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
Rousseau and his disciples were resolved to force men to be free; in most of the world, they triumphed; men are set… — Russell Kirk Copy Share Image
In any society, order is the first need of all. Liberty and justice may be established only after order is tolerably secure.… — Russell Kirk Copy Share Image
The good society is marked by a high degree of order, justice, and freedom. Among these, order has primacy: for justice cannot… — 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
A just government maintains a healthy tension between the claims of authority and the claims of liberty. — Russell Kirk Copy Share Image
Every right is married to a duty, every freedom owes a corresponding responsibility. — Russell Kirk Copy Share Image
The aim of any good constitution is to achieve in a society a high degree of political harmony, so that order and… — 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
“[A] people needs to understand what freedom is. We Americans are fortunate that the Founders and their generation possessed that understanding. They… — 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
Every right is married to a duty; every freedom owes a corresponding responsibility; and there cannot be genuine freedom unless there exists… — 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
