quotations about conservatives
Progressives seem to think that conservatives distrust the government because of some esoteric philosophical theory, or because we had some weird dream involving Ayn Rand. In reality, it's because we've been told to trust the government before -- and we've gotten burned, time and time again.
JIM GERAGHTY
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"Ten Reasons We Can't and Shouldn't Be Nordic", National Review, March 12, 2018
Conservatives do not believe that political struggle is the most important thing in life... The simplest among them prefer fox-hunting--the wisest religion.
QUINTIN HOGG
The Case for Conservatism
Isn't conservatism in part about resisting so-called new realities when you sense they might be questionable, even as people lecture you that you've got to get with the times?
BILL KRISTOL
"Still a Republican", The Weekly Standard, March 23, 2018
Conservatives are like the people at a party who know the lyrics to all the songs--and we're the ones who can only hum. That's because they have a fairly simple philosophy, one that's easy to memorize.
BERNIE HORN
Framing the Future: How Progressive Values Can Win Elections and Influence People
The conservative is a person who considers very closely every chance, even the longest, of "throwing out the baby with the bath-water," as the German proverb puts it, and who determines his conduct accordingly.
ALBERT JAY NOCK
The Atlantic Monthly, October 1936
Conservatism is a defense of established hierarchies, but it is also fearful of those established hierarchies. It sees in their assuredness of power the source of corruption, decadence and decline. Ruling regimes require some kind of irritant, a grain of sand in the oyster, to reactivate their latent powers, to exercise their atrophied muscles, to make their pearls.
COREY ROBIN
interview with Henry Farrell, February 1, 2018
A conservative frame of mind is very limiting for an actor, and a human being, too.
VANESSA REDGRAVE
Elle Magazine, Oct. 1989
Growing older, I have lost the need to be political, which means, in this country, the need to be left. I am driven into grudging toleration of the Conservative Party because it is the party of non-politics, of resistance to politics.
KINGSLEY AMIS
Sunday Telegraph, Jul. 2, 1967
Conservatives are inclined to use the powers of government to prevent change or to limit its rate to whatever appeals to the more timid mind. In looking forward, they lack the faith in the spontaneous forces of adjustment which makes the liberal accept changes without apprehension, even though he does not know how the necessary adaptations will be brought about.
FRIEDRICH HAYEK
Why I Am Not a Conservative
Conservatives want to make the poor rich, while liberals want to make the rich poor.
MARK W. SMITH
The Official Handbook of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy
The conservative response to modernity is to embrace it, but to embrace it critically, in full consciousness that human achievements are rare and precarious, that we have no God-given right to destroy our inheritance, but must always patiently submit to the voice of order, and set an example of orderly living.
ROGER SCRUTON
"Eliot and Conservatism", A Political Philosophy
Success makes men rigid and they tend to exalt stability over all the other virtues; tired of the effort of willing they become fanatics about conservatism.
WALTER LIPPMANN
A Preface to Politics
Liberals feel unworthy of their possessions. Conservatives feel they deserve everything they've stolen.
MORT SAHL
attributed, Moments of Clarity
Conservatism is purely an ad hoc affair; its findings vary with conditions, and are good for this day and train only.
ALBERT JAY NOCK
The Atlantic Monthly, October 1936
A conservative is someone who does not think he is morally superior to his grandfather.
JOHN HOWARD
The Howard Era
The idea of the sacred is quite simply one of the most conservative notions in any culture, because it seeks to turn other ideas -- uncertainty, progress, change -- into crimes.
SALMAN RUSHDIE
speech, Feb. 6, 1990
For me, one of the most disturbing elements of the right wing's political agenda is that it believes that there is one correct spiritual and moral path for all people to follow. The danger inherent in this is its explicit refusal to accept anyone who happens to lead a different lifestyle, and the condemnation of those who differ.
BARBRA STREISAND
The Advocate, Aug. 17, 1999
I never meant to say that the conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative. I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it.
JOHN STUART MILL
letter to Conservative MP John Pakington, March 1866
Clinging to any form of conservatism can be dangerous. Become too conservative and you are unprepared for surprises.
FRANK HERBERT
Chapterhouse: Dune
The only difference today between Liberals and Conservatives is that the Liberals go to mass at five o' clock and the Conservatives at eight.
GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ
One Hundred Years of Solitude