Quotes about conservative page 2
“When you are right, you cannot be too radical; When you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.”
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
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.
Eric Hoffer (1898–1983) American philosopher
Source: The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements
Garrison Keillor (1942) American radio host and writer
Source: Homegrown Democrat: A Few Plain Thoughts from the Heart of America
Spider Robinson book Callahan's Crosstime Saloon
Source: Callahan's Crosstime Saloon (1977) "Laws of Conservation of Pain and Joy"
“Our 'neoconservatives' are neither new nor conservative, but old as Babylon and evil as Hell.”
Edward Abbey (1927–1989) American author and essayist
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) American economist and diplomat
“Stop the Madness,” Interview with Rupert Cornwell, Toronto Globe and Mail (6 July 2002) (see http://wist.info/galbraith-john-kenneth/7463/ )
T.S. Eliot (1888–1965) 20th century English author
Source: Christianity and Culture: The Idea of a Christian Society and Notes Towards the Definition of Culture
Aldo Leopold (1887–1948) American writer and scientist
"Conservation" (c. 1938); Published in Round River, Luna B. Leopold (ed.), Oxford University Press, 1966, p. 155.
1930s
Source: Round River: From the Journals of Aldo Leopold
“The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative the day after the revolution.”
Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) Jewish-American political theorist
The New Yorker (12 September 1970).
Reed Noss (1952)
[Conservation Biology, Whither Conservation Biology?, June 1993, 7, 2, 215–217, 10.1046/j.1523-1739.1993.07020215.x, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1523-1739.1993.07020215.x] (quote from p. 215)
Alan Wolfe (1942) American political scientist
The Future of Liberalism (2009), Ch. 5 : Mr. Schmitt Goes to Washington
L. Neil Smith (1946) American writer
"Revenge of the Cookie Monster".
L. David Mech (1937) American Biologist , Ecologist
Wolves: Behavior, Ecology and Conservation (2003)
H. Richard Niebuhr (1894–1962) American theologian
Source: Christ and Culture (1951), pp. 70-71
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973) American politician, 36th president of the United States (in office from 1963 to 1969)
Message to Congress on Conservation and Restoration of Natural Beauty written to Congress (8 Feb 1965), in Lyndon B. Johnson: Containing the Public Messages, Speeches, and Statements of the President (1965), Vol.1, 156. United States. President (1963-1969 : Johnson), Lyndon Baines Johnson, United States. Office of the Federal Register — 1970
1960s
Donald Barthelme (1931–1989) American writer, editor, and professor
“I was paraphrasing what Mark Schorer said about Sinclair Lewis,” Bruce replied.
“The Joker’s Greatest Triumph”.
Come Back, Dr. Caligari (1964)
Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician
Article for the News of the World (29 April 1979) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104052 <br class="br">Leader of the Opposition
Maurice Cowling (1926–2005) historian
The Impact of Hitler. British Politics and British Policy, 1933-1940 (University of Chicago, 1977), p. 9.
Matt Taibbi (1970) author and journalist
"David Brooks and the DLC: Best Friends Forever?", AlterNet (3 August 2006)
Ron Paul (1935) American politician and physician
Statement on the Iraq War Resolution http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2007/cr021407.htm (February 14, 2007). <br class="br">2000s, 2006-2009
“The main enemy of conservatism in Britain is the Conservative Party.”
Peter Hitchens (1951) author, journalist
From 'The Cameron Delusion' (2010)
Scott McClellan (1968) Former White House press secretary
Source: Press briefing http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2004/05/20040506-8.html, May 6, 2004
Roy A. Childs, Jr. (1949–1992) American libertarian essayist and critic
“Autarchy and the Statist Abyss,” 1968
Ralph Klein (1942–2013) Canadian politician
Source: As quoted in "Welcome to Ralph's World: 10 of Ralph Klein's most colourful quotes" http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/welcome-to-ralph-s-world-10-of-ralph-klein-s-most-colourful-quotes-1.1216791, CTV News
Munir Butt (1940–2015) British diplomat
Source: Interview in The Cherwell, Oxford University newspaper, 1997.
Aron Ra (1962) Aron Ra is an atheist activist and the host of the Ra-Men Podcast
Youtube, Other, Republican Theocracy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSjNg7nQvB0 (November 4, 2012)
Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) Jewish-American political theorist
"Civil Disobedience".
