Edmond de Goncourt Quotes

Most revolutionaries are potential Tories, because they imagine that everything can be put right by altering the shape of society; once that change is effected, as it sometimes is, they see no need for any other.

Conservatism, by all means, if there is anything worth conserving, and everything not worth losing. Revolution, if there is nothing worth conserving, and everything worth gaining. These are the class lines upon which the political battle is being fought, and is bound to be fought

Conservatives want to keep things as they are, while revolutionists turn things upside down.

The real division is not between conservatives and revolutionaries but between authoritarians and libertarians.

At its grandest, political correctness is an attempt to accelerate evolution.

The 21st century will not be about the battle between capitalism and socialism but between the forces of progress and the forces of conservatism.

There are only two forces that unite men - fear and interest. All great revolutions originate in fear, for the play of interests does not lead to accomplishment.

The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of Conservatives is to prevent mistakes from being corrected.

Politics is history in the present tense

Revolutions never go backward.

Sometimes people invent things because they want to stay alive or feed their children or conquer the village next door. But just as often, new ideas come into the world simply because they're fun. And here's the really strange thing: many of those playful but seemingly frivolous inventions ended up sparking momentous transformations in science, in politics and society.

I'm a right-wing conservative.

My family played a part in bringing communism to Lebanon.

I'm just not convinced that the British people I know and love are interested in revolution.

If I say most people are pretty decent that may sound nice and warm but actually it's really radical and subversive and that's why, all throughout history, those who have advocated a more hopeful view of human nature - often the anarchists - have been persecuted.

There's nothing wrong with being an anarchist.

I joined the party because I was a revolutionary, not because of any ideological nonsense.

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

Revolutions are celebrated when they are no longer dangerous.

All political movements are basically anti-creative - since a political movement is a form of war.

Political convulsions, like geological upheavings usher in new epochs of the world's progress.

Thinking about profound social change, conservatives always expect disaster, while revolutionaries confidently anticipate utopia. Both are wrong.

I've always believed the New Left is rank.

The way of even the most jusitifiable revolution is prepared by personal impulses disguised into creeds.

There was a period of time when I was very political, when I was at the university. It was like the late '60s, early '70s and I was a dissident like everybody else I guess. Now I follow it but there's nothing that really grabs me. The most fascinating thing to me right now is China.