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

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

Understanding the Quote: "what draws us into the desert is the search for something intimate..."

This quote by Edward Abbey reflects deeply on the theme of desert. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Desert, Intimate, Draws, 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 desert and intimate. 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
Desert
Intimate
Draws
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The City Itself Swung Slowly Toward Us Silent As A Dream. No Sign Of Life But Puffs Of Steam From Skyscraper Chimneys, The Motion Of The Traffic. The Mighty Towers Stood Like Tombstones In A Graveyard, Leaning Against The Sky And Waiting For -- For What? Someday We'll Know.
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Counterpart To The Knee-jerk Liberal Is The New Knee-pad Conservative, Always Groveling Before The Rich And The Powerful.
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Men Have Never Loved One Another Much, For Reasons We Can Readily Understand: Man Is Not A Lovable Animal.
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Science Transcends Mere Politics. As Recent History Demonstrates, Scientists Are As Willing To Work For A Tojo, A Hitler, Or A Stalin As For The Free Nations Of The West.
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Indolence And Melancholy: Each Generates The Other. If One Can Speak Of Such Feeble Passions As Generating Anything.
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The Latino Military Fare Badly When They Stumble Into War With The Gringos. But In The Torture, Murder, And Massacre Of Their Own People, They Have Always Performed With Brilliance And Elan.
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America My Country: Last Nation On Earth To Abolish Human Slavery; First Of All Nations To Drop The Nuclear Bomb On Our Fellow Human Beings.
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A Cowboy Is A Hired Hand On The Middle Of A Horse Contemplating The Hind End Of A Cow.
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Life Is
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Tragic
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February
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Men
Blood
Three
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Different
World
Aspect
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Blue
Coats
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.'
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Giving
Dollars
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Space
Light
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Survival
Doe
I Am Not An Atheist But An Earthiest. Be True To The Earth.
Atheist
Earth
Being True
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Animal
Sound
Hungry
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Home
Men
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Hopeless
Situation
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Vanity
I Always Write With My .357 Magnum Handy. Why? Well, You Never Know When God May Try To Interfere.
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Trying
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Horse
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Delusion
Comfortable
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Flower
Long
I Have Been A Lucky Man. But Someone Has To Be.
Men
Lucky
Lucky Man
My Aunt Ida At Age Eighty-three: 'yeah,' She Said, 'i'll Be Dead Pretty Soon. And Frankly, I Don't Give A Damn.'
Aunt
Giving
Age
This Is The Most Beautiful Place On Earth. There Are Many Such Places. Every Man, Every Woman, Carries In Heart And Mind The Image Of The Ideal Place, The Right Place, The One True Home, Known Or Unknown, Actual Or Visionary.
Beautiful
Nature
Travel
Saving The World Was Merely A Hobby. My *vocation* Has Been That Of Inspector Of Desert Water Holes.
Water
Hobbies
Desert
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
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
Those Art Lovers Who Pride Themselves Mostly On *taste* Usually Possess No Other Talent.
Art
Pride
Taste
All Governments Need Enemies. How Else To Justify Their Existence?
Government
Enemy
Needs
The Artist In Our Time Has Two Chief Responsibilities: (1) Art; And (2) Sedition.
Art
Responsibility
Two
Jane Austen: Getting Into Her Books Is Like Getting In Bed With A Cadaver. Something Vital Is Lacking; Namely, Life.
Book
Bed
Cadavers
There Are Only Two Kinds Of Books -- Good Books And The Others. The Good Are Winnowed From The Bad Through The Democracy Of Time.
Book
Two
Democracy
A Good Book Is A Kind Of Paper Club, Serving To Rouse The Slumbrous And To Silence The Obtuse.
Book
Silence
Paper
The Sexual Revolution Transformed The American West: Now Even Cowboys Can Get Laid.
Cowboy
American West
Revolution
The Real Work Of Men Was Hunting Meat. The Invention Of Agriculture Was A Giant Step In The Wrong Direction, Leading To Serfdom, Cities, And Empire. From A Race Of Hunters, Artists, Warriors, And Tamers Of Horses, We Degraded Ourselves To What We Are Now: Clerks, Functionaries, Laborers, Entertainers, Processors Of Information.
Horse
Real
Warrior
Through Logic And Inference We Can Prove Anything. Therefore, Logic And Inference, In Contrast To Ordinary Daily Living Experience, Are Secondary Instruments Of Knowledge. Probably Tertiary.
Ordinary
Logic
Inference
Say What You Like About My Bloody Murderous Government,' I Says, 'but Don't Insult Me Poor Bleedin' Country.
Country
Government
Liberty
I'm Happy To Respect Authority When It's Genuine Authority, Based On Moral Or Intellectual Or Even Technical Superiority. I'm Eager To Follow A Hero If We Can Find One. But I Tend To Resist Or Evade Any Kind Of Authority Based Merely On The Power To Coerce. Government, For Example. The Army Tried To Train Us To Salute The Uniform, Not The Man. Failed. I Will Salute The Man, Maybe, If I Think He's Worthy Of It, But I Don't Salute Uniforms Anymore.
Hero
Army
Men
In The Land Of Bleating Sheep And Braying Jackasses, One Brave And Honest Man Is Bound To Create A Scandal.
Men
Sheep
Land
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
Is It Possible To Grow Wiser Without Knowing It? One Hopes So. We All Hope So.
Knowing
Grows
Wiser
A Journey Into The Wilderness Is The Freest, Cheapest, Most Nonprivileged Of Pleasures. Anyone With Two Legs And The Price Of A Pair Of Army Surplus Combat Boots May Enter.
Army
Journey
Two
Readers, Not Critics, Are The People Who Determine A Book's Eventual Fate.
Book
Fate
People
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
My Computer Tells Me That In Twenty-five Years There Will Be No More Computers.
Years
Twenties
Computer
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
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
The Earth Is Real. Only A Fool, Milking His Cow, Denies The Cow's Reality.
Real
Earth
Cows
How To Overthrow The System: Brew Your Own Beer; Kick In Your Tee Vee; Kill Your Own Beef; Build Your Own Cabin And Piss Off The Front Porch Whenever You Bloody Well Feel Like It.
Beer
Beef
Cabins
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 Already Too Short To Waste On Speed.
Hiking
Waste
Life Is
There Is Science, Logic, Reason; There Is Thought Verified By Experience. And Then There Is California.
Travel
Fun
Crazy
A House Built On Greed Cannot Long Endure.
Long
House
Greed
My Own Best Books Have Not Been Published. In Fact, They've Not Even Been Written Yet.
Book
Facts
My Own
If You Feel That You Must Suffer, Then Plan Your Suffering Carefully -- As You Choose Your Dreams, As You Conceive Your Ancestors.
Dream
Suffering
Ancestor
Nobody Has So Many Friends That He Can Afford To Lose One.
Many Friends
Loses
The Greater Your Dreams, The More Terrible Your Nightmares.
Dream
Nightmare
Terrible
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
The Absurd Vanity Of Metaphysicians Who Like To Imagine That They Create The World By Thinking About It.
Thinking
Vanity
World
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
Humility Is A Virtue When You Have No Other.
Humility
Virtue
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
The Best People, Like The Best Wines, Come From The Hills.
Wine
People
Independence
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
It Is The Difference Between Men And Women, Not The Sameness, That Creates The Tension And The Delight.
Men
Differences
Delight
Among Politicians And Businessmen, *pragmatism* Is The Current Term For 'to Hell With Our Children.'
Children
Future
Hell
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