The Knowledge That Refuge Is Available, When And If Needed, Makes The Silent Inferno Of The Desert More Easily Bearable. Mountains Complement Desert As Desert Complements City, As Wilderness Complements And Completes Civilization.

-Edward Abbey

Please Wait....
Translating....

The Knowledge That Refuge

Edward Abbey

Topic

Nature

Civilization

Cities

More From Edward Abbey

Anarchy Works. Italy Has Proved It For A Thousand Years.

Years

Anarchy

Thousand

Great Art Is Indefinable But That's All Right; It Exists Anyway.

Art

Great Art

Art Is

I'm A Humanist; I'd Rather Kill A Man Than A Snake.

Men

Snakes

Humanist

Strolling On, It Seems To Me That The Strangeness And Wonder Of Existence Are Emphasized Here, In The Desert, By The Comparative Sparsity Of The Flora And Fauna: Life Not Crowded Upon Life As In Other Places But Scattered Abroad In Spareness And Simplicity, With A Generous Gift Of Space For Each Herb And Bush And Tree, Each Stem Of Grass, So That The Living Organism Stands Out Bold And Brave And Vivid Against The Lifeless Sand And Barren Rock. 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

Space

Light

Reincarnation? There Is Such A Thing. What Could Be More Mozartian Than The Nutcracker Suite?

Nutcrackers

Reincarnation

The Missionaries Go Forth To Christianize The Savages - As If The Savages Weren't Dangerous Enough Already.

Enough Already

Missionary

Savages

Capitalism: Nothing So Mean Could Be Right. Greed Is The Ugliest Of The Capital Sins.

Mean

Greed

Sin

I Wait. Now The Night Flows Back, The Mighty Stillness Embraces And Includes Me; I Can See The Stars Again And The World Of Starlight. I Am Twenty Miles Or More From The Nearest Fellow Human, But Instead Of Loneliness I Feel Loveliness. Loveliness And A Quiet Exultation.

Stars

Loneliness

Night

Motherhood Is An Essential, Difficult, And Full-time Job. Women Who Do Not Wish To Be Mothers Should Not Have Babies.

Mother

Baby

Jobs

I Thought Of The Wilderness We Had Left Behind Us, Open To Sea And Sky, Joyous In Its Plenitude And Simplicity, Perfect Yet Vulnerable, Unaware Of What Is Coming, Defended By Nothing, Guarded By No One.

Sea

Sky

Perfect

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.

Taken

People

Important

Cowboys Make Better Lovers: Ask Any Cow.

Cowboy

Cows

Lovers

Our “neoconservatives” Are Neither New Nor Conservative, But Old As Babylon And Evil As Hell.

Peace

War

Evil

Writing On The Wall: Will Trade Three Blind Crabs For Two With No Teeth.

Wall

Writing

Two

I Was Once Invited To Take Part In A Heroic, Possibly Fatal Enterprise, But I Declined, Mainly On Account Of Sloth.

Sloth

Heroic

Enterprise

Balance, That's The Secret. Moderate Extremism. The Best Of Both Worlds.

Secret

Balance

World

Whenever I Read _time_ Or _newsweek_ Or Such Magazines, I Wash My Hands Afterward. But How To Wash Off The Small But Odious Stain Such Reading Leaves On The Mind?

Reading

Hands

Mind

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

What We Need Now Are Heroes And Heroines, About A Million Of Them, One Brave Deed Is Worth A Thousand Books. Sentiment Without Action Is The Ruin Of The Soul.

Book

Hero

Brave

A Venturesome Minority Will Always Be Eager To Set Off On Their Own, And No Obstacles Should Be Placed In Their Path; Let Them Take Risks, For Godsake, Let Them Get Lost, Sunburnt, Stranded, Drowned, Eaten By Bears, Buried Alive Under Avalanches - That Is The Right And Privilege Of Any Free American.

Risk

Minorities

Alive

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

Nearly All Of Latin America, From Chile To Mexico, Is One Long Rack Of Torture. Financed, Equipped, And Refined By The U.s. Government.

Latin

Government

America

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

You Can't Belay A Man Who's Falling In Love.

Falling In Love

Fall

Men

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.

Fear

Common Sense

Atheism

Anarchism? You Bet Your Sweet Betsy. The Only Cure For The Ills Of Democracy Is More Democracy. Much More.

