Quotes from William F. Buckley, Jr.

One must bear in mind that the expansion of federal activity is a form of eating for politicians.

I profoundly believe it takes a lot of practice to become a moral slob.

He [Cassius Clay] became a Black Muslim, which is a pseudo-religion for unbright neurotics who feel the need to hate all white people.

What was wrong with communism wasn't aberrant leadership, it was communism.

The more complicated and powerful the job, the more rudimentary the preparation for it.

The majority of the senior class of Vassar does not desire my company and I must confess, having read specimens of their thought and sentiments, that I do not desire the company of the majority of the senior class of Vassar.

It had all the earmarks of a CIA operation; the bomb killed everybody in the room except the intended target!

All that is good is not embodied in the law; and all that is evil is not proscribed by the law. A well-disciplined society needs few laws; but it needs strong mores.

A society is not 'free' merely because the freedoms the people are doing away with are those they voted at the last election to do without.

You know, I've spent my entire life time separating the Right from the kooks.

I would sooner live in a society governed by the first two thousand names in the Boston telephone directory than in a society governed by the two thousand faculty members of Harvard University.

Boredom is the deadliest poison.

The Beatles are not merely awful. I would consider it sacrilegious to say anything less than that they are godawful.

Back in the thirties we were told we must collectivize the nation because the people were so poor. Now we are told we must collectivize the nation because the people are so rich.

A conservative is someone who stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it.

All adventure is now reactionary.

Idealism is fine, but as it approaches reality, the costs become prohibitive.

I would like to electrocute everyone who uses the word 'fair' in connection with income tax policies.

We love your adherence to democratic principles.

Some of my instincts are reprehensible.

Truth is a demure lady, much too ladylike to knock you on your head and drag you to her cave. She is there, but people must want her, and seek her out.

It is not a sign of arrogance for the king to rule. That is what he is there for.

I would like to take you seriously, but to do so would affront your intelligence.

The superstition that the hounds of truth will rout the vermin of error seems, like a fragment of Victorian lace, quaint, but too brittle to be lifted out of the showcase.