“Moral decay first hampers and then strangles honest government, regular commerce, and even the ability to take genuine pleasure in the goods of this world. Compulsion is applied from above as self-discipline relaxes below, and the last liberties expire under the weight of a unitary state.... Since religion has lost its empire over the souls of men, the most prominent boundary that divided good from evil is overthrown; kings and nations are guided by chance and none can say where are the natural limits of despotism and the bound of license.” MenWorldFirstsSoulSelfStatesGovernmentLastsEvilLostNationsNaturalChanceAbilityPleasureLibertyMoralHonestThis WorldKingsDisciplineLimitsWeightBoundsCorruptionBoundariesGenuineRelaxEmpiresGoodsDividedDecayCommerceSelf DisciplineLicenseCompulsionDespotismProminentHamperMoral DecayHonest Government Author:Russell Kirk
“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.” FirstsSoulCharacterProblemSpiritOrderUnderstandingReligiousCenturyHighestConcernedConservativeEthicalConservatismTwentieth CenturyWorth LivingRestorationSanctionsRegenerationLife Worth Living Book:The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot Source: The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot
“If you want to have order in the commonwealth, you first have to have order in the individual soul.” IfsWantFirstsSoulOrderIndividualCriticsCommonwealthMoralist Author:Russell Kirk
“In any society, order is the first need of all. Liberty and justice may be established only after order is tolerably secure. But the libertarians give primacy to an abstract liberty. Conservatives, knowing that "liberty inheres in some sensible object," are aware that true freedom can be found only within the framework of a social order, such as the constitutional order of these United States. In exalting an absolute and indefinable "liberty" at the expense of order, the libertarians imperil the very freedoms they praise.” NeedsGivingFirstsMayStatesOrderFoundSocialJusticeUnitedLibertyUnited StatesKnowingObjectsAbsolutesPraiseLibertarianSecureAbstractExpensesSensibleFrameworkSocial OrderTrue FreedomLiberty And JusticePrimacyIndefinable Book:Redeeming the Time Source: Redeeming the Time