Sweet

Democracy

Cures

The Love Of Wilderness Is More Than A Hunger For What Is Always Beyong Reach; It Is Also An Expression Of Loyalty To The Earth, The Earth Which Bore Us And Sustains Us, The Only Paradise We Shall Ever Know, The Only Paradise We Ever Need, If Only We Had The Eyes To See.

Inspirational

Loyalty

Nature

Critics Are Like Ticks On A Dog Or Tits On A Motor: Ornamental But Dysfunctional.

Dog

Tick

Critics

There Comes A Time In The Life Of Us All When We Must Lay Aside Our Books Or Put Down Our Tools And Leave Our Place Of Work And Walk Forth On The Road To Meet The Enemy Face-to-face. Once And For All And At Last

Book

Enemy

Tools

Let Us Praise The Noble Turkey Vulture: No One Envies Him; He Harms Nobody; And He Contemplates Our Little World From A Most Serene And Noble Height.

Turkeys

Envy

Littles

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

A Pretty Girl Can Do No Wrong.

Girl

Pretty Girl

Can Do

There Are Two Kinds Of People I Cannot Abide: Bigots And Any Well-organized Ethnic Group.

Two

People

Groups

One Word Is Worth A Thousand Pictures. If It's The Right Word.

Thousand

One Word

Right Words

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

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

This World May Be Only Illusion -- But It's The Only Illusion We've Got.

World

May

Illusion

Humans Were Free Before The Word Freedom Became Necessary.

Humans

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

Is It Possible To Grow Wiser Without Knowing It? One Hopes So. We All Hope So.

Knowing

Grows

Wiser

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

All We Have, It Seems To Me, Is The Beauty Of Art And Nature And Life, And The Love Which That Beauty Inspires.

Art

Inspire

Nature And Life

My Own Ambition, My Deepest And Truest Ambition, Is To Find Within Myself Someday, Somehow, The Ability To Do Likewise, To Do Nothing - And Find It Enough.

Ambition

Someday

Enough

The Death Penalty Would Be Even More Effective, As A Deterrent, If We Executed A Few Innocent People More Often.

People

Would Be

Death Penalty

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

A True Libertarian Supports Free Enterprise, Opposes Big Business; Supports Local Self-government, Opposes The Nation-state; Supports The National Rifle Association, Opposes The Pentagon.

Business

Government

Self

The Fire. The Odor Of Burning Juniper Is The Sweetest Fragrance On The Face Of The Earth, In My Honest Judgment; I Doubt If All The Smoking Censers Of Dante's Paradise Could Equal It. One Breath Of Juniper Smoke, Like The Perfume Of Sagebrush After Rain, Evokes In Magical Catalysis, Like Certain Music, The Space And Light And Clarity And Piercing Strangeness Of The American West. Long May It Burn.

Rain

Fire

Light

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

The Best Thing About Graduating From The University Was That I Finally Had Time To Sit On A Log And Read A Good Book.

Book

Graduates

Best Things

In Marriage, The Occasional Catastrophic Crisis Is Easier To Manage Than The Daily Routine.

Routine

Easier

Occasional

Beware The Writer Who Always Encloses The Word *reality* In Quotation Marks: He's Trying To Slip Something Over On You. Or Into You.

Reality

Trying

Quotation Marks

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

One Thing Worse Than Self-hatred Is Chiggers.

A Patriot Must Always Be Ready To Defend His Country Against His Government.

Inspirational

Country

Freedom

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.

Accomplish Nothing

Lust

Energy

Government Should Be Weak, Amateurish And Ridiculous. At Present, It Fulfills Only A Third Of The Role.

Government

Liberty

Roles

We Are Befouling And Destroying Our Own Home, We Are Committing A Slow But Accelerating Race Suicide And Life Murder - Planetary Biocide. Now There Is A Mighty Theme For A Mighty Book But A Challenge To Which No Modern Novelist Or Poet Has Yet Responded. Where Is Our Melville, Our Milton, Our Thomas Mann When We Need Him Most?

Suicide

Book

Home

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

Concrete Is Heavy; Iron Is Hard - But The Grass Will Prevail.

Strength

Nature

Iron

If A Man’s Imagination Were Not So Weak, So Easily Tired, If His Capacity For Wonder Not So Limited, He Would Abandon Forever Such Fantasies Of The Supernal. He Would Learn To Perceive In Water, Leaves And Silence More Than Sufficient Of The Absolute And Marvelous, More Than Enough To Console Him For The Loss Of The Ancient Dream.

