Want
Way
As Between The Skulking And Furtive Poacher, Who Hunts For The Sake Of Meat, And The Honest Gentleman Shooter, Who Kills For The Pleasure Of Sport, I Find The Former A Higher Type Of Humanity.
Sports
Humanity
Gentleman
Desire, Said The Buddha, Is The Cause Of Suffering. But Without Desire, What Delight?
Suffering
Desire
Delight
Scientific Method: There's A Madness In The Method.
Scientific Method
Madness
Method
The Function Of An Ideal Is Not To Be Realized But, Like That Of The North Star, To Serve As A Guiding Point.
Stars
Function
North Star
The One Great Gift To Humankind From Our Nuclear Physicists Has Been The Nuclear Bomb. How Can We Ever Thank Them?
Nuclear
Bombs
Physicist
In The World Of Words, One Of My Best-loved Tribes Is The Diatribe.
World
Tribes
The Gurus Come From The Sickliest Nation On Earth To Tell Us How To Live. And We Pay Them For It.
Knowledge
Earth
Pay
Terrorism: Deadly Violence Against Humans And Other Living Things, Usually Conducted By Government Against Its Own People.
Government
People
Violence
As A Confirmed Melancholic, I Can Testify That The Best And Maybe Only Antidote For Melancholia Is Action. However, Like Most Melancholics, I Suffer Also From Sloth.
Sloth
Suffering
Action
Preacher To Me: 'a Dollar For The Lord, Brother?' Me To Preacher: 'that's All Right, I'm Headed His Way. I'll Give It To Him When I See Him.'
Brother
Giving
Dollars
And If The Computer Gives You Any Back Talk, Pour Some Well-sugared Office Coffee Into Its Evil Little Silicon Brain.
Coffee
Evil
Giving
Vaughan Telecom Installers And Contractors Ensure The Highest Quality Service For Data And Network Cabling In Toronto And Gta Area.
Photography
Data
Quality
You Can't Belay A Man Who's Falling In Love.
Falling In Love
Fall
Men
So I Write Mainly For The Fun Of It, The Hell Of It, The Duty Of It. I Enjoy Writing And Will Probably Be A Scribbler On My Dying Day, Sprawled On Some Stony Trail Halfway Between Two Dry Waterholes.
Fun
Writing
Two
I Suppose Each Of Us Has His Own Fantasy Of How He Wants To Die. I Would Like To Go Out In A Blaze Of Glory, Myself, Or Maybe Simply Disappear Someday, Far Out In The Heart Of The Wilderness I Love, All By Myself, Alone With The Universe And Whatever God May Happen To Be Looking On. Disappear - And Never Return. That's My Fantasy.
Heart
May
Want
Suicide: Don't Knock It If You Ain't Tried It.
Suicide
Ifs
I Understand And Sympathize With The Reasonable Needs Of A Reasonable Number Of People On A Finite Continent. All Life Depends Upon Other Life. But What Is Happening Today, In North America, Is Not Rational Use But Irrational Massacre. Man The Pest, Multiplied To The Swarming Stage, Is Attacking The Remaining Forests Like A Plague Of Locusts On A Field Of Grain.
Men
Numbers
America
Whenever I See A Photograph Of Some Sportsman Grinning Over His Kill, I Am Always Impressed By The Striking Moral And Esthetic Superiority Of The Dead Animal To The Live One.
Animal
Hunting
Moral
Abolition Of A Woman's Right To Abortion, When And If She Wants It, Amounts To Compulsory Maternity: A Form Of Rape By The State.
Pro Life
Abortion
Want
The Most Common Form Of Terrorism In The U.s.a. Is That Carried On By Bulldozers And Chain Saws.
Saws
Common
Terrorism
In Everything But Brains And Brawn, Women Are Vastly Superior To Men. A Different Race.
Men
Race
Brain
Wealth Should Come Like Manna From Heaven, Unearned And Uncalled For. Money Should Be Like Grace -- A Gift. It Is Not Worth Sweating And Scheming For.
Heaven
Grace
Wealth
Nobody Has So Many Friends That He Can Afford To Lose One.
