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Quotes from A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) — Edward Abbey

1927–1989 United States

← All quotes by Edward Abbey

35 quotes

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.

A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990)

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.

A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990)

Hierarchical institutions are like giant bulldozers — obedient to the whim of any fool who takes the controls.

A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990)

I come more and more to the conclusion that wilderness, in America or anywhere else, is the only thing left that is worth saving.

A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990)

The distrust of wit is the beginning of tyranny.

A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990)

Whatever we cannot easily understand we call God; this saves much wear and tear on the brain tissues.

A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990)

Counterpart to the knee-jerk liberal is the new knee-pad conservative, always groveling before the rich and powerful.

A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990)

What's the difference between a whore and a congressman? A congressman makes more money.

A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990)

The "Terror" of the French Revolution lasted for ten years. The terror that preceded and led to it lasted for a thousand years.

A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990)

The only thing worse than a knee-jerk liberal is a knee-pad conservative.

A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990)

Capitalism: Nothing so mean could be right. Greed is the ugliest of the capital sins.

A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990)

No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets.

A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990)

Freedom begins between the ears.

A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990)

An empty man is full of himself.

A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990)

Anarchism is not a romantic fable but the hardheaded realization, based on five thousand years of experience, that we cannot entrust the management of our lives to kings, priests, politicians, generals, and county commissioners.

A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Edward Abbey (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.