A crowded society is a restrictive society; an overcrowded society becomes an authoritarian, repressive and murderous society.

— Edward Abbey

A house built on greed cannot long endure.

— Edward Abbey

Ah yes, the head is full of books. The hard part is to force them down through the bloodstream and out through the fingers.

— Edward Abbey

All we have, it seems to me, is the beauty of art and nature and life, and the love which that beauty inspires.

— Edward Abbey

Almost every charge you level at American capitalism applies with equal force to communism, with this nice difference, that the Reds make no pretense at such frivolities as civil liberties or environmentalism. The differences in degree are so great that they result in a radical difference in kind.

— Edward Abbey

A man could be a lover and defender of the wilderness without ever in his lifetime leaving the boundaries of asphalt, power lines, and right-angled surfaces. We need wilderness whether we ever set foot in it. We need a refuge even though we may never need to set foot in it. Furthermore, we need the possibility of escape as surely as we need hope; without it the life of the cities would drive all men into crime or drugs or psychoanalysis.

— Edward Abbey

Anarchism is democracy taken seriously.

— 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.

— Edward Abbey

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.

— Edward Abbey

Anarchism? You bet your sweet Betsy. The only cure for the ills of democracy is more democracy. Much more.

— Edward Abbey