Edward Abbey Quotes
War? The one war I'd be happy to join is the war against officers.
Abbey, Edward. A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto). St. Martin's Press, 1989.
At the time 18 year old Douglas wanted to enlist to fight in the Philippines where his father was about to be given military command. Young Douglas took his father’s prescient advice and attended West Point instead. In an amazing historical precursor, General Arthur MacArthur ended up in policy disputes with the President over how aggressive American tactics should be. President Taft relieved MacArthur of his command.
Alluding to Ecclesiastes 3:1 ff, "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die;.." The exact wording of his sermon has been lost, but the sentiment was reported by many.
Edward Paul Abbey was an American author and essayist noted for his advocacy of environmental issues and criticism of public land policies. His best-known works include Desert Solitaire, a non-fiction autobiographical account of his time as a park ranger at Arches National Park considered to be an iconic work of nature writing and a staple of early environmentalist writing; the novel The Monkey Wrench Gang, which has been cited as an inspiration by environmentalists and groups defending nature by various means, also called eco-warriors; his novel Hayduke Lives; and his essay collections Down the River (with Henry Thoreau & Other Friends) (1982) and One Life at a Time, Please (1988).
