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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.”

FirstsSoulCharacterProblemSpiritOrderUnderstandingReligiousCenturyHighestConcernedConservativeEthicalConservatismTwentieth CenturyWorth LivingRestorationSanctionsRegenerationLife Worth Living
Book:The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot
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“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
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“Either order in the cosmos is real, or all is chaos. If we are adrift in chaos, then the fragile egalitarian doctrines and emancipating programs of the revolutionary reformers have no significance; for in a vortex of chaos, only force and appetite signify.”

IfsRealOrderForceProgramChaosDoctrineRevolutionaryCosmosSignificanceAppetiteFragileReformersVortexAdrift
Book:The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot
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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.”

ThinkingHumansPoliticalOrderJusticeHuman NaturePolicyInstrumentsConservativeContraryPreservesRevolutionaryMarchTransformingUtopiaIdeologuesTransforming Society
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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