Crises of the Republic (1969)
Paul A. Samuelson (1915–2009) American economist
Coeditor's Forword in Inside the economist’s mind: conversations with eminent economists (2007)
New millennium
Didier Sornette (1957) French scientist
Source: Why Stock Markets Crash - Critical Events in Complex Systems (2003), Chapter 5, Modeling Financial Bubbles And Market Crashes, p. 136
Peter Hitchens (1951) author, journalist
2015-09-14
Owen Jones meets Peter Hitchens
Owen Jones meets...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrwuk6NoMv8
On his hostility to the Conservative Party
William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898) British Liberal politician and prime minister of the United Kingdom
Letter to Lord Acton (11 February 1885), quoted in The Life of William Ewart Gladstone Volume III (1903) by John Morley, p. 172
1880s
Enoch Powell (1912–1998) British politician
Source: Speech in Belfast (8 May 1981), reported in The Times (9 May 1981), p. 2
Dinesh D'Souza (1961) Indian-American political commentator, filmmaker, author
Introduction, p. 26
Books, The Enemy At Home: The Cultural Left And its Responsibility for 9, 11 (2007)
Robert P. George (1955) American legal scholar
Twitter post https://twitter.com/McCormickProf/status/967568693105385474 (24 February 2018) <br class="br">2018
John Rawls book A Theory of Justice
Source: A Theory of Justice (1971; 1975; 1999), Chapter IX, Section 82, p. 538
Stephen Harper (1959) 22nd Prime Minister of Canada
1990s, Speech to the Council for National Policy (1997)
“For conservatives, seeing is believing; for liberals, believing is seeing.”
George Will (1941) American newspaper columnist, journalist, and author
Column, August 24, 2008, "Little Rhetoric Riding Hood" http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/will082408.php3 at jewishworldreview.com. <br class="br">2000s
Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) American lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union
Source: The Story of My Life (1932), Ch. 26 "The Aftermath Of The War"
Lewis Mumford (1895–1990) American historian, sociologist, philosopher of technology, and literary critic
Faith for Living (1940)
Paul Keating (1944) Australian politician, 24th Prime Minister of Australia
On Kim Beazley's ALP Leadership, Lateline interview, June 7 2007.
Henri Poincaré book The Value of Science
Comme nous ne pouvons pas donner de l'énergie une définition générale, le principe de la conservation de l'énergie signifie simplement qu'il y a quelque chose qui demeure constant.
Source: The Value of Science (1905), Ch. 10: Is Science artificial?
Jon Postel RFC 793: Transmission Control Protocol
The "Robustness Principle", RFC 793 http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc0793.txt, Transmission Control Protocol, entire text of section 2.10 (September 1981).
Milo Yiannopoulos (1984) British journalist
The Left chose Islam over Gays http://www.breitbart.com/milo/2016/06/12/left-chose-islam-gays-now-100-people-killed-maimed-orlando/, Breitbart (12 Jun 2016) <br class="br">2016
Matt Drudge (1966) American internet journalist and talk radio host
The Drudge Retort http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/the-drudge-retort-6351876 (June 28, 2001)
Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician
Conservative Party Conference (10 October 1986) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=106498 <br class="br">Second term as Prime Minister
Maxime Bernier (1963) Canadian politician
23 August 2018 http://www.maximebernier.com/why_i_am_leaving_the_conservative_party_of_canada <br class="br">2018
David Gross (1941) American particle physicist and string theorist
"Waiting for the Revolution" https://www.quantamagazine.org/20130524-waiting-for-the-revolution/, an interview of David Gross by Peter Byrne, Quanta Magazine (2013)
Stephen Jay Gould book The Structure of Evolutionary Theory
Source: The Structure of Evolutionary Theory (2002), p. 778
Stephen Harper (1959) 22nd Prime Minister of Canada
1990s, Speech to the Council for National Policy (1997)
Mark Riebling (1963) American writer
Conservatism Turned Upside Down: Sam Tanenhaus' Critique of Conservative Reason (2009)
Richard Pipes (1923–2018) American historian
Source: Russia Under The Bolshevik Regime (1994), p. 241
Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American novelist and philosopher
“Choose Your Issues,” The Objectivist Newsletter, Vol. 1, No. 1 (1962)
Robert Hunter (author) (1874–1942) American sociologist, author, golf course architect
Source: Poverty (1912), p. 25
John Major (1943) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
"Major's Speech", The Times, 3 May 1997, p. 2.
Statement in Downing Street on 2 May 1997 following the general election in which the Conservative Party was heavily defeated. Major was just about to resign as Prime Minister and announced his decision to stand down as party leader simultaneously.
1990s, 1997
Mumia Abu-Jamal (1954) Prisoner, Journalist, Broadcaster, Author, Activist
Statement http://6abc.com/news/mumia-abu-jamal-speech-met-with-vigil-for-slain-officer/337357/ by Maureen Faulkner, widow of Daniel Faulkner, upon Abu-Jamal's delivering the Commencement Address at Goddard College in 2014 <br class="br">About
Roger Scruton (1944–2020) English philosopher
"The Limits of Liberty," http://spectator.org/42528_back-basics/ The American Spectator (December 2008).
Jeremy Corbyn (1949) British Labour Party politician
Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1986/mar/06/plight-of-the-elderly in the House of Commons (6 March 1986). <br class="br">1980s
Robert Kuttner (1943) American journalist
Source: The Economic Illusion (1984), Chapter 5, Taxes, p. 227
Alexandre Koyré (1892–1964) French philosopher
From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe (1957).
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
1960s, Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam (1967)
Alan Moore (1953) English writer primarily known for his work in comic books
On the film adaptation of V for Vendetta
Alan Moore on Anarchism (2009)
“I am Conservative to the core of my being, as those who know me best will testify.”
