William F. Buckley, Jr

As a businessman, Frank Lorenzo gives capitalism a bad name.

— William F. Buckley, Jr

History is but the polemics of the victor.

— William F. Buckley, Jr

Boredom is the deadliest poison.

— William F. Buckley, Jr

Conservatism is the politics of reality

— William F. Buckley, Jr

We love your adherence to democratic principles.

— William F. Buckley, Jr

Some of my instincts are reprehensible.

— William F. Buckley, Jr

I had much more fun criticizing than praising.

— William F. Buckley, Jr

Industry is the enemy of melancholy

— William F. Buckley, Jr

I would rather be governed by the first 2000 people in the Manhattan phone book than the entire faculty of Harvard.

— William F. Buckley, Jr

Louis Kelso of San Francisco, a lawyer-economist, has for years felt that he has a radical answer to the problem.

— William F. Buckley, Jr

Enthusiasm for conservation can be fashioned into a nasty weapon for those who dislike business on general principles.

— William F. Buckley, Jr

The police can't use clubs or gas or dogs. I suppose they will have to use poison ivy.

— William F. Buckley, Jr

...following Mrs. Roosevelt in search of irrationality was like following a burning fuse in search of an explosive.

— William F. Buckley, Jr

I profoundly believe it takes a lot of practice to become a moral slob.

— William F. Buckley, Jr

Scientists are people who build the Brooklyn Bridge and then buy it.

— William F. Buckley, Jr

Idealism is fine, but as it approaches reality, the costs become prohibitive.

— William F. Buckley, Jr

Presley brought an excitement to singing, in part because rock and roll was greeted as his invention, but for other reasons not…

— William F. Buckley, Jr

The superstition that the hounds of truth will rout the vermin of error seems, like a fragment of Victorian lace, quaint, but…

— William F. Buckley, Jr

One can't doubt that the American objective in Iraq has failed - different plans have to be made. And the kernel here…

— William F. Buckley, Jr

Reagan is both too fatalistic and too modest to be a crudaser. He doesn't have that darkness around the eyes of a…

— William F. Buckley, Jr

Mr. Rockefeller is due to entertain munificently at breakfast, and make his pitch. My advice to one invited guest was: Order caviar,…

— William F. Buckley, Jr

I've always believed that conservatism is the politics of reality, and that reality ultimately asserts itself in a reasonably free society, in…

— William F. Buckley, Jr

We are, always, reminded of the old saw: What would happen if the Soviet Union took over the Sahara Desert? Answer: Nothing…

— William F. Buckley, Jr

A relatively small and eternally quarrelsome country in Western Europe, fountainhead of rationalist political manias, militarily impotent, historically inglorious during the past…

— William F. Buckley, Jr

The principal sponsors of the terrorists are not religious fanatics. "Palestine's Yasser Arafat, Iraq's Saddam Hussein, and Syria's Assad family have made…

— William F. Buckley, Jr

Arlen Specter is the man who voted in favor of Bill Clinton during impeachment, voted against Robert Bork for the Supreme Court,…

— William F. Buckley, Jr

They [Theodore White and Lou Harris] took turns weeping, and finally concluded that Rockefeller got the votes of everyone in California who…

— William F. Buckley, Jr

The government of the United States, under Lyndon Johnson, proposes to concern itself over the quality of American life. And this is…

— William F. Buckley, Jr

It was rumored, in 1946, that the hangman in Nuremberg adjusted the nooses of some of the condemned to magnify the pain…

— William F. Buckley, Jr

Now it is one thing to say I say it that people shouldn't consume psychoactive drugs. It is entirely something else to…

— William F. Buckley, Jr

Old ladies photographed by CBS who announced that they would die of malnutrition if Reagan's bill were passed could probably have saved…

— William F. Buckley, Jr

... to say that the CIA and the KGB engage in similar practices is the equivalent of saying that the man who…

— William F. Buckley, Jr

We have got to accept Big Government for the duration-for neither an offensive nor a defensive war can be waged, given our…

— William F. Buckley, Jr

I will not cede more power to the state. I will not willingly cede more power to anyone, not to the state,…

— William F. Buckley, Jr

“The obvious differences apart, Karl Marx was no more a reliable prophet than was the Reverend Jim Jones. Karl Marx was a…

— William F. Buckley, Jr

“Halfway through the second term of Franklin Roosevelt, the New Deal braintrusters began to worry about mounting popular concern over the national…

— William F. Buckley, Jr

If only the left hated crime as much as they hated hate.

— William F. Buckley, Jr

Why does baloney avoid the grinder?

— William F. Buckley, Jr

All adventure is now reactionary.

— William F. Buckley, Jr

Nobody who's ever been to Gulag is a pacifist.

— William F. Buckley, Jr