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Truth Is Always The Enemy Of Power. And Power The Enemy Of Truth.
-Edward Abbey
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Truth Is Always The

Edward Abbey
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Truth Is Always The Enemy Of Power. And Power The Enemy Of Truth.

Understanding the Quote: "truth is always the enemy of power. and power the enemy of..."

This quote by Edward Abbey reflects deeply on the theme of enemy. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Enemy, Truth Is, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Edward Abbey interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Edward Abbey

Edward Abbey is celebrated for insightful thoughts on enemy and truth is. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Enemy
Truth Is
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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.
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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.
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There Are Circumstances In Which Suicide Presents A Viable Option; A Workable Alternative; The Only Sensible Solution.
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Jesus Don't Walk On Water No More; His Feet Leak.
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When The Biggest, Richest, Glassiest Buildings In Town Are The Banks, You Know That Town's In Trouble.
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The Idea Of Wilderness Needs No Defense, It Only Needs Defenders.
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Writers Should Avoid The Academy. When A Writer Begins To Accept Pay For Talking About Words, We Know What He Will Produce Soon: Nothing But Words.
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One Word Is Worth A Thousand Pictures. If It's The Right Word.
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King Arthur And His Armored Goons Of The Round Table Functioned As The Politburo Of A Slave State: Camelot. Of All Who Have Written On The Matter Of Arthur, From Malory To White, Only Mark Twain Understood This. But Mark Twain Was A Great Writer.
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I Was Once Invited To Take Part In A Heroic, Possibly Fatal Enterprise, But I Declined, Mainly On Account Of Sloth.
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The Critics Say That Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony Has No Form. They Are Wrong; It Has The Form Of Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony.
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Of All Bores, The Worst Is The Sparkling Bore.
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Sparkling
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Levels
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There Has Never Been An 'original' Sin: Each Is Quite Banal.
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I Am Happy To Be A Regional Writer. My Region Is The American West, Old Mexico, West Virginia, New York, Europe, Australia, The Human Heart, And The Male Groin.
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Heart
Virginia
My Aunt Ida At Age Eighty-three: 'yeah,' She Said, 'i'll Be Dead Pretty Soon. And Frankly, I Don't Give A Damn.'
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Giving
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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.
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‎"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
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Hierarchical Institutions Are Like Giant Bulldozers -- Obedient To The Whim Of Any Fool Who Takes The Controls.
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Nothing Can Excel A Few Days In Jail For Giving A Young Man Or Woman A Quick Education In The Basis Of Industrial Society.
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Giving
There Has Never Yet Been A Human Society Worthy Of The Name Of Civilization. Civilization Remains A Remote Ideal.
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Names
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Climbing K2 Or Floating The Grand Canyon In An Inner Tube; There Are Some Things One Would Rather Have Done Than Do.
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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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Trying
Quotation Marks
The More Fantastic An Ideology Or Theology, The More Fanatic Its Adherents.
Fantastic
Theology
Ideology
Some Lives Are Tragic, Some Ridiculous. Most Are Both At Once.
Ridiculous
Tragic
One Of The Pleasant Things About Small Town Life Is That Everyone, Whether Rich Or Poor, Liked Or Disliked, Has Some Kind Of A Role And Place In The Community. I Never Felt That Living In A City - As I Once Did For A Couple Of Years.
Couple
Years
Cities
The Tragedy Of Modern War Is That The Young Men Die Fighting Each Other - Instead Of Their Real Enemies Back Home In The Capitals.
Peace
Real
War
In The World Of Words, One Of My Best-loved Tribes Is The Diatribe.
World
Tribes
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
All Living Things On Earth Are Kindred.
Earth
Kindred
Living Things
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
In The Land Of Bleating Sheep And Braying Jackasses, One Brave And Honest Man Is Bound To Create A Scandal.
Men
Sheep
Land
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
There Are Two Kinds Of People I Cannot Abide: Bigots And Any Well-organized Ethnic Group.
Two
People
Groups
When Riding My Old Harley A Ninety Per At Midnight Down The Via Roma In Naples, I Kept One Consolation Firmly In Mind: If Anything Goes Wrong, I'll Never Have Time To Regret It.
Regret
Mind
Midnight
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
The Consolation Of Reading Biography: Most Great Men Have Led Lives Even More Miserable Than Our Own.
Reading
Men
