Married couples who quarrel bitterly every day may really need each other as deeply as those who appear to be desperately in love.
Edward AbbeyRead
Beware the writer who always encloses the word *reality* in quotation marks: He's trying to slip something over on you. Or into you.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote warns against those who manipulate language to challenge or distort the truth.
Edward Abbey’s quote suggests that when someone uses quotation marks around the word 'reality', they may be attempting to redefine or obscure what is generally accepted as true. This manipulation can lead to confusion or deception, indicating a lack of sincerity or intent to mislead the audience, hence urging caution in discerning spoken or written language.
Themes
RealityManipulationTruthLanguageDeception
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about media representations, this quote can be used to caution against biased reporting.
More from Edward Abbey
All quotes →I love America because it is a confused, chaotic mess - and I hope we can keep it this way for at least another thousand years. The permissive society is the free society.
Edward AbbeyRead
If it's knowledge and wisdom you want, then seek out the company of those who do real work for an honest purpose.
Edward AbbeyRead
The earth is real. Only a fool, milking his cow, denies the cow's reality.
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I believe in nothing that I cannot touch, kiss, embrace.... The rest is only hearsay.
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Why can't we simply borrow what is useful to us from Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, especially Zen, as we borrow from Christianity, science, American Indian traditions and world literature in general, including philosophy, and let the rest go hang? Borrow what we need but rely principally upon our own senses, common sense and daily living experience.
Edward AbbeyRead
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