Quotessence
Home / Authors / Russell Kirk
Russell Kirk

Russell Kirk Quotes

Historian

Filter quotes by topic

AllConservativeMenOrderChristianReligiousIfsStatesDutyHumansMayPoliticalTraditionWorldAppetiteChurchConservatismFirstsForceInstrumentsJustice

Famous Russell Kirk Quotes

“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
Create image

“Even the wisest of mankind cannot live by reason alone; pure arrogant reason, denying the claims of prejudice (which commonly are also the claims of conscience), leads to a wasteland of withered hopes and crying loneliness, empty of God and man: the wilderness in which Satan tempted Christ was not more dreadful than the arid expanse of intellectual vanity deprived of tradition and intuition, where modern man is tempted by his own pride.”

MenReasonChristModernMankindLonelinessCryPridePureIntellectualConscienceTraditionEmptyClaimsPrejudiceIntuitionVanitySatanWildernessLive ByArrogantTemptedDeprivedWisestModern ManWitheredExpanseWasteland
Book:The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot
Create image

“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.”

MenMomentsPastHumanityEternalConservativePassingPassingsSensationsConformityHeritageReverenceFragmentsPosterityTinkeringSolicitudePassing Moments
Book:The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot
Create image

“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.”

IfsMenWorldGenerationsThis WorldTreatsPropertyAncientConservativeLustSensualEnjoymentReverenceConsumedGratificationFuture GenerationPrivate PropertyUsage
Book:The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot
Create image

“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
Create image

“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
Create image

“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.”

MenHumansCharacterPoliticalSpiritPurposeHumanityCommunityVirtueConditionsHuman NatureIndividualityConservativeChecksDestroyedAtomsBrotherhoodDogmaLaissez FaireCentralization
Book:The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot
Create image

“Prejudice is not bigotry or superstition, although prejudice sometimes may degenerate into these. Prejudice is pre-judgment, the answer with which intuition and ancestral consensus of opinion supply a man when he lacks either time or knowledge to arrive at a decision predicated upon pure reason.”

MenMaySometimesReasonDecisionAnswersOpinionPureJudgmentPrejudiceIntuitionBigotrySuperstitionsConsensusDegenerates
Book:The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot
Create image