England in August 1914 was more of a state than she was…

“There is no wealth but life. Life, including all its powers of love, of joy, and of admiration. That country is the richest which…

— Michael Oakeshott

“For there is not so complete and perfect a part that we know of nature, which does not owe the being it has, and…

— Michael Oakeshott

“to think nothing about the opinion of his society (if he be in any sense a member) is to be unconsciously influenced by it.”

— Michael Oakeshott

“For history and for science facts are self-evident and are the subject-matter of these studies, but for philosophy they are the most puzzling things…

— Michael Oakeshott

“To theorize’ means, to see as a whole. The actual is a small part of the whole, or a single aspect of it, which,…

— Michael Oakeshott

“Image the whole, then execute the parts— Fancy the fabric Quite, ere you build, ere steel strike fire from quartz Ere mortar dab brick!”

— Michael Oakeshott

“the first rule of Moritz Haupt for interpreting the classics,—‘Man soll nicht übersetzen.’ [‘Do not translate’:”

— Michael Oakeshott

“Property was thus appall’d / That the self was not the same / Single nature’s double name / Neither two nor one was call’d.”

— Michael Oakeshott

“a child might possibly change his country; a man can only wish that he might change it.”

— Michael Oakeshott

“To define a thing is to see it clearly, to see it as distinct from other things and at the same time to see…

— Michael Oakeshott

“in modern philosophy, the first glimpse of the true view of the conception of ‘might is right’ as applying to government is to be…

— Michael Oakeshott

“The process of experiencing is well described by Goethe when he says that our life is made up of our connections with the world…

— Michael Oakeshott

“For a great state, qua state, is not one which embraces a great population or an extensive territory, but one which achieves a great…

— Michael Oakeshott

In political activity men sail a boundless and bottomless sea; there is neither harbor for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting point nor…

— Michael Oakeshott

“A so-called ideal scheme which does not grow out of reality is definitely and finally not ideal at all.”

— Michael Oakeshott