Many Friends
Loses
One Day In Dipstick, Nebraska, Or Landfill, Oklahoma, Is Worth More To Me Than An Eternity In Dante's Plastic Paradiso, Or Yeats's Gold-plated Byzantium.
Byzantium
Oklahoma
One Day
Power Is Always Dangerous. Power Attracts The Worst And Corrupts The Best.
Power
Anarchy
Worst
All Power Rests On Hierarchy: An Army Is Nothing But A Well-organized Lynch Mob.
Army
Hierarchy
Wells
Not All Questions Can Be Answered.
All Governments Require Enemy Governments.
Government
Enemy
My Computer Tells Me That In Twenty-five Years There Will Be No More Computers.
Years
Twenties
Computer
We Can Have Wilderness Without Freedom; We Can Have Wilderness Without Human Life At All, But We Cannot Have Freedom Without Wilderness, We Cannot Have Freedom Without Leagues Of Open Space Beyond The Cities, Where Boys And Girls, Men And Women, Can Live At Least Part Of Their Lives Under No Control But Their Own Desires And Abilities, Free From Any And All Direct Administration By Their Fellow Men.
Girl
Boys
Men
The More Fantastic An Ideology Or Theology, The More Fanatic Its Adherents.
Fantastic
Theology
Ideology
Most Of Us Lead Lives Of Chaotic Improvisation From Day To Day, Bawling For Peace While Plunging Grimly Into Fresh Disorders.
Disorder
Improvisation
Chaotic
In The Afternoon I Watch The Clouds Drift Past The Bald Peak Of Mount Tukuhnikivats. (someone Has To Do It.)
Past
Clouds
Watches
We Live In The Kind Of World Where Courage Is The Most Essential Of Virtues; Without Courage, The Other Virtues Are Useless.
Essentials
Useless
World
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.
Book
Sacrifice
Squares
A Shelf Of Classics For Our Young Adults: Tolkien, Hesse, Casteneda, Kerouac, Salinger, Tom Robbins, And _the Last Whole Earth Catalog_.
Adults
Earth
Lasts
There's Another Disadvantage To The Use Of The Flashlight: Like Many Other Mechanical Gadgets It Tends To Separate A Man From The World Around Him. If I Switch It On My Eyes Adapt To It And I Can See Only The Small Pool Of Light It Makes In Front Of Me; I Am Isolated. Leaving The Flashlight In My Pocket Where It Belongs, I Remain A Part Of The Environment I Walk Through And My Vision Though Limited Has No Sharp Or Definite Boundary.
Eye
Men
Light
I'd Sooner Exchange Ideas With The Birds On Earth Than Learn To Carry On Intergalactic Communications With Some Obscure Race Of Humanoids On A Satellite Planet From The World Of Betelgeuse.
Communication
Race
Ideas
Life Without Music Would Be An Intolerable Insult.
Would Be
Insult
Life Without Music
There Has Never Yet Been A Human Society Worthy Of The Name Of Civilization. Civilization Remains A Remote Ideal.
Civilization
Names
Worthy
It May Be True That My Desk Here Is Really 'nothing But' A Transient Eddy Of Electrons In The Flux Of Universal Process. Nevertheless, I Find That It Continues To Support My Feet, My Revolver, And My Cigars All Day Long. What Happens When My Back Is Turned I Don't Know. Or Much Care. That's No Concern Of Mine.
Feet
Long
Support
I Would Prefer To Write About Everything; What Else Is There? But One Must Be Selective.
Writing
Selective
Salome Had But Seven Veils; The Artist Has A Thousand.
Artist
Veils
Seven
Come With Me, The River Said, Close Your Eyes And Quiet Your Limbs And Float With Me Into The Wonder And Mystery Of The Canyons, See The Unknown And The Little Known, Look Upon The Stone Gods Face To Face, See Medusa, Drink My Waters, Hear My Song, Feel My Power, Come Along And Drift With Me Toward The Distant, Ultimate And Legendary Sea.
Song
Eye
Sea
