Quotes About Conservatism

Today in the Trump era, many conservatives who believe Trump has denigrated all political discourse and destroyed any meaning of conservatism—which, of course, he has—look back longingly at the National Review as being everything that Trump World is not: clever, erudite, committed to principle.

Today the intellectual leaders of the Republican Party are the paranoids, kooks, know-nothings, and bigots who once could be heard only on late-night talk shows, the stations you listened to on long drives because it was hard to fall asleep while laughing.

I know that some lesbians are getting pregnant by going to sperm banks. I couldn't do that. I'm exactly like my grandmother, "What? Everything's frozen! Nothing's fresh?"

Conservatism is about the basic rights of individuals. God created us. As far as the government goes, the Founding Fathers based the Constitution off of Christian values. It goes hand-in-hand. As far as the Republican Party? I felt connected to it because individual freedom should not be legislated by the federal government.

There is nothing inherently conservative in the ancient world.

It's often been said that conservatism is successful because it chimes with these basic human instincts. It's time for us to ask fundamental questions about what the Conservative Party is for, and what it actually believes.

Conservatism is about freedom, yes. But it is also about the institutions and attitudes that shape the responsible citizen, and ensure that freedom is a benefit to us all. Conservatism is therefore also about the limits to freedom.

As a conservative, I believe we must wage war upon the brute forces of poverty and need--and this, of course, is actually waging peace. I believe we can wage peace most effectively by standing firmly for right, freedom, and justice.

Y sin embargo seguimos eligiendo para los puestos públicos a quienes se siguen llamando, o se dejan llamar cuando les conviene, conservadores o liberales. O son o no son. Si no son, díganlo y renieguen del nombre. Pero si lo son, carguen con la responsabilidad de lo que es hoy Colombia y con la etiqueta que se merecen de infames.

I have received many nasty letters from neo-conservatives, who denounce me because I refuse to say that the function of studying canonical works is to reinforce our moral suppositions.

The Right is incredibly deft at getting earnest about all the wrong things.

People ask me a lot, 'Well, can you be pro-life and be feminist? Can you be conservative and be feminist?' And I think that, yeah, maybe personally you can be those things. But I think if you're advocating for legislation, or if you're fighting to limit other women's rights, then you can't really call yourself a feminist.

I learned conservatism through my grandfather; I didn't know that was the name. I didn't know these were conservative principles. Starting his life on a sharecropping farm. Working tremendously hard. Five years old, picking cotton and laying tobacco out to dry on a farm, and today he now owns that farm.

When you talk about change, you know what makes it really tough for people is on the one hand you've got tradition, and on the other hand you've got change; in many people's mind, change equals modernization. Tradition, however. I'm a big tradition guy.

As soon as tradition has come to be recognized as tradition, it is dead.

Maryland has a tradition of Democratic Party conservatism.

America is a country defined by a set of ideas, and when people choose to accept those ideas, they should be able to become Americans, as fully so as any - and perhaps more so than most - regardless of how recently they or their ancestors arrived upon our shores. This is the true American tradition, which as conservatives we must defend.

You have to accept that traditions exist, that people don't change their minds very quickly, that people are scared.

At first, 'Family Ties' seemed to just be a wonderful project of its time. These were the Reagan years, the new conservatism. Alex P. Keaton quickly became the Fonzie of the '80s, so it seemed very much a product of its time. But I soon began to realize that it went far beyond that. These great family shows transcend whatever time they are in.

Human beings tend to be conservative, so if you lie, you'll probably be closer to the truth.

Type design moves at the pace of the most conservative reader. The good type-designer therefore realizes that, for a new fount to be successful, it has to be so good that only very few recognize its novelty.

For tradition also and always means inhibition.

New truth is old heresy.

We shall return to proven ways - not because they are old but because they are true.