George Lakoff Quotes

I didn't know I was a conservative when it didn't matter to me growing up.

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

My hypothesis is that conservative Republicans have very clear values, and when you have that, you're simply more relaxed.

I've always been conservative. I was born that way.

We are now, as we always have been, decidedly and conscientiously attached to the Tory, and which might with more propriety be called the Conservative, party.

I don't like labels necessarily because a label doesn't mean very much. But when it comes to being conservative, I happen to be conservative.

How does conservatism find its way into the body politic? I think most people actually live their lives that way, but they have been poisoned into not voting that way because the brand - conservatism brand, Republican brand - has been summarily destroyed over the years.

I don't think that Donald Trump is a conservative. In fact, you go on Fox News, and half the people say he is and half say he isn't.

An e-mail from a reader says that liberals like to take the moral high ground, even though their own moral relativism means that there is no moral high ground.

[Phyllis Schlaffley and Pat Buchanan and Jeff Sessions] do know conservatism, but I think they are wrong.

I am a conservative. Quite possibly I am on the losing side; often I think so. Yet, out of a curious perversity I had rather lose with Socrates, let us say, than win with Lenin.

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

My friends have always known there was this more serious side to me, and all my life, I've had Conservative values.

In reality, anyone can call themselves a conservative. There is no secret handshake or written test to prove your bona fides. But the true conservative reaches outcomes by respecting and heeding to well-developed, sound principles.

I think that conservatism as we understand it is coming under great strain during the era of Trump.

As for the Republicans -- how can one regard seriously a frightened, greedy, nostalgic huddle of tradesmen and lucky idlers who shut their eyes to history and science, [and] steel their emotions against decent human sympathy.

The suggestion that liberals aren't moralizers is so preposterous it makes it hard for me to take any of them seriously when they wax indignant about "moralizers." Almost every day, they tell us what is moral or immoral to think and to say about race, taxes, abortion - you name it. They explain it would be immoral for me to spend more of my own money on my own children when that money could be spent by government on other people's children. In short, they think moralizing is fine. They just want to have a monopoly on the franchise.

certain kinds of people become Republicans and certain kinds of people become Democrats, and ... it's more than a matter of party affiliation. It's a way of thinking and being.

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

I think what I'm trying to do, reform-wise, is completely consistent with conservative philosophy. It may not be consistent with some so-called conservatives who live in Washington and make their living like I used to.

The parties of Whig and Tory are those of nature. They exist in all countries, whether called by these names or by those of Aristocrats and Democrats, Cote Droite and Cote Gauche, Ultras and Radicals, Serviles and Liberals. The sickly, weakly, timid man fears the people, and is a Tory by nature. The healthy, strong and bold cherishes them, and is formed a Whig by nature.

I believe in the principles of the Republican Party.

People ask me what I am politically and I've previously offered this equation: I became a conservative by being around liberals. And I became a libertarian after being around conservatives.

I am Conservative to the core of my being, as those who know me best will testify.