Dream

Tired

Loss

I Must Confess That I Know Nothing Whatsoever About True Underlying Reality, Never Having Met Any.

Reality

Mets

Knows

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

The Greater Your Dreams, The More Terrible Your Nightmares.

Dream

Nightmare

Terrible

What Did Jesus Say To The Headwaiter At The Last Supper? 'separate Checks, Please.'

Jesus

Lasts

Checks

Page, Arizona, Shithead Capital Of Coconino County: Any Town With Thirteen Churches And Only Four Bars Has Got An Incipient Social Problem. That Town Is Looking For Trouble.

Church

Bars

Four

I Am My Brother's Keeper, Says The Chickenshit Liberal. Perhaps He Does Not Realize That He Now Has More Than 2 1/2 Billion Brothers.

Brother

Doe

Realizing

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

In Order To Write A Book, It Is Necessary To Sit Down (or Stand Up) And Write. Therein Lies The Difficulty.

Lying

Book

Writing

Of All Bores, The Worst Is The Sparkling Bore.

Worst

Bores

Sparkling

To Be Everywhere At Once Is To Be Nowhere Forever, If You Ask Me.

Forever

Ask Me

Asks

Nature, Like Maimonides Said, Is Mainly A Good Place To Throw Beer Cans On Sunday Afternoons.

Beer

Sunday

Afternoon

Alaska's Chief Attractions Are: (a) Its Small And Insignificant Human Population, Thanks To The Miserable Climate; And (b) Its Large And Magnificent Wildlife Population, Thanks To (a). Both Of These Attractions Are Being Rapidly Diminished, However, By (c) The Law Of Growth And Space-age Sleaze.

Law

Space

Alaska

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

Wilderness And Motors Are Incompatible And The Former Can Best Be Experienced, Understood And Enjoyed When The Machines Are Left Behind Where They Belong -- On The Superhighways And In The Parking Lots, On The Reservoirs And In The Marinas.

Machines

Wilderness

Left Behind

Platitude: A Statement That Denies By Implication What It Explicitly Affirms.

Deny

Platitudes

Implications

I Stand For What I Stand On.

The Earth, Like The Sun, Like The Air, Belongs To Everyone - And To No One.

Nature

Air

Earth

Indolence And Melancholy: Each Generates The Other. If One Can Speak Of Such Feeble Passions As Generating Anything.

Passion

Speak

Melancholy

Ah Yes, The Head Is Full Of Books. The Hard Part Is To Force Them Down Through The Bloodstream And Out Through The Fingers.

Book

Focus

Force

The Rich Are Not Very Nice. That's Why They're Rich.

Nice

Rich

Very Nice

Simplicity Is Always A Virtue. One Kid On A Riverbank Working Out A Stephen Foster Tune On His New Harmonica Heard From The Correct Esthetic Distance Projects More Magic And Power Than The Entire Vienna Philharmonic And Chorus Laboring (once Again) Through The Mozart Requiem Or Bach's B Minor Mass.

Distance

Kids

Work Out

For This World That Men Have Made, None Of Us Is Bad Enough. For The World That Made Us, None Is Good Enough.

Men

World

Good Enough

If There's Anything I Hate, It's The Vibraphone. And The Cha-cha-cha. And Latin Rhythms Generally.

Hate

Latin

Rhythm

Belief? What Do I Believe In? I Believe In Sun. In Rock. In The Dogma Of The Sun And The Doctrine Of The Rock. I Believe In Blood, Fire, Woman, Rivers, Eagles, Storm, Drums, Flutes, Banjos, And Broom-tailed Horses.

Religious

Horse

Crazy

It Is Not The Writer's Task To Answer Questions But To Question Answers. To Be Impertinent, Insolent, And, If Necessary, Subversive.

Tasks

Answers

Subversive

All Living Things On Earth Are Kindred.

Earth

Kindred

Living Things

All Governments Require Enemy Governments.

Government

Enemy

There Is Science, Logic, Reason; There Is Thought Verified By Experience. And Then There Is California.

Travel

Fun

Crazy

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

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

Man Was Created To Complete The Horse.

Horse

Men

The Most Common Form Of Terrorism In The U.s.a. Is That Carried On By Bulldozers And Chain Saws.