David Cameron (1966) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
As quoted in Daily Telegraph, (23 January 2006)
2000s, 2006
Salman Rushdie (1947) British Indian novelist and essayist
Herbert Reade Memorial Lecture (6 February 1990)
Ann Coulter (1961) author, political commentator
2015-06-09
Ann Coulter: Liberals Are ‘Going Gay’ So They Need Immigrants To Outbreed ‘Christian America’
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/ann-coulter-liberals-are-going-gay-so-they-need-immigrants-to-outbreed-christian-america/
2015
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
1840s, Essays: Second Series (1844), New England Reformers
Angelique Rockas South African actress and founder of Internationalist Theatre, London
On leaving South Africa
The South African Interview (August 8, 2011)
Masanobu Fukuoka book The One-Straw Revolution
Source: The One-Straw Revolution (1975), Chapter 3, p. 88
Bernard Goldberg (1945) American journalist
Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News (2001)
“When a nation’s young men are conservative, its funeral bell is already rung.”
Henry Ward Beecher (1813–1887) American clergyman and activist
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit (1887)
Jeffrey Tucker (1963) American writer
Source: "Die, Rock, Die!" by Jeffrey Tucker, The Rothbard-Rockwell Report, June 1997, UNZ.org, 2016-05-22 http://www.unz.org/Pub/RothbardRockwellReport-1997jun-00001,
Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician
Speech to Conservative Party Conference (12 October 1984) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/105763 <br class="br">Second term as Prime Minister
Lew Rockwell (1944) American libertarian author and editor
6 October 1996 "Down With the Presidency"
1990s
Peter Hitchens (1951) author, journalist
2013-03-23
This house believes that New Labour ruined Britain
YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUHNFY1ksPw
On John Major
Babe Ruth (1895–1948) American baseball player
"Chapter III," Babe Ruth's Own Book of Baseball (1928), pp. 32-33; reprinted as "Babe Ruth's Own Story — Chapter III: Pitching the Keynote of Defense; The Pitcher's Job; Why Young Hurlers Fail," https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=r0sbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=J0sEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6011%2C3899916 in The Pittsburgh Press (December 23, 1928), p. 52
Iain Banks (1954–2013) Scottish writer
“Not important?”
“It’s an irrelevant question. We live; that’s enough.”
“Descendant” (p. 44)
Short fiction, The State of the Art (1991)
Frank Crane (1861–1928) American Presbyterian minister
Four Minute Essays Vol. 5 (1919), Clean Business
Leo Ryan book USA/From Where We Stand
USA/From Where We Stand: Readings in Contemporary American Problems (1970), Introduction, p. 3.
Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The earliest example of this quotation is found in Jules Claretie's Portraits Contemporains (1875), where the following remark is ascribed to lawyer and academic Anselme Polycarpe Batbie: "Celui qui n’est pas républicain à vingt ans fait douter de la générosité de son âme; mais celui qui, après trente ans, persévère, fait douter de la rectitude de son esprit" (English: "He who is not a republican at twenty compels one to doubt the generosity of his heart; but he who, after thirty, persists, compels one to doubt the soundness of his mind"). <br class="br">According to research http://www.webcitation.org/query?id=1256577474900567&url=www.geocities.com/Athens/5952/unquote.html by Mark T. Shirey, citing Nice Guys Finish Seventh: False Phrases, Spurious Sayings, and Familiar Misquotations by Ralph Keyes, 1992, this quote was first uttered by mid-nineteenth century French historian and statesman François Guizot when he observed, Not to be a republican at 20 is proof of want of heart; to be one at 30 is proof of want of head. (N'être pas républicain à vingt ans est preuve d'un manque de cœur ; l'être après trente ans est preuve d'un manque de tête.) However, this ascription is based in an entry in Benham’s Book of Quotations Proverbs and Household Words (1936): the original place where Guizot said this has not been located. This quote has been attributed variously to George Bernard Shaw, Benjamin Disraeli, Otto von Bismarck, and others. <br class="br">Furthermore, the Churchill Centre http://www.winstonchurchill.org, on its Falsely Attributed Quotations http://www.winstonchurchill.org/resources/quotations/quotes-falsely-attributed page, states "there is no record of anyone hearing Churchill say this." Paul Addison of Edinburgh University is quoted as stating: "Surely Churchill can't have used the words attributed to him. He'd been a Conservative at 15 and a Liberal at 35! And would he have talked so disrespectfully of Clemmie, who is generally thought to have been a lifelong Liberal?" <br class="br">Variants: Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has no heart; and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains.<br>Show me a young conservative and I'll show you someone with no heart. Show me an old liberal and I'll show you someone with no brains.<br>If you are not a socialist by the time you are 25, you have no heart. If you are still a socialist by the time you are 35, you have no head. <br class="br">Misattributed <br class="br">Source: https://books.google.com/books?id=nIuaBX8moLkC&q=%22fait+douter%22#v=snippet&q=%22fait%20douter%22&f=false <br class="br">Source: http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/02/24/heart-head/
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1830–1903) British politician
Quarterly Review, 127, 1869, pp. 551-552
1860s