Quotes and Sayings about Conservatism
"Condemnatory conservatism isn't anything I'm interested in."
- David Brudnoy
(Related: Conservatism)
"All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change."
- Gilbert K. Chesterton
(Related: Change, Idea, Conservatism)
"Conservatism clings to what has been established, fearing that, once we begin to question the beliefs that we have inherited, all the values of life will be destroyed."
- Morris Raphael Cohen
(Related: Life, Values, Beliefs, Conservatism, Question, Will)
"I am not a prophet in any sense of the word, and I entertain an active and intense dislike of the foregoing mixture of optimism, fatalism, and conservatism."
- Herbert Croly
(Related: Optimism, Conservatism, Sense, Word)
"Their very conservatism is secondhand, and they don't know what they are conserving."
- Robertson Davies
(Related: Conservatism)
"It is not about Republicanism, it's about conservatism."
- Mark Davis
(Related: Conservatism)
"Among the best traitors Ireland has ever had, Mother Church ranks at the very top, a massive obstacle in the path to equality and freedom. She has been a force for conservatism... to ward off threats to her own security and influence."
- Bernadette Devlin
(Related: Equality, Mother, Church, Conservatism, Force, Freedom, Influence, Ireland, Security)
"Conservatism discards Prescription, shrinks from Principle, disavows Progress; having rejected all respect for antiquity, it offers no redress for the present, and makes no preparation for the future."
- Benjamin Disraeli
(Related: Progress, Conservatism, Future, Preparation, Present, Respect)
"There is danger in reckless change, but greater danger in blind conservatism."
- Henry George
(Related: Change, Blind, Conservatism, Danger)
"Liberalism is trust of the people tempered by prudence. Conservatism is distrust of the people tempered by fear."
- William E. Gladstone
(Related: Trust, People, Fear, Conservatism, Distrust, Liberalism, Prudence)
"Continuity is at the heart of conservatism: ecology serves that heart."
- Garrett Hardin
(Related: Heart, Ecology)
"Conservatism is a hard choice for a society that has become accustomed to big government and big entitlements promoted by liberals."
- Jesse Helms
(Related: Government, Society, Choice, Conservatism, Liberals)
"I believe that this is the key, the principle itself is the key to conservatism. Because in many ways if you do not have a principled base you do not have policy and if you do not have policy in many ways you do not have an ideology."
- Jonathan Krohn
(Related: Policy, Conservatism, Ideology, Key)
"Conservatism is not about the party, because the party is merely the shell. It is the inside - it's the filling that really means something."
- Jonathan Krohn
(Related: Conservatism, Party)
"In the book I define conservatism, as I believe it is fit upon four categories of principle: respect for The Constitution, respect for life, less government, and personal responsibility."
- Jonathan Krohn
(Related: Government, Life, Conservatism, Constitution, Respect, Responsibility)
"Do not bury our glorious orthodoxy in the treacherous pit of a spurious conservatism."
- Abraham Kuyper
(Related: Conservatism)
"The intellectual debility of contemporary conservatism is indicated by its silence on all important matters."
- Christopher Lasch
(Related: Conservatism, Silence)
"Ostensibly rigorous and realistic, contemporary conservatism is an ideology of denial. Its symbol is a smile button."
- Christopher Lasch
(Related: Conservatism, Denial, Ideology, Smile, Symbol)
"Success makes men rigid and they tend to exalt stability over all the other virtues; tired of the effort of willing they become fanatics about conservatism."
- Walter Lippmann
(Related: Men, Success, Conservatism, Effort, Fanatics, Stability)
"Alas, in 1929 came the Stock Market crash and everything changed and became worrisome. People started practicing conservatism because of financial losses, myself included."
- Pola Negri
(Related: People, Financial, Conservatism)
"Now make no mistake, I think we need a strong dose of fiscal conservatism in Washington, D.C."
- Kristi Noem
(Related: Mistake, Conservatism, Now, Washington)
"There is nothing wrong with describing Conservatism as protecting the Constitution, protecting all things that limit government. Government is the enemy of liberty. Government should be very restrained."
- Ron Paul
(Related: Government, Conservatism, Constitution, Enemy, Liberty, Nothing, Wrong)
"But you say you are conservative - eminently conservative - while we are revolutionary, destructive, or something of the sort. What is conservatism? Is it not adherence to the old and tried, against the new and untried?"
- George Haven Putnam
(Related: Conservatism, Conservative, Old)
"Because, you know, you're in Utah. And because of its political conservatism, if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere."
- Robert Redford
(Related: Conservatism)
"Conservatism has had from its inception vigorously positive, intellectually rigorous agenda and thinking. That agenda should have in my three pillars: strengthen the economy, strengthen our security, and strengthen our families."
- Mitt Romney
(Related: Positive, Conservatism, Economy, Security, Thinking)
"The future of Conservatism lies in our beliefs and values, not by throwing them away. We need to shed associations that bind us to past failures, but hold faith with those things that make us Conservatives."
- Iain Duncan Smith
(Related: Faith, Values, Beliefs, Conservatism, Future, Lies, Past)
"I think experience will teach you a combination of liberalism and conservatism. We have to be progressive and at the same time we have to retain values. We have to hold onto the past as we explore the future."
- Oliver Stone
(Related: Experience, Time, Values, Conservatism, Future, Liberalism, Past, Will)
"I met the president when he was president-elect at a meeting in Austin. He spoke of his faith. He spoke of his desire for a compassionate conservatism, for a faith-based initiative that would do something for poor people."
- Jim Wallis
(Related: Faith, People, Conservatism, Desire, Meeting, Poor, President)
"I would like above any other place to go to Hartford. I want to face the conservatism there centered and compel it into decency."
- Victoria Woodhull
(Related: Conservatism, Decency, Want)