Russell Kirk Quotes

“Men cannot improve a society by setting fire to it: they must seek out its old virtues, and bring them back into the light.”

Russell Kirk

“If you want to have order in the commonwealth, you first have to have order in the individual soul.”

Russell Kirk

“Conservatives have no intention of compromising with socialists, but even such an alliance, ridiculous though it would be, is more conceivable than the coalition of conservatives and libertarians.”

Russell Kirk

Libertarians: Chirping Sectaries (1981)

“When heaven and earth have passed away, perhaps the conservative mind and the libertarian mind may be joined in synthesis, but not until then.”

Russell Kirk

Libertarians: Chirping Sectaries (1981)

“What else do conservatives and libertarians profess in common? The answer to that question is simple: nothing. Nor will they ever. To talk of forming a league or coalition between these two is like advocating a union of ice and fire.”

Russell Kirk

Libertarians: Chirping Sectaries (1981)

“The natural law is an instrument for progress, not a weapon of revolution.”

Russell Kirk

The Roots of American Order (1974)