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
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
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
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
Men cannot improve a society by setting fire to it: they must seek out its old virtues, and bring them back into… — 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
Even the wisest of mankind cannot live by reason alone; pure arrogant reason, denying the claims of prejudice (which commonly are also… — Russell Kirk Copy Share Image
And Burke, could he see our century, never would concede that a consumption-society, so near to suicide, is the end for which… — 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
The aim of great books is ethical: to teach what it means to be a man. Every major form of literary art… — 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
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
Prejudice is not bigotry or superstition, although prejudice sometimes may degenerate into these. Prejudice is pre-judgment, the answer with which intuition and… — Russell Kirk Copy Share Image
Individualism is a denial that life has any meaning except the gratification of the ego; in politics it must end in anarchy.… — 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
