Locke contended that government originates out of the necessity for protecting property. — Russell Kirk Copy Share Image
A just government maintains a healthy tension between the claims of authority and the claims of liberty. — Russell Kirk Copy Share Image
Individualism is a denial that life has any meaning except the gratification of the ego; in politics it must end in anarchy.… — Russell Kirk Copy Share Image
The conservative "thinks of political policies as intended to preserve order, justice, and freedom. The ideologue, on the contrary, thinks of politics… — Russell Kirk Copy Share Image
“Power can be restrained only by counterbalancing power, Montesquieu reasoned. No man, and no political body or office, ought to possess unchecked… — Russell Kirk Copy Share Image
Moral decay first hampers and then strangles honest government, regular commerce, and even the ability to take genuine pleasure in the goods… — Russell Kirk Copy Share Image
“To narrow natural rights to such neat slogans as "liberty, equality, fraternity" or "life, liberty, property," . . . was to ignore… — Russell Kirk Copy Share Image
“There are six canons of conservative thought: 1) Belief in a transcendent order, or body of natural law, which rules society as… — Russell Kirk Copy Share Image
“Two centuries ago, the United States settled into a permanent political order, after fourteen years of violence and heated debate. Two centuries… — Russell Kirk Copy Share Image
“Only portions of the globe still enslaved by the enemies of the people refrained from congratulating President Zingu and Premier Villiers-Kolama upon the astounding… — Russell Kirk Copy Share
“Manfredo -- Your Excellency -- how can you, even you, hope...?" "Life is a jest, and all things show it, my dear," I replied;… — Russell Kirk Copy Share
“Today, as in the past, we ought to remind ourselves that the true natural law is not a mere congeries of appetites, and that… — Russell Kirk Copy Share
Moral decay first hampers and then strangles honest government, regular commerce, and even the ability to take genuine pleasure in the goods of this… — Russell Kirk Copy Share
“Men are put into this world, he [the enlightened conservative] realizes, to struggle, to suffer, to contend against the evil that is in their… — Russell Kirk Copy Share
Mine was not an Enlightened mind, I now was aware: it was a Gothic mind, medieval in its temper and structure. I did not… — Russell Kirk Copy Share
Humility, which Burke ranked high among the virtues, is the only effectual restraint upon this congenital vanity; yet our world has nearly forgotten the… — Russell Kirk Copy Share
Rousseau and his disciples were resolved to force men to be free; in most of the world, they triumphed; men are set free from… — Russell Kirk Copy Share
If men are discharged of reverence for ancient usage, they will treat this world, almost certainly, as if it were their private property, to… — Russell Kirk Copy Share
“The Conservative Mind describes a cast of intellect or a type of character, an inclination to cherish the permanent things in human existence. On… — Russell Kirk Copy Share
“There are six canons of conservative thought: 1) Belief in a transcendent order, or body of natural law, which rules society as well as… — Russell Kirk Copy Share
The Secular City, having legislated and litigated itself out of any entanglement with the City of God, would be a hell upon earth . — Russell Kirk Copy Share
Why do we not exhaust the heritage of the ages, spiritual and material for our immediate pleasure, and let posterity go hang? So far… — Russell Kirk Copy Share
