Home / Quotes / Quote by Russell Kirk

Quote by Russell Kirk

“Real literature is something much better than a harmless instrument for getting through idle hours. The purpose of great literature is to help us to develop into full human beings.”

Quote by Russell Kirk

Author

Russell Kirk, an American historian, was born in October 1918 and died on April 29, 1994. His research focused on conservative thought, American history, and culture, and had a profound impact on 20th-century American politics and culture. more

You May Also Like

“Rousseau and his disciples were resolved to force men to be free; in most of the world, they triumphed; men are set free from family, church, town, class, guild; yet they wear, instead, the chains of the state, and they expire of ennui or stifling lone lines.”

Men World States Force Church Lines Class Towns Chains Disciple Lone One Line Ennui Stifling Guilds

Book:The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot

Source: The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot

“We ought not to endeavor to revise history according to our latter day notions of what things ought to have been, or upon the theory that the past is simply a reflection of the present”

Has Beens Past Theory Ought Reflection Notion Latter Endeavor Latter Days

Author:Russell Kirk

“Rap is always evolving. It's easy for the old school to hate the new school, but it's a music that got a little stifled I think, by the Internet a little bit.”

Thinking Littles School Hate Easy Bits Internet Little Bit Rap Evolve Old School

Author:Ice Cube

“Mine was not an Enlightened mind, I now was aware: it was a Gothic mind, medieval in its temper and structure. I did not love cold harmony and perfect regularity of organization; what I sought was variety, mystery, tradition, the venerable, the awful.”

Mind Perfect Mystery Mines Cold Tradition Organization Harmony Structure Awful Variety Enlightened Temper Gothic Medieval Regularity

Book:Confessions of a bohemian Tory: episodes and reflections of a vagrant career

Source: Confessions of a bohemian Tory: episodes and reflections of a vagrant career

“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.”

Ifs Real Order Force Program Chaos Doctrine Revolutionary Cosmos Significance Appetite Fragile Reformers Vortex Adrift

Book:The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot

Source: The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot

“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.”

Thinking World Understanding Wonder Sacrifice Mystery Stage This World Duty Discipline Ego Rewards Conservative Libertarian Realms Pilgrim

Book:The Essential Russell Kirk: Selected Essays

Source: The Essential Russell Kirk: Selected Essays

“We cannot make a heaven on earth, though we may make a hell.”

May Earth Heaven Hell Heaven On Earth

Book:The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Conservatism

Source: The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Conservatism

“Sudden and slashing reforms are as perilous as sudden and slashing surgery.”

Book:The Politics of Prudence

Source: The Politics of Prudence

“A just government maintains a healthy tension between the claims of authority and the claims of liberty.”

Government Liberty Healthy Authority Claims Tension

Book:The Politics of Prudence

Source: The Politics of Prudence

“The issue of environmental quality is one which transcends traditional political boundaries. It is a cause which can attract, and very sincerely, liberals, conservatives, radicals, reactionaries, freaks, and middle-class straights.”

Political Causes Quality Class Issues Middle Environmental Conservative Boundaries Traditional Radical Middle Class Freak Sincerely Reactionaries Environmental Quality

Author:Russell Kirk