Edward Abbey

Anarchism is founded on the observation that since few men are wise enough to rule themselves, even fewer are wise enough to rule others.

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

Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.

Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul.

Whenever I see a photograph of some sportsman grinning over his kill, I am always impressed by the striking moral and esthetic superiority of the dead animal to the live one.

One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain't nothin' can beat teamwork.

Better a cruel truth than a comfortable delusion.

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

A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.

Beware the writer who always encloses the word reality in quotation marks: He's trying to slip something over on you. Or into you.

Abolition of a woman's right to abortion, when and if she wants it, amounts to compulsory maternity: a form of rape by the State.