Philosophy Quote by Edward Abbey — Inspiring Words on Life, Love & Wisdom

“Better a cruel truth than a comfortable delusion.”

“This sweet virginal primitive land will metaphorically breathe a sigh of relief --like a whisper of wind--when we are all and finally gone and the place and its creations can return to their ancient procedures unobserved and undisturbed by the busy, anxious, brooding consciousness of man.”

“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.”

“If it's knowledge and wisdom you want, then seek out the company of those who do real work for an honest purpose.”

“One mile farther and I come to a second grave beside the road, nameless like the other, marked only with the dull blue-black stones of the badlands. I do not pause this time. The more often you stop the more difficult it is to continue. Stop too long and they cover you with rocks.”

“But it is a writer's duty to write and speak and record the truth, always the truth, no matter whom may be offended.”

“I would prefer a sword to fight duel, but a pen to plan a war.”

“الحقيقة يمكن أن تتخذ ألف شكل لأعيننا إذا اتخذنا ألف موقع نلاحظها منه ..”

“You are not just for the right or left, but for what is right over the wrong.”

“Thomas Jefferson, that owner of many slaves, chose to begin the Declaration of Independence by directly contradicting the moral basis of slavery, writing "we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights ..." thus undercutting simultaneously any argument that Africans were racially inferior, and also that they or their ancestors could ever have been justly and legally deprived of their freedom. In doing so, however, he did not propose some radically new conception of rights and liberties. Neither have subsequent political philosophers. For the most part, we've just kept the old ones, but with the word "not" inserted here and there. Most of our most precious rights and freedoms are a series of exceptions to an overall moral and legal framework that suggests we shouldn't really have them in the first place.”

“Don't think, but look! (PI 66)”