Saws

Common

Terrorism

Men Come And Go, Cities Rise And Fall, Whole Civilizations Appear And Disappear-the Earth Remains, Slightly Modified. The Earth Remains, And The Heartbreaking Beauty Where There Are No Hearts To Break....i Sometimes Choose To Think, No Doubt Perversely, That Man Is A Dream, Thought An Illusion, And Only Rock Is Real. Rock And Sun.

Dream

Real

Fall

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

The World Is Older And Bigger Than We Are. This Is A Hard Truth For Some Folks To Swallow.

World

Bigger

Folks

The Developers And Entrepreneurs Must Somehow Be Taught A New Vocabulary Of Values.

Vocabulary

Entrepreneur

Taught

Nothing Could Be Older Than The Daily News, Nothing Deader Than Yesterday's Newspaper.

Yesterday

News

Newspapers

An Empty Man Is Full Of Himself.

Men

Empty

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

Civilization, Like An Airplane In Flight, Survives Only As It Keeps Going Forward.

Airplane

Civilization

Flight

If The World Is Irrational, We Can Never Know It -- Either It Or Its Irrationality.

World

Irrational

Knows

Be Loyal To What You Love, Be True To The Earth, Fight Your Enemies With Passion And Laughter.

Love

Marriage

Laughter

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

All Dams Are Ugly, But The Glen Canyon Dam Is Sinful Ugly.

Dams

Ugly

Canyons

Civilization Is A Youth With A Molotov Cocktail In His Hand. Culture Is The Soviet Tank Or L.a. Cop That Guns Him Down.

Gun

Hands

Molotov Cocktail

Married Couples Who Quarrel Bitterly Every Day May Really Need Each Other As Deeply As Those Who Appear To Be Desperately In Love.

Couple

Needs

May

There Are No Vacant Lots In Nature.

Nature

Vacant

Music Is A Savage Art, A Measured Madness.

Art

Savages

Madness

In A Nation Of Sheep, One Brave Man Forms A Majority.

Men

Sheep

Brave

Nothing Could Be More Reckless Than To Base One's Moral Philosophy On The Latest Pronouncements Of Science.

Philosophy

Moral

Reckless

Shakespeare Wrote Great Poetry And Preposterous Plays. Who Really Cares, For Example, Which Petty Tyrant Rules Milan? Or Who Succeeds To The Throne Of Denmark? Or Why The Barons Ganged Up On Richard Ii?

Play

Tyrants

Example

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

In The Dog-eat-dog Economy, The Doberman Is Boss.

Funny

Dog

Boss

Saving The World Is Only A Hobby. Most Of The Time I Do Nothing.

Favorite Hobby

Hobbies

World

Our Suicidal Poets (plath, Berryman, Lowell, Jarrell, Et Al.) Spent Too Much Of Their Lives Inside Rooms And Classrooms When They Should Have Been Trudging Up Mountains, Slogging Through Swamps, Rowing Down Rivers. The Indoor Life Is The Next Best Thing To Premature Burial.

Suicidal

Journey

Should Have

A Good Writer Must Have More Than Vin Rosé In His Veins, Use More Than Chablis For Ink.

Rose

Ink

Use

Only A Fool Would Leave The Enjoyment Of Rainbows To The Opticians. Or Give The Science Of Optics The Last Word On The Matter.

Giving

Rainbow

Matter

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

For Women, The Sexual Act Is A Means To A Higher End. For A Man, It Is An End In Itself.

Mean

Men

Ends

I Would Prefer To Write About Everything; What Else Is There? But One Must Be Selective.

Writing

Selective

Life: Another Day, Another Dolor.

Another Day

Humility Is A Virtue When You Have No Other.

Humility

Virtue

I Took The Other Road, All Right, But Only Because It Was The Easy Road For Me, The Way I Wanted To Go. If I've Encountered Some Unnecessary Resistance That's Because Most Of The Traffic Is Going The Other Way.

Way

Resistance

Unnecessary

We Should Restore The Practice Of Dueling. It Might Improve Manners Around Here.

Practice

Dueling

Might

Why Do I Write? I Write To Entertain My Friends And To Exasperate Our Enemies. To Unfold The Folded Lie, To Record To Truth Of Our Time, And, Of Course, To Promote Esthetic Bliss.

Lying

Writing

Enemy

All Governments Need Enemies. How Else To Justify Their Existence?

