Orestes Augustus Brownson Quotes

Americans are probably more in line than ever before. We're more moderate than we are liberal or conservative.

You're considered to have a rare kind of social disease if you espouse neo-conservative ideas in Canada.

A radical is a man with both feet firmly planted — in the air. A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned to walk forward. A reactionary is a somnambulist walking backwards. A liberal is a man who uses his legs and his hands at the behest — at the command — of his head.

The more that happens that makes sure liberals and liberalism remain a minority, the better off the world is gonna be and the better off this country is gonna be.

Undoubtedly, the biggest misconception about me is that I'm some staunch conservative, blind, rightwing hardcore Republican who doesn't want to hear anything from the other side.

As a former Republican, I represent a group of Americans who all too often have no one to speak for them. This group doesn't necessarily have a name. We've been called 'moderates,' but that term can be misleading.

A moment's reflection shows that Liberalism is entirely negative. It is not a formative force, but always and only a disintegrating force.

I think that liberals need to grow up.

I think that there is a changing wind. There are black conservatives out there, and their voices need to be heard.

I believe in all the qualities of being a liberal. I keep going back to all the great social events in our country's history, starting with the Salem witch trials, where the conservative view was that they're witches and should be burned at the stake, and the liberal view was there's no such thing as witches.

If you're not a liberal at 20, you have no heart, and if you're not a conservative at 40, you have no brain.

One is always somebody's reactionary.

There are two great antagonistic principles at the root of all government, stability and experiment. The former is Tory, and the latter is Whig.

The two parties which divide the state, the party of Conservatism and that of Innovation, are very old, and have disputed the possession of the world ever since it was made.

The democrat is a young conservative; the conservative is an old democrat. The aristocrat is the democrat ripe and gone to seed.

I don’t think America really has a left wing. The American left wing would fit very comfortably in the center or center right of most European political spectrums.

The worst enemy of the new radicals are the old liberals.

All Fundamentalists are conservatives, but not all conservatives are Fundamentalists. The best conservatives can often give lessons to the liberals in true liberality of spirit, but the Fundamentalist program is essentially illiberal and intolerant.

This difference between the two parties covers a wide range, and is indicative of the conservative thought of the one and the progressive thought of the other.

We will have a government where liberals will stay in power until they get radical and conservatives will have the power until they get reactionary.

I don't think that the Left has a monopoly on bad ideas. I don't think the Right has a monopoly on good ideas.

If you're a conservative, you think I'm Satan.

I think a lot of things have become associated with the Right. For example, an unapologetic commitment to progress and modernity is now almost always associated with neo-conservatism whereas it traditionally used to be associated with left-wing thinking and moving society forward.

Republicans have always tolerated greater intellectual diversity than Democrats.

Conservatism, ever more timorous and narrow, disgusts the children, and drives them for a mouthful of fresh air into radicalism.