A Woman, As Much As A Man, Is Responsible By The Age Of Forty For The Character Of Her Face. But Women, Obeying The Biological Imperative, Strive Harder To Preserve A Youthful Appearance (the Reproductive Look) And Lose It Sooner.
Character
Men
Age
No Man-made Structure In All Of American History Has Been Hated So Much, By So Many, For So Long, With Such Good Reason, As That Glen Canyon Dam At Page, Arizona, Shithead Capital Of Coconino County.
Men
Long
Dams
One Must Be Reasonable In One's Demands On Life. For Myself, All That I Ask Is: (1) Accurate Information; (2) Coherent Knowledge; (3) Deep Understanding; (4) Infinite Loving Wisdom; (5) No More Kidney Stones, Please.
Deep Understanding
Demand
Stones
Mental Degeneracy May Be Caused By Lead Poisoning. Or By A Poor Dip In The Gene Pool.
Dip
May
Pool
But It Is A Writer's Duty To Write And Speak And Record The Truth, Always The Truth, No Matter Whom May Be Offended.
Writing
Records
May
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.
Tragedy
Dying
Tragic
Our “neoconservatives” Are Neither New Nor Conservative, But Old As Babylon And Evil As Hell.
Peace
War
Evil
The Idea Of Wilderness Needs No Defense, It Only Needs Defenders.
Ideas
Environmental
Needs
The Highest Treason, The Meanest Treason, Is To Deny The Holiness Of This Little Blue Planet On Which We Journey Through The Cold Void Of Space.
Journey
Blue
Space
Readers, Not Critics, Are The People Who Determine A Book's Eventual Fate.
Book
Fate
People
Music Clouds The Intellect But Clarifies The Heart.
Heart
Clouds
Intellect
Narrow-minded Provincialism: Sad To Say But True - I Am More Interested In The Mountain Lions Of Utah, The Wild Pigs Of Arizona, Than I Am In The Fate Of All The Arabs Of Araby, All The Wogs Of Hindustan, All The Ethiopes Of Abyssinia.
Fate
Pigs
Utah
Every Moment Is Precious. And Precarious.
Moments
Precarious
Those Who Dream Of The Joys Of Living In A Space Colony Should Live In A Space Colony.
Dream
Space
Joy
The Rich Can Buy Everything But Health, Virtue, Friendship, Wit, Good Looks, Love, Pride, Intelligence, Grace, And, If You Need It, Happiness.
Pride
Grace
Needs
The Most Striking Thing About The Rich Is The Gracious Democracy Of Their Manners -- And The Crude Vulgarity Of Their Way Of Life.
Democracy
Way
Rich
Charity Should Be Spontaneous. Calculated Altruism Is An Affront.
Charity
Spontaneous
Affront
To Meet God Or Medusa Face To Face, Even If It Means Risking Everything Human In Myself. I Dream Of A Hard And Brutal Mysticism In Which The Naked Self Merges With The Nonhuman World And Yet Somehow Survives Still Intact Individual, Separate. Paradox And Bedrock.
Dream
Mean
Self
It's True: Every Time You Kill An Elk, You're Saving Some Cow's Life.
Saving
Cows
Elk
Places: A Cold, Bleak, Lonely Day On The Rim At Muley Point, Utah. And The Heart-cracking Loveliness Of The Blood-smeared, Bitter, Incomprehensible Slaughterhouse Of A World.
Lonely
Heart
Blood
Generally Speaking, It's A Matter Of Only Mild Intellectual Interest To Me Whether The Earth Goes Around The Sun Or The Sun Goes Around The Earth. In Fact, I Don't Care A Rat's Ass Either Way.
Intellectual
Earth
Care
One Thing More Dangerous Than Getting Between A Grizzly Sow And Her Cub Is Getting Between A Businessman And A Dollar Bill.
Dollar Bills
Dollars
Cubs
Capitalism Sounds Good In Theory But It Just Doesn't Work.
Sound
Theory
Capitalism
Water, Water, Water....there Is No Shortage Of Water In The Desert But Exactly The Right Amount , A Perfect Ratio Of Water To Rock, Water To Sand, Insuring That Wide Free Open, Generous Spacing Among Plants And Animals, Homes And Towns And Cities, Which Makes The Arid West So Different From Any Other Part Of The Nation. There Is No Lack Of Water Here Unless You Try To Establish A City Where No City Should Be.
