This is the most beautiful place on earth. There are many such places. Every man, every woman, carries in heart and mind the image of the ideal place, the right place, the one true home, known or unknown, actual or visionary. A houseboat in Kashmir, a view down Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, a gray gothic farmhouse two stories high at the end of a red dog road in the Allegheny Mountains, a cabin on the shore of a blue lake in spruce and fir country, a greasy alley near the Hoboken waterfront, or even, possibly, for those of a less demanding sensibility, the world to be seen from a comfortable apartment high in the tender, velvety smog of Manhattan, Chicago, Paris, Tokyo, Rio, or Rome - there's no limit to the human capacity for the homing sentiment.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Everyone has a unique mental image of an ideal home or place, ranging from wild landscapes to urban settings.
- In plain terms
- Everyone imagines a perfect place, whether wild or city.
- What can you take from it?
- Ideal places are subjective and varied.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Where is your ideal place?
- Do you belong anywhere?
Another view
Physical limitations may prevent finding this place.
More from Edward Abbey
Without courage, all other virtues are useless.
Permalink to quote #6 I'd sooner exchange ideas with the birds on earth than learn to carry on intergalactic communications with some obscure race of humanoids on a satellite planet…
Permalink to quote #8 May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.
Permalink to quote #5
Related quotes
You belong somewhere you feel free.
Tom PettyTom Petty quote #52 America is my country and Paris is my home town and it is as it has come to be.
Gertrude SteinGertrude Stein quote #55 Everything must belong somewhere. I know that now, that's why I'm staying here.
Conor OberstConor Oberst quote #75