Conservatism

Explore 17 quotes about Conservatism

Loyalty to petrified opinions never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul.

Mark Twain

More information about this quote

Topic

Conservatism Progress

Speaker

Mark Twain

Source

Consistency (speech) Speeches of Mark Twain

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1884 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Twain, Mark. "Consistency." Hartford Monday Evening Club. 5 Dec. 1884, Hartford, CT, USA.

Current Citation

Twain, Mark. "The Czar's Soliloquy." Collected Nonfiction of Mark Twain. Vol. 1, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2016.

The true conservative seeks to protect the system of private property and free enterprise by correcting such injustices and inequalities as arise from it. The most serious threat to our institutions comes from those who refuse to face the need for change. Liberalism becomes the protection for the far-sighted conservative.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

More information about this quote

Topic

Conservatism

Speaker

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1936 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Roosevelt, Franklin Delano. Campaign address. Democractic State Convention. 29 Sept. 1936, Syracuse, NY, USA.

They are casting their problems on society and who is society? There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and there are families and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first.

Margaret Thatcher

More information about this quote

Topic

Society Family Role of government Political theory Conservatism

Speaker

Margaret Thatcher

Medium

Interview

Language

English

Time

1987 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Thatcher, Margaret. "No Such Thing as Society." Interviewed by Douglas Keay. Woman's Own, 23 Sept. 1987.

Conservatism starts from a sentiment that all mature people can readily share: the sentiment that good things are easily destroyed, but not easily created.

Roger Scruton

How to Be a Conservative

Buy How to Be a Conservative at Amazon Buy How to Be a Conservative at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Conservatism

Author

Roger Scruton

Source

How to Be a Conservative

Genre

Political literature Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

2014 2010s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Scruton, Roger. How to Be a Conservative. Bloomsbury Continuum, 2014, preface.

The radical of one century is the conservative of the next. The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out the conservative adopts them.

Mark Twain

More information about this quote

Topic

Radicalism Conservatism Progress

Author

Mark Twain

Source

Journals of Mark Twain

Medium

Personal journal

Language

English

Time

1897 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Twain, Mark. Mark Twain's Notebook, edited by Albert Bigelow Paine. The Mark Twain Company, 1932, ch. 31. Originally from Notebook, c. 1897

The Conservatives…being by the law of their existence the stupidest party.

John Stuart Mill

Considerations on Representative Government

More information about this quote

Topic

Conservatism

Author

John Stuart Mill

Source

Considerations on Representative Government

Medium

Essay

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1861 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Mill, John Stuart. Considerations on Representative Government. London: Parker, Son, and Bourn, 1861, ch. 7.

Current Citation

Mill, John Stuart. "Considerations on Representative Government." On Liberty, Utilitarianism and Other Essays, edited by Mark Philp and Frederick Rosen. Oxford University Press, 2015, ch. 7.

A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.

Gerald Ford

More information about this quote

Topic

Limited government Government Conservatism Political theory Politics

Speaker

Gerald Ford

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1960 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Ford, Gerald. Presidential address to a joint session of Congress. Joint session of Congress. 12 Aug. 1974, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative on the day after the revolution.

Hannah Arendt

The New Yorker

Buy Reflections on Civil Disobedience at Amazon Buy Reflections on Civil Disobedience at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Revolutionaries Revolution Conservatism Political theory Politics

Author

Hannah Arendt

Source

Reflections on Civil Disobedience The New Yorker

Medium

Essay Magazine

Genre

Political literature

Statement Type

Paradox

Language

English

Time

1970 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Arendt, Hannah. "Civil Disobedience." Crises of the Republic. Vintage, 1972. Originally published as "Reflections on Civil Disobedience" by The New Yorker, 12 Sept. 1970.

The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself.

Daniel Patrick Moynihan

More information about this quote

Topic

Politics is downstream of culture Conservatism Liberalism Political theory Politics

Speaker

Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Source

Family and Nation

Medium

Lecture

Language

English

Time

1985 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Moynihan, Daniel Patrick. "Family and Nation." Edwin L. Godkin Lecture. 1985, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.

National Review... Stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it.

William F. Buckley, Jr

Read National Review's mission statement at nationalreview.com

More information about this quote

Topic

Conservatism American politics

Author

William F. Buckley, Jr

Source

National Review

Medium

Magazine

Language

English

Time

1955 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Buckley, William F., Jr. "Our Mission Statement." National Review, 19 Nov. 1955.

How can wealth persuade poverty to use its political freedom to keep wealth in power? Here lies the whole art of Conservative politics in the twentieth century.

Aneurin Bevan

In Place of Fear

More information about this quote

Topic

Conservatism False consciousness

Author

Aneurin Bevan

Source

In Place of Fear

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1952 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Bevan, Aneurin. In Place of Fear. William Heinemann, 1952, ch. 1.

What is conservatism? Is it not adherence to the old and tried, against the new and untried?

Abraham Lincoln

Buy Lincoln: His Speeches and Writings at Amazon Buy Lincoln: His Speeches and Writings at Amazon
Read the full transcript of the Cooper Union Address at millercenter.org

More information about this quote

Topic

Conservatism

Speaker

Abraham Lincoln

Source

Address at Cooper Institute, New York City

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Statement Type

Question

Language

English

Time

1860 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Lincoln, Abraham. "Address at Cooper Institute, New York City." 27 Feb. 1860, New York City, NY, USA.

Current Citation

Lincoln, Abraham. "Address at Cooper Institute, New York City, February 27, 1860." Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859-1865, edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher. Library of America, 1989.

There is always a certain meanness in the argument of conservatism, joined with a certain superiority in its fact.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Conservative

More information about this quote

Topic

Conservatism Politics

Speaker

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Source

The Conservative

Medium

Lecture

Language

English

Time

1841 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "The Conservative." 9 Dec. 1841, Masonic Temple, Boston, MA, USA.

Progress may have been all right once, but it went on too long.

Ogden Nash

More information about this quote

Topic

Conservatism Progress

Author

Ogden Nash

Source

Come, Come, Kerouac! My Generation is Beater Than Yours. The New Yorker

Medium

Poem Magazine

Language

English

Time

1959 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 0

Citation

Nash, Ogden. "Come, Come, Kerouac! My Generation is Beater Than Yours." The New Yorker, 4 Apr. 1959.

All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change.

G.K. Chesterton

Orthodoxy

Buy Orthodoxy at Amazon Buy Orthodoxy at Amazon
Read Orthodoxy at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Conservatism The only constant is change Change

Author

G.K. Chesterton

Source

Orthodoxy

Genre

Religious literature

Language

English

Time

1908 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Chesterton, G.K. "Orthodoxy." The Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton. Vol. 1, Ignatius Press, 1986, ch. 4. Originally published by John Lane Co., 1908.

To be conservative, then, is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried, fact to mystery, the actual to the possible, the limited to the unbounded, the near to the distant, the sufficient to the superabundant, the convenient to the perfect, present laughter to utopian bliss.

Michael Oakeshott

On Being Conservative

More information about this quote

Topic

Conservatism Politics

Author

Michael Oakeshott

Source

On Being Conservative

Medium

Essay

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1962 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Oakeshott, Michael. "On Being Conservative. " Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays. Methuen, 1962.

I never dared be radical when young
For fear it would make me conservative when old.

Robert Frost

More information about this quote

Topic

Radicalism Conservatism Political ideology

Author

Robert Frost

Source

Precaution

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1936 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Frost, Robert. "Precaution." Poetry Magazine, Apr. 1936.