A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto): Notes from a Secret Journal

An aphorism is to an essay as a haiku is to a sonnet. It delivers the message in as few words as possible. Edward Abbey (1927-1989) was a master of these one-sentence essays. Even in his longer work, acclaimed books like “Desert Solitaire,” readers might be tempted to underline choice sentences here and there, those clever statements that pack a punch in very few words.

Just before his death, Abbey compiled many of his best one-liners into the book “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness.” Some of those one-liners were probably written on his death bed just for this book. Reading them, one can switch moods in an instant, from laughter to anger (with Abbey or at him, as the case may be), from compassion to resolve.

They are a mixed lot, show more even when divided by category. Some examples:

On government and politics: "A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government."

On education: "The best thing about graduating from the university was that I finally had time to sit on a log and read a good book."

On music: "Music clouds the intellect but clarifies the heart."

On women: "Girls, like flowers, bloom but once. But once is enough."

Abbey is best remembered for his ruthless defense of the natural world, especially the American desert (which helps explains the title of the book). Many of his aphorisms touch on this subject, although they may sometimes seem contradictory, such as: "Nature, like Maimonides said, is mainly a good place to throw beer cans on Sunday afternoons." More characteristic is this one: "If wilderness is outlawed, only outlaws can save wilderness." Or this one: "Phoenix, Arizona: an oasis of ugliness in the midst of a beautiful wasteland."

This may be the best Edward Abbey book I've read. It packs a lifetime of thought into barely a hundred pages. show less

It is time for America to rediscover Edward Abbey. If you only know him from The Monkey Wrench Gang, and you liked it, the little collection of his sayings, A Voice Crying in the Wilderness, will give you an insight to Abbey’s inner workings. While he does not have the body of work left by Mark Twain, some of the sayings are just as pity as anything Twain penned.

Since it is a collection of sayings, you don’t need to read it in a linear order. In fact, it may be better not to. It is often enjoyable to just open to any page at random and read whatever your eye falls on. You could almost develop a cult based on daily readings from this book. Not quite Mao’s Red Book, but you get the idea.

This book is best enjoyed sitting in the shade show more of your front porch, or under a shady tree, with a cold one in one hand and some good company by your other hand. If you’re easily offended, too late: you shouldn’t have even read this review. show less

The best sayings of Edward Abbey - and some that weren't so good - collected together in a short, readable book that can serve as a valuable reference for anyone who wants something pithy to answer the next time they're confronted with an anti-environmental heckler.

"Whatever we cannot easily understand we call God; this saves much wear and tear on the brain tissues."

"Belief in God? An afterlife? I believe in rock: this apodictic rock beneath my feet."

"From the point of view of a tapeworm, man was created by God to serve the appetite of the tapeworm."

"Proverbs save us the trouble of thinking. What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity."

"Appearance versus reality? Appearance is reality, God damn it!"

"Fantastic doctrines (like Christianity or Islam or Marxism) require unanimity of belief. One dissenter casts doubt on the creed of millions. Thus the fear and the hate; thus the torture champber, the iron stake, the gallows, the labor camp, the psychiatric ward."

"God is show more Love? Not bloody likely."

"Belief? What do I believe in? I believe in sun. In rock. In the dogma of the sun and the doctrine of the rock. I believe in blood, fire, woman, rivers, eagles, storm, drums, flutes, banjos, and broom-tailed horses..."

"In metaphysics, the notion that earth and all that's on it is a mental construct is the product of people who spend their lives inside rooms. It is an indoor philosophy."

"Belief in the supernatural reflects a failure of the imagination."

"Better a cruel truth than a comfortable delusion."

"We live in a time of twin credulities: the hunger for the miraculous combine with a servile awe of science. The mating of the two gives the superstition plus scientism-- a Mongoloid metaphysic."

"No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets."

"All revolutions have failed? Perhaps. But rebellion for good cause is self-justifying-- a good in itself. Rebellion transforms slaves into human beings, if only for an hour."

"Men love their ideas more than their lives. And the more preposterous the idea, the more eager they are to die for it. And to kill for it."

"If America could be, once again, a nation of self-reliant farmers, craftsmen, hunters, ranchers, and artists, then the rich would have little power to dominate others. Neither to serve nor to rule: That was the American dream."

"There has never been an original sin: each is quite banal."

"The ready availability of suicide, like sex and alcohol, is one of life's basic consolations."

"The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time."

"We live in a kind of world where courage is the most essential of virtues; without courage, the other virtues are useless."

"In the modern technoindustrial culture, it is possible to proceed from infancy into senility without ever knowing manhood."

"Once upon a time, I dreamed of becoming a great man. Later, a good man. Now, finally, I find it difficult enough and honor enough to be-- a man."

"Those who fear death most are those who enjoy life least."

"To the intelligent man or woman, life appears infinitely mysterious. But the stupid have an answer for every question."

"Art, science, philosophy, religion-- each offers at best only a crude simplification of actual living experience."

"I find more and more, as I grow older, that I prefer women to men, children to adults, animals to humans... And rocks to living things? No, I'm not that old yet." show less

With sketches by Oracle's own Andy Rush, this Abbey book is the most closely related to Oracle itself, though not geographical in content. It's Abbey's "Notes from a secret journal."