Like Midas, the Rationalist is always in the unfortunate position of not being able to touch anything, without transforming it into an abstraction; he can never get a square meal of experience. — Michael Joseph Oakeshott Copy Share Image
In political activity, then, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea; there is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place nor… — Michael Joseph Oakeshott Copy Share Image
Education is ... the invitation to disentangle oneself, for a time, from the urgencies of the here and now and to listen to the… — Michael Joseph Oakeshott Copy Share Image
It is certain that most who concentrate upon achievement miss life. — Michael Joseph Oakeshott Copy Share Image
A recorded past is no more than a bygone present composed of the footprints made by human beings actually going somewhere but not knowing… — Michael Joseph Oakeshott Copy Share Image
To be conservative…is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried, fact to mystery, the actual to the… — Michael Joseph Oakeshott Copy Share Image
The man of conservative temperament believes that a known good is not lightly to be surrendered for an unknown better. — Michael Joseph Oakeshott Copy Share Image
The rule of law bakes no bread, it is unable to distribute loaves or fishes (it has none), and it cannot protect itself against… — Michael Joseph Oakeshott Copy Share Image
The conjunction of ruling and dreaming generates tyranny. — Michael Joseph Oakeshott Copy Share Image
This, I believe, is the appropriate image of human intercourse -- appropriate because it recognizes the qualities, the diversities, and the proper relationships of… — Michael Joseph Oakeshott Copy Share Image
Our predicament is not the difficulty of attaining happiness, but the difficult of avoiding the misery to which the pursuit of happiness exposes us. — Michael Joseph Oakeshott Copy Share Image
Politics I take to be the activity of attending to the general arrangements of a set of people whom chance or choice have brought… — Michael Joseph Oakeshott Copy Share Image
Economics is not an attempt to generalize human desires or human behavior; but to generalize the phenomena of price. — Michael Joseph Oakeshott Copy Share Image
We consider ourselves to be free because no one in our society is allowed unlimited powerno leader, faction, party or 'class', no majority, no… — Michael Joseph Oakeshott Copy Share Image
Like Midas, the Rationalist is always in the unfortunate position of not being able to touch anything, without transforming it into an abstraction; he… — Michael Joseph Oakeshott Copy Share Image
