The desert says nothing. Completely passive, acted upon but never acting, the desert lies there like the bare skeleton of Being, spare, sparse, austere, utterly worthless, inviting not love but contemplation. In its simplicity and order it suggests the classical, except that the desert is a realm beyond the human and in the classical view only the human is regarded as significant or even recognized as real.
— Edward Abbey, Resist Much, Obey Little by James R. Hepworth, editor, Gregory McNama, editor