Government

Enemy

Needs

All Men Are Brothers, We Like To Say, Half-wishing Sometimes In Secret It Were Not True. But Perhaps It Is True. And Is The Evolutionary Line From Protozoan To Spinoza Any Less Certain? That Also May Be True. We Are Obliged, Therefore, To Spread The News, Painful And Bitter Though It May Be For Some To Hear, That All Living Things On Earth Are Kindred.

Brother

Men

Secret

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

I Find More And More, As I Grow Older, That I Prefer Women To Men, Children To Adults, Animals To Humans.... And Rocks To Living Things? No, I'm Not That Old Yet.

Children

Animal

Men

Beware Of The Man Who Has No Enemies.

Men

Enemy

He Man

Paradise For A Happy Man Lies In His Own Good Nature.

Lying

Men

Paradise

Belief In God? An Afterlife? I Believe In Rock: This Apodictic Rock Beneath My Feet.

Believe

Feet

Rocks

Anywhere, Anytime, I'd Sacrifice The Finest Nuance For A Laugh, The Most Elegant Trope For A Smile.

Sacrifice

Laughing

Nuance

The Artist In Our Time Has Two Chief Responsibilities: (1) Art; And (2) Sedition.

Art

Responsibility

Two

It Is An Author's Most Solemn Obligation To Honor Truth. If The Free And Independent Writer Does Not Speak Truth To Power, Who Will?

Independent

Honor

Doe

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

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

What Draws Us Into The Desert Is The Search For Something Intimate In The Remote.

Desert

Intimate

Draws

By The Age Of Eighteen, A Human Has Acquired Enough Joy And Heartache To Provide The Food Of Reflection For A Century.

Reflection

Heartache

Joy

A Shelf Of Classics For Our Young Adults: Tolkien, Hesse, Casteneda, Kerouac, Salinger, Tom Robbins, And _the Last Whole Earth Catalog_.

Adults

Earth

Lasts

We Need The Possibility Of Escape As Surely As We Need Hope.

Travel

Needs

Wilderness

A House Built On Greed Cannot Long Endure.

Long

House

Greed

Appearance Versus Reality? Appearance Is Reality, God Damn It!

Reality

Appearance

Damn

A Society That Feels Itself Too Poor To Afford The Preservation Of Wilderness Is Not Worthy Of The Name Civilization.

Nature

Civilization

Names

Art, Science, Philosophy, Religion -- Each Offers At Best Only A Crude Simplification Of Actual Living Experience.

Art

Philosophy

Crude

‎"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

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

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

I Have Been Called A Curmudgeon, Which My Obsolescent Dictionary Defines As A "surly, Illmannered, Badtempered Fellow." ... Nowadays, Curmudgeon Is Likely To Refer To Anyone Who Hates Hypocrisy, Cant, Sham, Dogmatic Ideologies, The Pretenses And Evasions Of Euphemism, And Has The Nerve To Point Out Unpleasant Facts And Takes The Trouble To Impale These Sins On The Skewer Of Humor And Roast Them Over The Fires Of Empiric Fact, Common Sense, And Native Intelligence. In This Nation Of Bleating Sheep And Braying Jackasses, It Then Becomes An Honor To Be Labeled Curmudgeon.

Hate

Fire

Sheep

You Cannot Reshape Human Nature Without Mutilating Human Beings.

Human Nature

Humans

Human Beings

Why Administrators Are Respected And Schoolteachers Are Not: An Administrator Is Paid A Lot For Doing Very Little, While A Teacher Is Paid Very Little For Doing A Lot.

Teacher

Littles

Administrators

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

Is There A God? Who Knows? Is There An Angry Unicorn On The Dark Side Of The Moon?

Dark

Moon

Sides

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

Where All Think Alike There Is Little Danger Of Innovation.

Thinking

Thought Provoking

Innovation

The National Parks Belong To Everyone. To The People. To All Of Us. The Government Keeps Saying So And Maybe, In This One Case At Least, The Government Is Telling The Truth. Hard To Believe, But Possible.

Believe

Government

People

Literary Critics, Like A Herd Of Cows Or A School Of Fish, Always Face In The Same Direction, Obeying That Love For Unity That Every Critic Requires.

School

Unity

Cows

When A Man's Best Friend Is His Dog, That Dog Has A Problem.

Friendship

Dog

Silly

Democracy -- Rule By The People -- Sounds Like A Fine Thing; We Should Try It Sometime In America.

America

People

Democracy

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

There Never Was A Good War Or A Bad Revolution.

