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
In America, as elsewhere, the general irritability level keeps rising.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the growing levels of frustration and irritability in society.
Edward Abbey's quote highlights a pervasive societal concern regarding the increasing irritability and discontent among people. He suggests that this rising frustration is not just limited to America but is a global phenomenon, indicating deeper issues within social dynamics and the collective mindset of individuals in contemporary life.
In practice
In a speech about social issues, one might refer to this quote to illustrate the growing tension in communities.
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.
Events, circumstances, etc., have their origin in ourselves. They spring from seeds which we have sown.
While it is useful to rebut charges and get your arguments out in circulation, you have to understand that arguments and evidence have little impact on people as long as their feelings tilt them against you.
Reality is a staircase going neither up nor down, we don't move; today is today, always is today.
Of all the creatures that man kills for his amusement there is only one that he kills out of hatred—other men. Man hates nothing as much as himself. That is why war is called the leprosy of the human soul.
The name of peace is sweet and the thing itself good, but between peace and slavery there is the greatest difference.
We are not merely historians but also and always citizens.
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