Humility, which Burke ranked high among the virtues, is the only effectual restraint upon this congenital vanity; yet our world has nearly… — Russell Kirk Copy Share Image
If men are discharged of reverence for ancient usage, they will treat this world, almost certainly, as if it were their private… — Russell Kirk Copy Share Image
Why do we not exhaust the heritage of the ages, spiritual and material for our immediate pleasure, and let posterity go hang?… — Russell Kirk Copy Share Image
The modern spectacle of vanished forests and eroded lands, wasted petroleum and ruthless mining, national debts recklessly increased until they are repudiated,… — Russell Kirk Copy Share Image
The twentieth-century conservative is concerned, first of all, for the regeneration of the spirit and character – with the perennial problem of… — Russell Kirk Copy Share Image
“Any informed conservative is reluctant to condense profound and intricate intellectual systems to a few pretentious phrases; he prefers to leave that… — 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
To complete the rout of traditionalists, in America an impression began to arise that the new industrial and acquisitive interests are the… — Russell Kirk Copy Share Image
The issue of environmental quality is one which transcends traditional political boundaries. It is a cause which can attract, and very sincerely,… — Russell Kirk Copy Share Image
The principle of real leadership ignored, the immortal objects of society forgotten, practical conservatism degenerated into mere laudation of private enterprise, economic… — Russell Kirk Copy Share Image
The decay of old aristocratic prejudices against greedy speculation, the undermining of orthodox Christian faith (which forbids avarice)... the debauching of agriculture… — Russell Kirk Copy Share Image
Every right is married to a duty, every freedom owes a corresponding responsibility. — Russell Kirk Copy Share Image
...so mankind is now trapped by the failure of its energies and by the depletion of those natural resources that men have… — Russell Kirk Copy Share Image
The automobile, practical since 1906, was proceeding to disintegrate and stamp anew the pattern of communication, manners, and city life in the… — Russell Kirk Copy Share Image
The resources of nature, like those of spirit, are running out, and all that a conscientious man can aspire to be is… — Russell Kirk Copy Share Image
If a conservative order is indeed to return, we ought to know the tradition which is attached to it, so that we… — Russell Kirk Copy Share Image
The libertarian thinks that this world is chiefly a stage for the swaggering ego; the conservative finds himself instead a pilgrim in… — Russell Kirk Copy Share Image
To check centralization and usurping of power ... we require a new laissez-faire. The old laissez-faire was founded upon a misapprehension of… — Russell Kirk Copy Share Image
...only the unscrupulous or shortsighted can defend pollution and degradation of the countryside. — Russell Kirk Copy Share Image
Rather than ennobling the public mind and cementing the social fabric, applied science speedily became the chief weapon of a gross individualism,… — Russell Kirk Copy Share Image
True conformity to the dictates of nature requires reverence for the past and solicitude for the future. 'Nature' is not simply the… — Russell Kirk Copy Share Image
I am a conservative. Quite possibly I am on the losing side; often I think so. Yet, out of a curious perversity… — Russell Kirk Copy Share Image
...ambition without pious restraint must end in failure, often involving in its ruin that beautiful reverence which solaces common men for the… — 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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
