“The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out the conservative adopts them.”
Mark Twain's Notebook (1935)
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American author and humorist 1835–1910Related quotes

Source: 'English Politics and Parties', Bentley's Quarterly Review, 1, (1859), p. 12

1840s, Essays: Second Series (1844), New England Reformers

Vol. I, Book II, Ch. V.
The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy (1785)

“If there are Islamophobes in the Conservative Party - and there are - we should root them out.”
Tory leadership race: Five key moments from debate https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48683593 BBC News (18 June 2019)
2019

Source: 1950s, My Philosophical Development (1959), p. 110
Context: Some modern philosophers have gone so far as to say that words should never be confronted with facts but should live in a pure, autonomous world where they are compared only with other words. When you say, ‘the cat is a carnivorous animal,’ you do not mean that actual cats eat actual meat, but only that in zoology books the cat is classified among carnivora. These authors tell us that the attempt to confront language with fact is ‘metaphysics’ and is on this ground to be condemned. This is one of those views which are so absurd that only very learned men could possibly adopt them.

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 489.

“When you are right, you cannot be too radical; When you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.”
1960s, Why We Can't Wait (1964)
Context: Someone once wrote: "When you are right, you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative." The Negro knows he is right.