Europe Quotes by Russell Kirk

“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

“Manfredo -- Your Excellency -- how can you, even you, hope...?" "Life is a jest, and all things show it, my dear," I replied;…

— Russell Kirk

“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

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

“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

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

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

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

Politics moves upward into ethics, and ethics ascends to theology.

— Russell Kirk

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

“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

Privilege, in any society, is the reward of duties performed.

— Russell Kirk

“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

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

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