“Don’t tell me you are a moderate. Moderate is an adjective. It is a qualifier. You may be a moderate conservative, a moderate democrat, or a moderate drinker but it doesn’t tell me what you believe in. It’s not a philosophy. Unless all you believe in is moderation for the sake of moderation. Grow up! You can’t be a good egg all of your life. Someday you have to either hatch or rot.”

—  Mike Rosen

REALITY A Plain-Talk Guide to Economics, Politics, Government and Culture

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Don’t tell me you are a moderate. Moderate is an adjective. It is a qualifier. You may be a moderate conservative, a mo…" by Mike Rosen?
Mike Rosen photo
Mike Rosen 18
American political pundit 1944

Related quotes

Barney Frank photo

“Moderate Republicans are reverse Houdinis. They tie themselves up in knots and then tell you they can't do anything because they're tied up in knots.”

Barney Frank (1940) American politician, former member of the House of Representatives for Massachusetts

Quoted in Dionne, E. J., The Washington Post, (16 November 2004)]

Stephen Harper photo
Martin Luther King, Jr. photo
Ashoka photo

“Respect for mother and father is good, generosity to friends, acquaintances, relatives, Brahmans and ascetics is good, not killing living beings is good, moderation in spending and moderation in saving is good.”

Ashoka (-304–-232 BC) Indian emperor of the Maurya Dynasty

Edicts of Ashoka (c. 257 BC)
Context: Respect for mother and father is good, generosity to friends, acquaintances, relatives, Brahmans and ascetics is good, not killing living beings is good, moderation in spending and moderation in saving is good. The Council shall notify the Yuktas about the observance of these instructions in these very words.

Carl von Clausewitz photo

“To introduce into the philosophy of War itself a principle of moderation would be an absurdity.”

Variant translation: To introduce into the philosophy of war a principle of moderation would be an absurdity.
As quoted in The Campaign of 1914 in France and Belgium‎ (1915) by George Herbert Perris, p. 56.
Source: On War (1832), Book 1, Chapter 1, Section 3, Paragraph 3

Muhammad photo
Thomas Mann photo

“If Goethe claimed towards the end of his life that every reasonable person is a moderate Liberal, then in our time one must say: Every reasonable person is a moderate Socialist.”

Thomas Mann (1875–1955) German novelist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate

As quoted in The New York Times (18 June 1950); also in Thomas Mann: A Critical Study (1971) by R. J. Hollingdale, Ch. 2

Benjamin Disraeli photo

“The choicest pleasures of life lie within the ring of moderation.”

Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister

Actually a line from Martin Tupper's Proverbial Philosophy.
Misattributed

George W. Bush photo

“I believe that a prosperous, democratic Pakistan will be a steadfast partner for America, a peaceful neighbor for India and a force for freedom and moderation in the Arab world.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

Televised speech in India, March 3, 2006; According to one news report, "White House spokesman Scott McClellan later had to explain aboard Air Force One en route to Pakistan that Bush meant to say 'Muslim world' — uncomfortably noting that Pakistan is not an Arab nation."
"Bush's Pakistan visit not 'risk-free'" Chicago Tribune, March 3, 2006
2000s, 2006

Related topics