Veterans Day

Peace

War

The Distrust Of Wit Is The Beginning Of Tyranny.

Laughter

Distrust

Wit

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

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.

Government

Political

Purpose

Readers, Not Critics, Are The People Who Determine A Book's Eventual Fate.

Book

Fate

People

In America, As Elsewhere, The General Irritability Level Keeps Rising.

America

Rising

Levels

In The World Of Words, One Of My Best-loved Tribes Is The Diatribe.

World

Tribes

Our Culture Runs On Coffee And Gasoline, The First Often Tasting Like The Second.

Running

Coffee

Second Chance

I Intend To Be Good For The Rest Of My Natural Life -- If I Live That Long.

Long

Natural

Be Good

May Your Rivers Flow Without End... Down Into A Desert Of Red Rock, Blue Mesas, Domes And Pinnacles And Grottos Of Endless Stone, And Down Again Into A Deep Vast Ancient Unknown Chasm Where Bars Of Sunlight Blaze On Profiled Cliffs... Where Something Strange And More Beautiful And More Full Of Wonder Than Your Deepest Dreams Waits For You-beyond That Next Turning Of The Canyon Walls.

Beautiful

Dream

Wall

My Loyalties Will Not Be Bound By National Borders, Or Confined In Time By One Nation's History, Or Limited In The Spiritual Dimension By One Language And Culture. I Pledge My Allegiance To The Damned Human Race, And My Everlasting Love To The Green Hills Of Earth, And My Intimations Of Glory To The Singing Stars, To The Very End Of Space And Time.

Love

Loyalty

Spiritual

There Are Some Places So Beautiful They Can Make A Grown Man Break Down And Weep.

Beautiful

Men

Down And

Life Is Too Short For Grief. Or Regret. Or Bullshit.

Life

Regret

Grief

There's Nothing So Obscene And Depressing As An American Christmas.

Depressing

Obscene

To Die Alone, On Rock Under Sun At The Brink Of The Unknown, Like A Wolf, Like A Great Bird, Seems To Me Very Good Fortune Indeed.

Rocks

Bird

Sun

In Art As In Life, Form And Subject, Body And Soul, Are One.

Art

Soul

Body

If Wilderness Is Outlawed, Only Outlaws Can Save Wilderness.

Wilderness

Outlaw

Ifs

The Absurd Vanity Of Metaphysicians Who Like To Imagine That They Create The World By Thinking About It.

Thinking

Vanity

World

Beauty Is Only Skin Deep; Ugliness Goes All The Way Through.

Skins

Way

Beauty Is Only Skin Deep

There Is No Trajectory So Pathetic As That Of An Artist In Decline.

Artist

Decline

Trajectory

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

Some Of My Ancestors Fought In The American Revolution. A Few More Wore Red Coats, A Few Wore Blue Coats, And The Rest Wore No Coats At All. We Never Did Figure Out Who Won That War.

War

Blue

Coats

A Good Philosopher Is One Who Does Not Take Ideas Seriously.

Philosophy

Ideas

Doe

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

The Duty Of A Patriot Is To Protect His Country From Its Government.

Inspirational

Funny

Life

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 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

A World Without Open Country Would Be Universal Jail.

Country

Jail

Would Be

A Crude Meal, No Doubt, But The Best Of All Sauces Is Hunger.

Doubt

Meals

Sauce

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

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

Instant Communication Is Not Communication At All But Merely A Frantic, Trivial, Nerve-wracking Bombardment Of Cliches, Threats, Fads, Fashions, Gibberish And Advertising.

Fashion

Communication

Nerves

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

Paradise Is The Here And Now, The Actual, Tangible, Dogmatically Real Earth On Which We Stand. Yes, God Bless America, The Earth Upon Which We Stand.

Real

Journey

Hiking

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

Heaven Is Home. Utopia Is Here. Nirvana Is Now.

Home

Heaven

Utopia

The Response To My Books From My East Coast Friends Has Been Wildly Various, Running The Gamut From 'bad' To 'very Bad.' (is There Another Gamut?)

Running

Book

East

We Are Preoccupied With Time. If We Could Learn To Love Space As Deeply As We Are Now Obsessed With Time, We Might Discover A New Meaning In The Phrase To Live Like Men.

Men

Space

Phrases

Charity Should Be Spontaneous. Calculated Altruism Is An Affront.

Charity

Spontaneous

Affront

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