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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.

Edward Abbey#7

HomeBelongingImaginationPlace

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

  • travel
  • relocation
  • writing

Putting it to work

  • define your ideal space
  • appreciate different places

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

  1. Without courage, all other virtues are useless.

    Permalink to quote #6
  2. 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
  3. 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

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