quote · Words worth keeping
Has joy any survival value in the operations of evolution? I suspect that it does; I suspect that the morose and fearful are doomed to quick extinction. Where there is no joy there can be no courage; and without courage all other virtues are useless. Therefore the frogs, the toads, keep on singing even though we know, if they don't, that the sound of their uproar must surely be luring all the snakes and ringtail cats and kit foxes and coyotes and great horned owls toward the scene of their happiness.
Has joy any survival value in the operations of evolution? I suspect that it does; I suspect that the morose and fearful are doomed to quick extinction. Where there is no joy there can be no courage; and without courage all other virtues are useless. Therefore the frogs, the toads, keep on singing even though we know, if they don't, that the sound of their uproar must surely be luring all the snakes and ringtail cats and kit foxes and coyotes and great horned owls toward the scene of their happiness.
Approximate author period: c. 1958 AD · modern
Meaning not yet available
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- Author or tradition
- Edward Abbey
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Approximate author period: c. 1958 AD · modern
Approximate author-period anchor from life dates 1927 to 1989; Wikidata Q937610, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q937610 (accessed 2026-10-08). Not a quotation composition date.
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 268297; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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