Edward Abbey May Quotations

I suppose each of us has his own fantasy of how he wants to die. I would like to go out in a blaze of glory, myself, or maybe simply disappear someday, far out in the heart of the wilderness I love, all by myself, alone with the Universe and whatever God may happen to be looking on. Disappear - and never return. That's my fantasy.

I would never betray a friend to serve a cause. Never reject a friend to help an institution. Great nations may fall in ruin before I would sell a friend to save them.

Mental degeneracy may be caused by lead poisoning. Or by a poor dip in the gene pool.

It may be true that there are no atheists in foxholes. But you don't find many Christians there, either. Or, about as many of one as the other.

This world may be only illusion -- but it's the only illusion we've got.

I always write with my .357 magnum handy. Why? Well, you never know when God may try to interfere.

We need wilderness whether or not we ever set foot in it. We need a refuge even though we may never need to go there. We need the possibility of escape as surely as we need hope.

Poetry -- even bad poetry -- may be our final hope.

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

Women who love only women may have a good point.

Quantum mechanics provides us with an approximate, plausible, conjectural explanation of what actually is, or was, or may be taking place inside a cyclotron during a dark night in February.

Married couples who quarrel bitterly every day may really need each other as deeply as those who appear to be desperately in love.