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
Why I oppose the nuclear-arms race: I prefer the human race.
Interpretation
The quote expresses a preference for humanity over the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Edward Abbey's quote highlights the importance of valuing human life and the human experience above the dangers posed by the nuclear arms race. It suggests that the pursuit of such destructive capabilities undermines our shared humanity and calls for a return to what truly matters: the welfare of people and society as a whole.
In practice
In a speech about disarmament, you might quote Abbey to emphasize the need for prioritizing human welfare.
Married couples who quarrel bitterly every day may really need each other as deeply as those who appear to be desperately in love.
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.
If it's knowledge and wisdom you want, then seek out the company of those who do real work for an honest purpose.
The earth is real. Only a fool, milking his cow, denies the cow's reality.
I believe in nothing that I cannot touch, kiss, embrace.... The rest is only hearsay.
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.
Learning to weep, learning to keep vigil, learning to wait for the dawn. Perhaps this is what it means to be human.
What should we suppose must naturally be the consequence of our carrying on a slave trade with Africa? With a country, vast in its extent, not utterly barbarous, but civilized in a very small degree? Does any one suppose a slave trade would help their civilization?
They do not want to know that centralization is not only the death-knell of liberty, but also of health and beauty, of art and science, all these being impossible in a clock-like, mechanical atmosphere.
For me it is the virgin birth, the Incarnation, the resurrection which are the true laws of the flesh and the physical. Death, decay, destruction are the suspension of these laws. I am always astonished at the emphasis the Church puts on the body. It is not the soul she says that will rise but the body, glorified.
I'm for democracy, but imposing democracy is an oxymoron. People have to choose democracy, and it has to come up from below.
You can't segregate and humiliate people decade after decade without creating long-lasting injuries.
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