The Graduate Conservative Union of Princeton University

Conservative Quotations

The GCU is compiling a list of conservative quotations as a reference guide (and a source of entertainment). If you run across any good quotes we don't have, drop us a line.

Adams, Samuel

Samuel Adams was one of the organizers of the rebellion that became the American Revolution.

  • "If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; and may posterity forget that ye were once our countrymen."

    Browne, Harry

    Harry Browne was the Libertarian nominee for President in 1996.

  • "Social security brings a new dimension to such concepts as annuities, insurance, and retirement. No long, complicated contracts. No actuarial tables to pore over. Social security operates on a very simple principle: the politicians take your money from you and squander it."

    Bulwer-Lytton, Edward

    Edward Bulwer-Lytton was a British novelist.

  • "Personal liberty is the paramount essential to human dignity and human happiness."

    Caesar, Augustus

    Augustus was Emperor of Rome.

  • "Hasten slowly."

    Chesterton, Gilbert Keith

    G. K. Chesterton was an English author and theologian. Although he claimed to dislike conservatism as much as progressivism, and he was a supporter of government redistribution of wealth, the foundations of his philosophy were essentially conservative.

  • "People generally quarrel because they cannot argue."
  • "The act of defending any of the cardinal virtues has today all the exhilaration of a vice."
  • "Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions."
  • "To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it."
  • "The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected."
  • "The comedy of man survives the tragedy of man."
  • "Men invent new ideals because they dare not attempt old ideals. They look forward with enthusiasm, because they are afraid to look back."
  • "The past is not what it was."
  • "There is a corollary to the conception of being too proud to fight. It is that the humble have to do most of the fighting."
  • "The unconscious democracy of America is a very fine thing. It is a true and deep and instinctive assumption of the equality of citizens, which even voting and elections have not destroyed." -- 1922
  • "When a politician is in opposition he is an expert on the means to some end; and when he is in office he is an expert on the obstacles to it."
  • "It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged."
  • "There cannot be a nation of millionaires, and there never has been a nation of Utopian comrades; but there have been any number of nations of tolerably contented peasants."
  • "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried."
  • "Men do not differ much about what things they will call evils; they differ enormously about what evils they will call excusable."
  • "The decay of society is praised by artists as the decay of a corpse is praised by worms."
  • "Properly speaking, of course, there is no such thing as a return to nature, because there is no such thing as a departure from it. The phrase reminds one of the slightly intoxicated gentleman who gets up in his own dining room and declares firmly that he must be getting home."
  • "The position we have now reached is this: starting from the State, we try to remedy the failures of all the families, all the nurseries, all the schools, all the workshops, all the secondary institutions that once had some authority of their own. Everything is ultimately brought into the Law Courts. We are trying to stop the leak at the other end." -- 1923
  • "Religious liberty might be supposed to mean that everybody is free to discuss religion. In practice it means that hardly anybody is allowed to mention it."
  • "Of a sane man there is only one safe definition: he is a man who can have tragedy in his heart and comedy in his head."
  • "There is no nobler fate than to be forgotten as the foe of a forgotten heresy."
  • "The reformer is always right about what is wrong. He is generally wrong about what is right."
  • "Reason is always a kind of brute force; those who appeal to the head rather than the heart, however pallid and polite, are necessarily men of violence. We speak of 'touching' a man's heart, but we can do nothing to his head but hit it."
  • "Progress is a comparative of which we have not settled the superlative."
  • "Progress should mean that we are always changing the world to fit the vision, instead we are always changing the vision."
  • "My attitude toward progress has passed from antagonism to boredom. I have long ceased to argue with people who prefer Thursday to Wednesday because it is Thursday."
  • "Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around."
  • "War is not the best way of settling differences; it is the only way of preventing their being settled for you."
  • "Once abolish the God, and the government becomes the God."