Home
Animal
Cities
If You're Never Ridden A Fast Horse At A Dead Run Across A Desert Valley At Dawn, Be Of Good Cheer: You've Only Missed Out On One Half Of Life.
Running
Horse
Cheer
Where All Think Alike There Is Little Danger Of Innovation.
Thinking
Thought Provoking
Innovation
We Live In A Time Of Twin Credulities: The Hunger For The Miraculous Combined With A Servile Awe Of Science. The Mating Of The Two Gives Us Superstition Plus Scientism -- A Mongoloid Metaphysic.
Two
Giving
Superstitions
In Marriage, The Occasional Catastrophic Crisis Is Easier To Manage Than The Daily Routine.
Routine
Easier
Occasional
Proust Again: One Can Only Wish That A Man With Such Powers Of Total Recall Had Led A Less Tedious Life, Moved Among Somewhat Livelier Circles.
Men
Circles
Wish
Truth Is Merely Common Sense, Say The Naive Realist. Really? Then Where, Precisely, Is The Location Of--a Rainbow? In The Air? In The Eye? In Between? Or Somewhere Else?
Eye
Air
Somewhere Else
I Have Found Through Trial And Error That I Work Best Under Duress. In Fact I Work Only Under Duress.
Errors
Trial And Error
Trials
Orthodoxy Is A Relaxation Of The Mind Accompanied By A Stiffening Of The Heart.
Heart
Relaxation
Mind
Three Words Remain That Can Yet Stir The Blood Of Man: The Word 'rebellion'; The Word 'revolt'; The Word 'revolution'.
Men
Blood
Three
I've Never Yet Read A Review Of One Of My Own Books That I Couldn't Have Written Much Better Myself.
Book
Reviews
My Own
Life Is Already Too Short To Waste On Speed.
Hiking
Waste
Life Is
Saving The World Is Only A Hobby. Most Of The Time I Do Nothing.
Favorite Hobby
Hobbies
World
I Don't See How Poetry Can Ever Be Easy... Real Poetry, The Thick, Dense, Intense, Complicated Stuff That Lives And Endures, Requires Blood Sweat; Blood And Sweat Are Essential Elements In Poetry As Well As Behind It.
Real
Blood
Sweat
The Only Thing Worse Than A Knee-jerk Liberal Is A Knee-pad Conservative.
Pads
Knee Jerk Reactions
Knees
Heaven Is Home. Utopia Is Here. Nirvana Is Now.
Home
Heaven
Utopia
Men Love Their Ideas More Than Their Lives. And The More Preposterous The Idea, The More Eager They Are To Die For It. And To Kill For It.
Fear
Military
War
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.
Philosophy
Buddhism
Common Sense
I Believe In Nothing That I Cannot Touch, Kiss, Embrace.... The Rest Is Only Hearsay.
Believe
Kissing
Belief
Of All The Featherless Beasts, Only Man, Chained By His Self-imposed Slavery To The Clock, Denies The Elemental Fire And Proceeds As Best He Can About His Business, Suffering Quietly, Martyr To His Madness. Much To Learn.
Men
Fire
Self
Whatever We Cannot Easily Understand We Call God; This Saves Much Wear And Tear On The Brain Tissues.
Positive
Brain
Tears
If The World Is Irrational, We Can Never Know It -- Either It Or Its Irrationality.
World
Irrational
Knows
What Good Is A Bill Of Rights That Does Not Include The Right To Play, To Wander, To Explore, The Right To Stillness And Solitude, To Discovery And Physical Freedom?
Freedom
Rights
Discovery
Industrial Tourism Is A Threat To The National Parks. But The Chief Victims Of The System Are The Motorized Tourists. They Are Being Robbed And Robbing Themselves. So Long As They Are Unwilling To Crawl Out Of Their Cars They Will Not Discover The Treasures Of The National Parks And Will Never Escape The Stress And Turmoil Of The Urban-suburban Complexes Which They Had Hoped, Presumably, To Leave Behind For A While.
