If you hope for any sort of dialogue and unity with all factions on the vaguely leftist or radical side of politics, you must cease from silly verbal abuse. If you don't want it, then we go on as we are, fractious and impotent.

Edward Abbey
About This Quote

This quote is one of the best pieces of advice I've ever read. No matter what your political leaning, if you want to talk to or about people, then you must treat them with respect. If you are going to say something that could be viewed as mean or hurtful in some way, then it is best not to say anything at all. This goes double for the simple verbal abuse that liberals and leftists might use when speaking with each other.

Source: Postcards From Ed: Dispatches And Salvos From An American Iconoclast

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  4. What people want, mainly, is to be told by some plausible authority that what they are already doing is right. I don't know know of a quicker way to become unpopular than to disagree. - John Brunner
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More Quotes By Edward Abbey
  1. A man could be a lover and defender of the wilderness without ever in his lifetime leaving the boundaries of asphalt, powerlines, and right-angled surfaces. We need wilderness whether or not we ever set foot in it. We need a refuge even though we may...
  2. Philosophy without action is the ruin of the soul. One brave deed is worth a hundred books, a thousand theories, a million words. Now as always we need heroes. And heroines! Down with the passive and the limp.
  3. This sweet virginal primitive land will metaphorically breathe a sigh of relief --like a whisper of wind--when we are all and finally gone and the place and its creations can return to their ancient procedures unobserved and undisturbed by the busy, anxious, brooding consciousness of...
  4. Better a cruel truth than a comfortable delusion.
  5. But it is a writer's duty to write and speak and record the truth, always the truth, no matter whom may be offended.
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