Abbey: Quotes

 

Introduction

The following quotes were taken from the last 200 pages of Desert Solitaire in order to show the author at his strengths and weaknesses.

 

Instructions

Read these quotes along with yours and write four declarative, thoughtful sentences about the author from them.

 

1. “My god, I’m, thinking, what incredible shit we put up with most of our lives, the domestic routine (same old wife ev ery night) the stupid and useless and degrading jobs, the insufferable arrogance of elected officials...what intolerable garbage and useless crap we bury ourselves in day by day.” 155

 

 

2. “I’ve come to take you home, old horse. What do you think of that?” 144

 

3. “I want that horse.” 139

 

4. “Suppose we were planning to impose a dictatorial regime on the American people....

 

2. Mechanize agriculture to the highest degree of refinement, thus forcing most of the scattered farm and ranching population into cities....(these) relatively self-sufficient types are difficult to manage...” 131

 

5. “We need the possibility of escape as surely a we need hope.” 129

 

6. ‘I don’t care what it is, you look like an idiot. Get out of there. I’m sinking he said.”112

 

7. “To be poor is bad enough; to be poor and multiplying is even worse.” 91

 

8. “Ferris, stop the car. let’ go back.”

“No, You’ve got a train to catch...Don’t worry, it will all be there in the spring.”269

 

9. “My own, my children, mine by right of possession, possession by right of love, by divine right, I now surrender them all.” 267

 

10. Balance, that’s the secret. Moderate Extremism. A grim business, returning to civilization, but duty calls.”

 

11. “For God’s sake, leave this country alone, Abbey.” To which Waterman adds “For Abbey’s sake, leave this country alone, God.” 261

 

12. “Waterman has a problem. As with Newcomb down in the Glen Canyon, he doesn’t want to go back....when did a government ever consist of human beings?

As any true patriot would, I urge him to hide down here under the ledge.” 255

 

13. “Like a fire ignited in the spring, smoldering through the terrible summer, my desert world flares up briefly and brilliantly before the coming of cold and snow.” 248

 

14. “But don’t get discouraged comrades. Christ failed too.” 247

 

15. “the desert says nothing. Completely passive, Acted upon, but never acting, the Desert lies there like the great skeleton of Being.” 239

 

16. “Is this, at last the locus dei?”

 

Thoreau and Abbey Questions

The following questions are designed to be answered after you have completed the project.

 

• What is Thoreau’s idea of conscience? Does Abbey have a corresponding idea? Explain.

 

• Abbey and Thoreau are separated by nearly one hundred years. What important distinctions (related to that time) do you see between the two?

 

• How would Abbey and Thoreau’s ideas and attitudes be different if they had families?

• What would the U.S. be like in the year 2000, if Abbey and HDT’ precepts were followed.