Stress
Long
Car
Style: There Is Something In Too Much Verbal Felicity (as In Joyce Or Nabokov Or Borges) That Can Betray The Writer Into Technique For The Sake Of Technique.
Style
Technique
Sake
Has Joy Any Survival Value In The Operations Of Evolution? I Suspect That It Does; I Suspect That The Morose And Fearful Are Doomed To Quick Extinction. Where There Is No Joy There Can Be No Courage; And Without Courage All Other Virtues Are Useless.
Joy
Survival
Doe
A World Without Huge Regions Of Total Wilderness Would Be A Cage; A World Without Lions And Tigers And Vultures And Snakes And Elk And Bison Would Be - Will Be - A Human Zoo. A High-tech Slum.
Zoos
Snakes
Earth Day
The Rifle And Handgun Are 'equalizers' -- The Weapons Of A Democracy. Tanks And Bombers Represent Dictatorship.
Democracy
Tanks
Rifles
Most New Books Drop Immediately Into The Oblivion They So Richly Deserve.
Book
Oblivion
New Books
Chastity Is More A State Of Mind Than Of Anatomy.
Mind
States
Chastity
I Believe That There Is A Kind Of Poetry, Even A Kind Of Truth, In Simple Fact.
Simple
Facts
Kind
Man Was Created To Complete The Horse.
Horse
Men
When I Write "paradise" I Mean Not Only Apple Trees And Golden Women But Also Scorpions And Tarantulas And Flies, Rattlesnakes And Gila Monsters, Sandstorms, Volcanoes And Earthquakes, Bacteria And Bear, Cactus, Yucca, Bladderweed, Ocotillo And Mesquite, Flash Floods And Quicksand, And Yes - Disease And Death And The Rotting Of Flesh.
Mean
Writing
Disease And Death
Democracy -- Rule By The People -- Sounds Like A Fine Thing; We Should Try It Sometime In America.
America
People
Democracy
The New Age Orgy: The Flesh Was Willing But The Spirit's Weak.
Age
Flesh
Spirit
Don't Talk To Me About Other Worlds, Separate Realities, Lost Continents Or Invisible Realms -- I Know Where I Belong. Heaven Is Home. Utopia Is Here. Nirvana Is Now.
Home
Reality
Other Worlds
It Is Not Enough To Understand The Natural World; The Point Is To Defend And Preserve It.
Nature
World
Enough
The Great Question Of Life Is Not The Question Of Death But The Question Of Life. Fear Of Death Shames Us All.
Life Is
Shame
Fear Of Death
Appearance Versus Reality? Appearance Is Reality, God Damn It!
Reality
Appearance
Damn
Of Course I Litter The Public Highway. Every Chance I Get. After All, It's Not The Beer Cans That Are Ugly; It's The Highway That Is Ugly.
Beer
Ugly
Chance
Our Culture Runs On Coffee And Gasoline, The First Often Tasting Like The Second.
Running
Coffee
Second Chance
Too Many American Authors Have A Servile Streak Where Their Backbone Should Be. Where's Our Latest Nobel Laureate? More Than Likely You'll Find Him In The Rose Garden Kissing The First Lady's Foot.
Kissing
Garden
Feet
Football Is A Game For Trained Apes. That, In Fact, Is What Most Of The Players Are -- Retarded Gorillas Wearing Helmets And Uniforms. The Only Thing More Debased Is The Surrounding Mob Of Drunken Monkeys Howling The Gorillas On.
Football
Player
Games
The Dog's Life Is A Good Life, For A Dog.
Dog
Good Life
Life Is
A Writer Must Be Hard To Live With: When Not Working He Is Miserable, And When He Is Working He Is Obsessed.
Miserable
Obsessed
Hard
In This Glare Of Brilliant Emptiness, In This Arid Intensity Of Pure Heat, In The Heart Of A Weird Solitude, Great Silence And Grand Desolution, All Things Recede To Distrances Out Of Reach, Relecting Light But Impossible To Touch, Annihilating All Thought And All That Men Have Made To A Spasm Of Whirling Dust Far Out On The Golden Desert.
