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Russell Kirk

Russell Kirk Quotes

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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
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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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“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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“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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