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

— Russell Kirk

The Roots of American Order (1974)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Feb. 24, 2022. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The natural law is an instrument for progress, not a weapon of revolution." by Russell Kirk?

Russell Kirk 6

American political theorist and writer 1918–1994

Related quotes

“Progress, progress is the law of nature; under God it shall be our eternal guiding star.”

Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) African-American educator, author, orator, and advisor

"The Problems of the Colored Race in the South," lecture, Hamilton Club, Chicago (10 December 1895) http://web.archive.org/20071031084051/www.historycooperative.org/btw/Vol.4/html/93.html
Context: Men may make laws to hinder and fetter the ballot, but men cannot make laws that will bind or retard the growth of manhood.
We went into slavery a piece of property; we came out American citizens. We went into slavery pagans; we came out Christians. We went into slavery without a language; we came out speaking the proud Anglo-Saxon tongue. We went into slavery with slave chains clanking about our wrists; we came out with the American ballot in our hands.
Progress, progress is the law of nature; under God it shall be our eternal guiding star.

“Revolution suspends habit as well as law. But just as nature abhors a vacuum, people abhor anarchy.”

Kim Stanley Robinson book Green Mars

Source: Green Mars (1993), Chapter 10, “Phase Change” (p. 579)

“Yes, the brutalities of progress are called revolutions”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

“So far as living instruments of labour are concerned, for instance horses, their reproduction is timed by nature itself. Their average lifetime as instruments of labour is determined by the laws of nature. As soon as this term has expired they must be replaced by new ones. A horse cannot be replaced piecemeal; it must be replaced by another horse.”

Karl Marx (1818–1883) German philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist and revolutionary socialist

Vol. II, Ch. VIII, p. 174.
(Buch II) (1893)

“Passivity writhes in resistance to the progressive impulse of revolution.”

Práxedis Guerrero (1882–1910) Mexican journalist and anarchist revolutionary

La resistencia del pasivismo se revuelve ahora contra el impulso progresista de la revolución.
Passivity and Rebellion (29 de Agosto 1909), Punto Rojo, N° 3, El Paso, Texas, translated by Javier Sethness-Castro. http://blackrosefed.org/i-am-action-praxedis-guerrero/

“O mighty and once living instrument of formative nature. Incapable of availing thyself of thy vast strength thou hast to abandon a life of stillness and to obey the law which God and time gave to procreative nature.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

Of the lightning in clouds.
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), XIX Philosophical Maxims. Morals. Polemics and Speculations.

“The United States is the only country where these revolutions are simultaneously in progress and organically linked in such a way as to constitute a single revolution.”

Jean-François Revel (1924–2006) French writer and philosopher

Without Marx or Jesus; the new American Revolution has begun https://archive.org/details/withoutmarxorjes00reverich (1971) quoted in The Aquarian Conspiracy, The Aquarian Conspiracy, by Marilyn Ferguson (1980)
1970s

“If you wish to understand what Revolution is, call it Progress; and if you wish to understand what Progress is, call it Tomorrow.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

“Governments, by their nature, are instruments of privilege.”

Robert LeFevre (1911–1986) American libertarian businessman

Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph, “Unlimited Government” (Dec. 29, 1961).

“Stop quoting laws, we carry weapons!”

Pompey (-106–-48 BC) Roman general

“Οὐ παύσεσθε,” εἶπεν, “ἡμῖν ὑπεζωσμένοις ξίφη νόμους ἀναγινώσκοντες;” Plutarch, Lives. Pompey 10.3.2. To the Mamertines in Messana, complaining about Pompey's legal jurisdiction after their city was retaken during the civil warfare. Lit.: "'Will you not give up,' he said, 'reading laws to us men girt with swords?'"
Life of Pompey

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

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Russell Kirk 6

Related quotes

Related topics