Heart
Men
Dust
Books Are Like Eggs -- Best When Fresh.
Book
Eggs
There Is A Wine Called Easy Days And Mellow Nights, Well-known On The Outskirts Of The Navajo Reservation. It Is An Economical Wine, Fortified With The Best Of Intentions, And I Recommend It To Every Serious Wino.
Wine
Night
Serious
Susan Sontag: What She Really Wanted, Throughout Her Career, Was To Grow Up To Be A Frenchman.
Growing Up
Careers
Grows
Anarchism Is Founded On The Observation That Since Few Men Are Wise Enough To Rule Themselves, Even Fewer Are Wise Enough To Rule Others.
Wise
Wisdom
Men
Love Flowers Best In Openness And Freedom.
Life
Flower
Flora And Fauna
Nothing Can Excel A Few Days In Jail For Giving A Young Man Or Woman A Quick Education In The Basis Of Industrial Society.
Men
Jail
Giving
It Seems Clear At Last That Our Love For The Natural World-nature-is The Only Means By Which We Can Requite God's Obvious Love For It.
Mean
Environmental
World
The Greater Your Dreams, The More Terrible Your Nightmares.
Dream
Nightmare
Terrible
We Need Wilderness Because We Are Wild Animals. Everyone Needs A Place Where He Can Go To Go Crazy In Peace. For The Terror, Freedom, And Delirium. Because We Need Brutality And Raw Adventure, Because Men And Women First Learned To Love In, Under, And All Around Trees, Because We Need For Every Pair Of Feet And Legs About Ten Leagues Of Naked Nature, Crags To Leap From, Mountains To Measure By, Deserts To Finally Die In When The Heart Fails.
Crazy
Heart
Adventure
A Man On Foot, On Horseback Or On A Bicycle Will See More, Feel More, Enjoy More In One Mile Than The Motorized Tourists Can In A Hundred Miles.
Adventure
Men
Feet
Lightning Streaks Like Gunfire Through The Clouds, Volleys Of Thunder Shake The Air.
Clouds
Air
Weather
I Despise My Own Nation Most. Because I Know It Best. Because I Still Love It, Suffering From Hope. For Me, That's Patrotism.
Suffering
Despise
Stills
I Wish To Be An Inspector Of Volcanoes. I Want To Study Cloud Formations And Memorize The Wind And Learn By Heart The Habits Of The Ponderosa Pine.
Nature
Heart
Clouds
‎"if My Decomposing Carcass Helps Nourish The Roots Of A Juniper Tree Or The Wings Of A Vulture--that Is Immortality Enough For Me. And As Much As Anyone Deserves." E.abbey
Nature
Wings
Roots
The World Exists For Its Own Sake, Not For Ours. Swallow *that* Pill!
Pills
World
Sake
Mexico: Where Life Is Cheap, Death Is Rich, And The Buzzards Are Never Unhappy.
Unhappy
Buzzards
Mexico
Wilderness Is Not A Luxury But A Necessity Of The Human Spirit.
Nature
Insperational
Hiking
Some Lives Are Tragic, Some Ridiculous. Most Are Both At Once.
Ridiculous
Tragic
I Intend To Be Good For The Rest Of My Natural Life -- If I Live That Long.
Long
Natural
Be Good
Taxation: How The Sheep Are Shorn.
Sheep
Taxation
Taxes
The World Is Full Of Burled And Gnarly Knobs On Which You Can Hang A Metaphysical System. If You Must.
Gnarly
World
Metaphysical
To Be Alive Is To Take Risks; To Be Always Safe And Secure Is Death.
Risk
Alive
Safe
If The End Does Not Justify The Means - What Can?
Mean
Doe
Ends
If You Feel That You're Not Ready To Die, Never Fear; Nature Will Give You Complete And Adequate Assistance When The Time Comes.
Giving
Adequate
Never Fear
The Love Of A Man For His Wife, His Child, Of The Land Where He Lives And Works, Is For Me The Real Meaning Of Mystical Experience.
Children
Real
Men
Saving The World Was Merely A Hobby. My *vocation* Has Been That Of Inspector Of Desert Water Holes.
Water
Hobbies
Desert
Understanding Quotes: Their Essence and Application

