“By “the Permanent Things” [T. S. Eliot] meant those elements in the human condition that give us our nature, without which we… — 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
“Libertarians (like anarchists and Marxists) generally believe that human nature is good, though damaged by certain social institutions. Conservatives, on the contrary,… — 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
Ordinary human laws are the means - however imperfect - by which we express our understanding of the enduring moral law. — 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
“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 successes of their masterly general and his incomparable popular forces. The tyrants may live to rue the day when they ignored the might of revolutionary Hamnegri. These reactionary elements include, of course, the oligarchs of the… — Russell Kirk Copy Share
“Manfredo -- Your Excellency -- how can you, even you, hope...?" "Life is a jest, and all things show it, my dear," I replied; "and if the most barbarous demagogue of the Congo treats the great of the world with hauteur, why should not such a one as I? Ah, yes: we'd best find time for an appeal to New… — Russell Kirk Copy Share
“Today, as in the past, we ought to remind ourselves that the true natural law is not a mere congeries of appetites, and that it is not from the vagrant musings of the hour's judges that the natural law derives its high authority. . . . The Catholic tradition of natural law, to borrow a phrase from Sir Ernest Barker,… — Russell Kirk Copy Share
Moral decay first hampers and then strangles honest government, regular commerce, and even the ability to take genuine pleasure in the goods of this world. Compulsion is applied from above as self-discipline relaxes below, and the last liberties expire under the weight of a unitary state… Since religion has lost its empire over the souls of men, the most prominent… — Russell Kirk Copy Share
“Men are put into this world, he [the enlightened conservative] realizes, to struggle, to suffer, to contend against the evil that is in their neighbors and in themselves, and to aspire toward the triumph of Love. They are put into this world to live like men, and to die like men. He seeks to preserve a society which allows men… — Russell Kirk Copy Share
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 many prudential questions, and on some general principles, conservatives may disagree from time to time among themselves; so this book offers a certain diversity of opinions. Yet the folk called "conservative" join in resistance to the… — Russell Kirk Copy Share
![“By “the Permanent Things” [T. S. Eliot] meant those elements in the human condition that give us our nature, without which we are as the beasts that perish. They work upon us all in the sense that both they and we are bound up in that continuity of belief and institution called the great…” quote by Russell Kirk](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/904/russell-kirk-6909_culture_by-the-permanent-things-t-s-eliot-meant_716881.jpg)
