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Russell Kirk

Russell Kirk Quotes

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Famous Russell Kirk Quotes

“The twentieth-century conservative is concerned, first of all, for the regeneration of the spirit and character – with the perennial problem of the inner order of the soul, the restoration of the ethical understanding, and the religious sanction upon which any life worth living is founded. This is conservatism at its highest.”

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Book:The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot
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“The libertarian thinks that this world is chiefly a stage for the swaggering ego; the conservative finds himself instead a pilgrim in a realm of mystery and wonder, where duty, discipline, and sacrifice are required-and where the reward is that love which passeth all understanding.”

ThinkingWorldUnderstandingWonderSacrificeMysteryStageThis WorldDutyDisciplineEgoRewardsConservativeLibertarianRealmsPilgrim
Book:The Essential Russell Kirk: Selected Essays
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“The conservative "thinks of political policies as intended to preserve order, justice, and freedom. The ideologue, on the contrary, thinks of politics as a revolutionary instrument for transforming society and even transforming human nature. In his march toward Utopia, the ideologue is merciless.”

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Book:The Politics of Prudence
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“If a conservative order is indeed to return, we ought to know the tradition which is attached to it, so that we may rebuild society; if it is not to be restored, still we ought to understand conservative ideas so that we may rake from the ashes what scorched fragments of civilizations escape the conflagration of unchecked will and appetite.”

IfsKnowsMayStillsIdeasOrderReturnOughtCivilizationTraditionConservativeAppetiteAshesFragmentsRakes
Book:The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot
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“The modern spectacle of vanished forests and eroded lands, wasted petroleum and ruthless mining, national debts recklessly increased until they are repudiated, and continual revision of positive law, is evidence of what an age without veneration does to itself and its successors.”

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Book:The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot
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“True conformity to the dictates of nature requires reverence for the past and solicitude for the future. 'Nature' is not simply the sensation of the passing moment; it is eternal, though we evanescent men experience only a fragment of it. We have no right to imperil the happiness of posterity by impudently tinkering with the heritage of humanity.”

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Book:The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot
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“If men are discharged of reverence for ancient usage, they will treat this world, almost certainly, as if it were their private property, to be consumed for their sensual gratification; and thus they will destroy in their lust for enjoyment the property of future generations, of their own contemporaries, and indeed their very own capital.”

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Book:The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot
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“The decay of old aristocratic prejudices against greedy speculation, the undermining of orthodox Christian faith (which forbids avarice)... the debauching of agriculture to a gross money-getting concern: these particular aspects of a vast and voracious concentration upon profits are so many illustrations of our sinning confusion of values.”

ChristianValuesParticularConcernAspectPrejudiceProfitConservativeConfusionConcentrationOrthodoxDecayAgricultureGreedyGrossSpeculationOrthodox ChristianAvariceChristian FaithIllustrationUnderminingSinningAristocratic
Book:The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot
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“To complete the rout of traditionalists, in America an impression began to arise that the new industrial and acquisitive interests are the conservative interest, that conservatism is simply a political argument in defense of large accumulations of private property, that expansion, centralization, and accumulation are the tenets of conservatives. From this confusion, from the popular belief that Hamilton was the founder of American conservatism, the forces of tradition in the United States never have fully escaped.”

StatesAmericaPoliticalBeliefForceInterestUnitedUnited StatesArgumentTraditionPropertyConservativeDefenseImpressionAriseConfusionFoundersExpansionConservatismAccumulationPrivate PropertyHamiltonCentralizationPolitical Arguments
Book:The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot
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“Rather than ennobling the public mind and cementing the social fabric, applied science speedily became the chief weapon of a gross individualism, which was anathema to the frugal and righteous (John Quincy) Adams, the source of enormous fortunes divorced from duty, the instrument of unscrupulous ambition and rapacious materialism. Presently, it came to scar the very of the country which Adams loved, a disfiguring process uninterrupted since his day.”

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Book:The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot
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“The automobile, practical since 1906, was proceeding to disintegrate and stamp anew the pattern of communication, manners, and city life in the United States, by 1918; before long, men would begin to see that the automobile, and the mass production techniques which made its possible, could alter the national character and morality more thoroughly than could the most absolute of tyrants. As a mechanical Jacobin, it rivaled the dynamo. The productive process which made these vehicles cheap was still more subversive of the old ways than was the gasoline engine itself.”

MenWayLongMadeStillsStatesCharacterProcessUnitedCitiesUnited StatesCommunicationMoralityMassAbsolutesPatternsConservativeProductionsTechniquePracticalsMannersProductiveTyrantsEnginesVehicleStampsAutomobileSubversiveProceedingCity LifeGasolineOld WaysMass Production
Author:Russell Kirk
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“Humility, which Burke ranked high among the virtues, is the only effectual restraint upon this congenital vanity; yet our world has nearly forgotten the nature of humility. Submission to the dictates of humility formerly was made palatable to man by the doctrine of grace; that elaborate doctrine has been overwhelmed by modern presumption.”

MenWorldHas BeensMadeVirtueGraceModernHumilityForgottenConservativeDoctrineVanityOur WorldRestraintOverwhelmedSubmissionPresumption
Book:The Essential Russell Kirk: Selected Essays
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“The principle of real leadership ignored, the immortal objects of society forgotten, practical conservatism degenerated into mere laudation of private enterprise, economic policy almost wholly surrendered to special interests.”

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Book:The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot
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“To check centralization and usurping of power ... we require a new laissez-faire. The old laissez-faire was founded upon a misapprehension of human nature, an exultation of individuality (in private character often a virtue) to the condition of a political dogma, which destroyed the spirit of community and reduced men to so many equipollent atoms of humanity, without sense of brotherhood or purpose.”

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Book:The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot
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“Why do we not exhaust the heritage of the ages, spiritual and material for our immediate pleasure, and let posterity go hang? So far as simple rationality is concerned, self-interest can advance no argument against the appetite of present possessors. Yet within some of us, a voice that is not the demand of self-interest or pure rationality says that we have no right to give ourselves enjoyment at the expense of our ancestors' memory and our descendants' prospects. We hold our present advantages only in trust.”

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Author:Russell Kirk
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