All Irving Kristol Quotes
- Even if we can't be happy, we must always be cheerful. Cheer
- You have to know one big thing and stick with it. The leaders who had one very big idea and one very big commitment. This… Big
- Somehow, the fact that more poor people are on welfare, receiving more generous payments, does not seem to have made this country a nice place… All
- If you believe that no one was ever corrupted by a book, you have also to believe that no one was ever improved by a… Believe
- An intellectual may be defined as a man who speaks with general authority about a subject on which he has no particular competence. Authority
- A neoconservative is a liberal who's been mugged by reality. A neoliberal is a liberal who's been mugged by reality but has refused to press… Been
- There are different kinds of truths for different kinds of people. There are truths appropriate for children; truths that are appropriate for students; truths that… Adults
- People need religion. It's a vehicle for a moral tradition. A crucial role. Nothing can take its place. Crucial
- I have observed over the years that the unanticipated consequences of social action are always more important, and usually less agreeable, than the intended consequences. Action
- What rules the world is idea, because ideas define the way reality is perceived. Define
- The enemy of liberal capitalism today is not so much socialism as nihilism. Capitalism
- The liberal paradigm of regulation and license has led to a society where an 18-year-old girl has the right to public fornication in a pornographic… Fornication
- Power breeds responsibilities, in international affairs as in domestic -- or even private. To dodge or disclaim these responsibilities is one form of the abuse… Abuse
- A welfare state, properly conceived, can be an integral part of a conservative society. Conceived
- It was a new kind of class war -- the people as citizens versus the politicians and their clients in the public sector. Citizens
- The really difficult moral issues arise, not from a confrontation of good and evil, but from a collision between two goods Arise
- No modern nation has ever constructed a foreign policy that was acceptable to its intellectuals Acceptable
- One can be unhappy before eating caviar, even after, but at least not during. Caviar
- A conservative is a liberal mugged by reality. Conservative
- ...What is at stake is civilization and humanity, nothing less. The idea that everything is permitted, as Nietzsche put it, rests on the premise of… Bland