Biographies
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
To The Intelligent Man Or Woman, Life Appears Infinitely Mysterious. But The Stupid Have An Answer For Every Question.
Stupid
Men
Intelligent
I Am An Enemy Of The State. But Isn't Everyone?
Enemy
States
Jane Austen: Getting Into Her Books Is Like Getting In Bed With A Cadaver. Something Vital Is Lacking; Namely, Life.
Book
Bed
Cadavers
My Cousin Elroy Spent Seven Years As An Ibm Taper Staring At Think Signs On The Walls Before He Finally Got A Good Idea: He Quit.
Cousin
Wall
Thinking
Art, Science, Philosophy, Religion -- Each Offers At Best Only A Crude Simplification Of Actual Living Experience.
Art
Philosophy
Crude
Humans Were Free Before The Word Freedom Became Necessary.
Humans
The Only Thing Left Worth Saving Is Wilderness.
Saving
Wilderness
Left
Spartacus, Like Jesus, Was Also Crucified By The Romans. And For Equally Good Reasons.
Jesus
Reason
Spartacus
No Man Likes To Be Smoked Out Of His Hole In February.
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Likes
February
In The Afternoon I Watch The Clouds Drift Past The Bald Peak Of Mount Tukuhnikivats. (someone Has To Do It.)
Past
Clouds
Watches
Life Is Too Short For Grief. Or Regret. Or Bullshit.
Life
Regret
Grief
The Moral Duty Of The Free Writer Is To Begin His Work At Home: To Be A Critic Of His Own Community, His Own Country, His Own Government, His Own Culture. The More Freedom The Writer Possesses, The Greater The Moral Obligation To Play The Role Of Critic.
Country
Home
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In Metaphysics, The Notion That Earth And All That's On It Is A Mental Construct Is The Product Of People Who Spend Their Lives Inside Rooms. It Is An Indoor Philosophy.
Philosophy
People
Earth
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
A Man Without A Horse Is Like A Man Without A Weapon: Stunted And Naked.
Horse
Men
Naked
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
Democracy -- Rule By The People -- Sounds Like A Fine Thing; We Should Try It Sometime In America.
America
People
Democracy
Simplicity Is Always A Virtue.
Life
Simplicity
Virtue
Congress Is Always Willing To Appropriate Money For More And Bigger Paved Roads, Anywhere -- Particularly If They Form Loops.
Nature
Conservation
Form
Why This Cult Of Wilderness?... Because We Like The Taste Of Freedom; Because We Like The Smell Of Danger.
Smell
Taste
Wilderness
The Hawk's Cry Is As Sharp As Its Beak.
Hawks
Cry
Beaks
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
It Is Not An Easy Thing To Inflate A Dog.
Funny
Dog
Easy
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
If Wilderness Is Outlawed, Only Outlaws Can Save Wilderness.
Wilderness
Outlaw
Ifs
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
My Notion Of A Great Novel Is Something Like A Five-hundred-page Shaggy-dog Story, With Only The Punch Line Omitted.
Dog
Stories
Lines
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
The Desert Wears... A Veil Of Mystery. Motionless And Silent It Evokes In Us An Elusive Hint Of Something Unknown, Unknowable, About To Be Revealed. Since The Desert Does Not Act It Seems To Be Waiting -- But Waiting For What?
Waiting
Doe
Desert
Longevity, Like Intelligence And Good Looks And Health And Strength Of Character, Is Largely A Matter Of Genetic Heritage. Choose Your Parents With Care.
Character
Parent
Looks
There Is No Trajectory So Pathetic As That Of An Artist In Decline.
Artist
Decline
Trajectory
The Domination Of Nature Leads To The Domination Of Human Nature.
Nature
Human Nature
Domination
Do I Believe In Ghosts? I Believe In The Ghosts That Haunt The Human Mind.
Believe
Mind
Ghost
Whatever We Cannot Easily Understand We Call God; This Saves Much Wear And Tear On The Brain Tissues.
Positive
Brain
Tears
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
Night And Day The River Flows. If Time Is The Mind Of Space, The River Is The Soul Of The Desert. Brave Boatmen Come, They Go, They Die, The Voyage Flows On Forever. We Are All Canyoneers. We Are All Passengers On This Little Mossy Ship, This Delicate Dory Sailing Round The Sun That Humans Call The Earth. Joy, Shipmates, Joy.
Night
Rivers
Space
The Ready Availability Of Suicide, Like Sex And Alcohol, Is One Of Life's Basic Consolations.
Suicide
Sex
Availability
Doctrines Like Christianity Or Islam Or Marxism Require Unanimity Of Belief. One Dissenter Casts Doubt On The Creed Of Millions.
Atheist
Doubt
Islam
Late In August The Lure Of The Mountains Becomes Irresistible. Seared By The Everlasting Sunfire, I Want To See Running Water Again, Embrace A Pine Tree, Cut My Initials In The Bark Of An Aspen, Get Bit By A Mosquito, See A Mountain Bluebird, Find A Big Blue Columbine, Get Lost In The Firs, Hike Above Timberline, Sunbathe On Snow And Eat Some Ice, Climb The Rocks And Stand In The Wind At The Top Of The World On The Peak Of Tukuhnikivats.
Running
Cutting
August
We Spend More Time Working For Our Labor-saving Machines Than They Do Working For Us.
Machines
Saving
More Time
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
Do Not Burn Yourselves Out. Be As I Am - A Reluctant Enthusiast... A Part-time Crusader, A Half-hearted Fanatic. Save The Other Half Of Yourselves And Your Lives For Pleasure And Adventure.
Adventure
Climbing
Half
Passion, Sexual Passion, May Lead To Marriage, But Cannot Sustain Marriage. The Purpose Of Marriage Is The Raising Of Children, For Which Patience, Not Passion, Is The Necessary Foundation.
Children
Passion
Foundation
Is The Archbishop's Blessing Any More Meaningful Than The Politician's Handshake? The Come, They Go, With Bigger Things Than Us On Their Minds.
Meaningful
Blessing
Mind
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
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 Crude Meal, No Doubt, But The Best Of All Sauces Is Hunger.
Doubt
Meals
Sauce
The Developers And Entrepreneurs Must Somehow Be Taught A New Vocabulary Of Values.
Vocabulary
Entrepreneur
Taught
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