Quotes, or quotations, are powerful tools in communication, encapsulating ideas, emotions, and wisdom in concise expressions. They serve various purposes across different contexts, from academic writing to everyday conversation.

1. Defining Quotes

A quote is a repetition of someone else's statement or thoughts. It can be a direct replication of words spoken or written by another individual, often used to support arguments, provide evidence, or convey profound insights.


2. The Importance of Quotes

2.1. Enhancing Credibility

Incorporating quotes from authoritative sources can bolster the credibility of your work. By referencing experts or primary sources, you demonstrate thorough research and a solid foundation for your arguments.


2.2. Providing Evidence

Quotes serve as concrete evidence to support claims. In academic and professional writing, they validate points made, offering readers a basis to trust the information presented.


2.3. Conveying Emotions and Perspectives

Quotes can encapsulate emotions and perspectives succinctly. They allow writers to express complex feelings or viewpoints through the words of others, often more eloquently than paraphrasing.


3. Types of Quotes

3.1. Direct Quotes

Direct quotes involve copying the exact words from a source, enclosed in quotation marks. They are used when the original wording is significant or particularly well-expressed.


3.2. Indirect Quotes (Paraphrasing)

Indirect quotes restate the original message in your own words. While not enclosed in quotation marks, they still require proper attribution to the original source.


3.3. Block Quotes

Block quotes are lengthy direct quotations, formatted as a separate block of text. They are typically used for quotes exceeding a certain length, varying by citation style. For instance, in APA style, quotes longer than 40 words are formatted as block quotes.



4. Proper Usage of Quotes


4.1. Contextual Relevance

Ensure that the quote you choose is relevant to the topic and adds value to your content. Avoid inserting quotes solely for decorative purposes.


4.2. Integration into Your Writing

Seamlessly integrate quotes into your writing. Introduce them appropriately and follow up with analysis or commentary to connect them to your main points.


4.3. Attribution and Citation

Always attribute quotes to their original authors and provide proper citations according to the required style guide (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.).


5. Common Mistakes to Avoid


5.1. Overusing Quotes

Relying too heavily on quotes can overshadow your voice. Use them sparingly to support your arguments, not replace them.


5.2. Lack of Analysis

Presenting a quote without analysis or explanation can leave readers questioning its relevance. Always follow up with your interpretation or discussion.


5.3. Misquoting or Taking Out of Context

Ensure that quotes are accurate and not taken out of context, as this can mislead readers and undermine your credibility.



6. Quotes in Different Contexts


6.1. Academic Writing

In academic writing, quotes are used to support arguments, provide evidence, and engage with existing literature. Proper citation is crucial to avoid plagiarism.


6.2. Journalism

Journalists use quotes to provide firsthand accounts, add authenticity, and present multiple perspectives within a story.


6.3. Literature and Creative Writing

In literature, quotes can be used to convey character voices, themes, and stylistic elements. They enrich narratives and provide depth to storytelling.



7. Punctuation and Formatting


Understanding the correct punctuation and formatting of quotes is essential:


Quotation Marks: Always enclose direct quotes within quotation marks.


Punctuation Placement: In American English, periods and commas are placed inside quotation marks, while colons and semicolons are placed outside.


Block Quotes: For longer quotes, format them as block quotes without quotation marks, and indent the entire block.



8. Ethical Considerations


Ethical use of quotes involves accurate representation, proper attribution, and respect for intellectual property. Misuse can lead to plagiarism, which carries serious academic and professional consequences.

9. Tools for Managing Quotes


Utilize tools like citation generators and plagiarism checkers to manage quotes effectively. These tools help ensure proper formatting and originality in your writing.



Conclusion


Quotes are invaluable in enriching content, providing evidence, and conveying complex ideas succinctly. When used appropriately, they enhance the quality and credibility of your writing. Always ensure relevance, proper integration, and ethical usage to maximize their impact.


Trending Author
H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
Oliver Reed
Busy Philipps
Carl Friedrich Gauss
Karl Ove Knausgard
E. V. Lucas
Category
Information