William F. Buckley Jr. Quotes

Ah yes! Conservatives. Some of the finest minds of the 12th Century.

Conservatism is the blind and fear-filled worship of dead radicals.

Conservatism is not a doctrine of contentment. Not a doctrine for the satisfied and the smug. It's a politics that's at war with the world.

The meaning of conservatism is not that it impedes movement forward and upward, but that it impedes movement backwards and downwards—to chaotic darkness and the return to a primitive state.

The great conservative insight is that order is really hard to achieve. It's really precious, and it's really easy to lose.

Naturally, I'm conservative; I'm a Republican. I always was.

I would describe myself as a 'total conservative, a conscientious one.'

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.

I am a conservative and proud of it.

Conservatism is the politics of reality.

A good conservative is someone with an open mind.

Conservatism in general is bad, and it's racist and sexist.

Conservatism has always meant more to me than simply sticking up for private property & free enterprise. It has also meant defending our heritage & preserving our values.

There is always a certain meanness in the argument of conservatism, joined with a certain superiority in its fact.

I love being a conservative. We conservatives are proud of our philosophy. Unlike our liberal friends, who are constantly looking for new words to conceal their true beliefs and are in a perpetual state of reinvention, we conservatives are unapologetic about our ideals.

The meat in the sausage has got to be Conservative.

I'm not denying I've espoused and promoted conservatism, because conservatism's the alternative. And conservatism works every time it's tried. That's the problem. It really hasn't been tried. Even people claiming to be conservative, when it comes time to actually do it, chicken out.

Conservatism is the maintenance of conventions already in force.

Admirers can be a tremendous force for conservatism.

Conservatism is itself a modernism, and in this lies the secret of its success.

I'm severely conservative.

It's almost impossible to make the case that Bush is a conservative. That may be good; that may be bad.

I am for a huge, huge tent that espouses conservative principles.

Conservatism as an "ism" is always going to be somewhat in tension with a political party.

I think there's a growing amount of confusion about what conservatism is. And it is time for us to understand that conservatism is not built on personalities. Conservatism is not simply built on how angry you might seem from time to time. Conservatism is built on a set of principles and ideas that our nation desperately needs.