  • "The Declaration of Independence dogmatically bases all rights on the fact that God created all men equal; and it is right; for if they were not created equal, they were certainly evolved unequal. There is no basis for democracy except in a dogma about the divine origin of man."
  • "When you break the big laws, you do not get freedom; you do not even get anarchy. You get the small laws."
  • "All government is an ugly necessity."
  • "He is a very shallow critic who cannot see an eternal rebel in the heart of a conservative."
  • "It is hard to make government representative when it is also remote."
  • "It is true that I am of an older fashion; much that I love has been destroyed or sent into exile."
  • "Self-denial is the test and definition of self-government."
  • "There are those who hate Christianity and call their hatred an all-embracing love for all religions."
  • "These are the days when the Christian is expected to praise every creed except his own." -- 1928
  • "It is not bigotry to be certain we are right; but it is bigotry to be unable to imagine how we might possibly have gone wrong."
  • "The voice of the special rebels and prophets, recommending discontent, should, as I have said, sound now and then suddenly, like a trumpet. But the voices of the saints and sages, recommending contentment, should sound unceasingly, like the sea."
  • "What we call emancipation is always and of necessity simply the free choice of the soul between one set of limitations and another."
  • "The purpose of Compulsory Education is to deprive the common people of their commonsense."
  • "What is wrong with the world is that we do not ask what is right."
  • "Mercy does not mean not being cruel, or sparing people revenge or punishment; it means a plain and positive thing like the sun, which one has either seen or not seen."
  • "The modern habit of saying 'This is my opinion, but I may be wrong' is entirely irrational. If I say that it may be wrong, I say that is not my opinion."
  • "The modern habit of saying 'Every man has a different philosophy; this is my philosophy and it suits me' - the habit of saying this is mere weak-mindedness. A cosmic philosophy is not constructed to fit a man; a cosmic philosophy is constructed to fit a cosmos. A man can no more possess a private religion than he can possess a private sun and moon."
  • "Creeds must disagree: it is the whole fun of the thing. If I think the universe is triangular, and you think it is square, there cannot be room for two universes. We may argue politely, we may argue humanely, we may argue with great mutual benefit; but, obviously, we must argue. Modern toleration is really a tyranny. It is a tyranny because it is a silence. To say that I must not deny my opponent's faith is to say I must not discuss it . . . It is absurd to have a discussion on Comparative Religions if you don't compare them."
  • "Unfortunately, 19th-century scientists were just as ready to jump to the conclusion that any guess about nature was an obvious fact, as were 17th-century sectarians to jump to the conclusion that any guess about Scripture was the obvious explanation . . . . and this clumsy collision of two very impatient forms of ignorance was known as the quarrel of Science and Religion."
  • "It is absurd for the Evolutionist to complain that it is unthinkable for an admittedly unthinkable God to make everything out of nothing, and then pretend that it is more thinkable that nothing should turn itself into anything."
  • "For though to-day is always to-day and the moment is always modern, we are the only men in all history who fell back upon bragging about the mere fact that to-day is not yesterday. I fear that some in the future will explain it by saying that we had precious little else to brag about."

    Churchill, Winston

    Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965) was Prime Minister of the U.K., as well as a renowned author and political philosopher.

  • "The essence of American journalism is vulgarity divested of truth."
  • "We cannot say 'The past is past' without surrendering the future."
  • "The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see."
  • "If you destroy a free market you create a black market."
  • "To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day."

    Cicero, Marcus Tullius

    Cicero (106-43 B.C.) was one of the great Roman orators.

  • "The more laws, the less justice."
  • "History is the witness that testifies to the passing of time; it illumines reality, vitalizes memory, provides guidance in daily life, and brings us tidings of antiquity."
  • "Where is there dignity unless there is honesty?"
  • "To be ignorant of what happened before you were born is to be ever a child. For what is man's lifetime unless the memory of past events is woven with those of earlier times?"
  • "Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book."

    Coolidge, Calvin

    Calvin Coolidge was the thirtieth President of the United States.

  • "The chief business of the American people is business."
  • "Economy is idealism in its most practical form." -- Inaugural Address, March 4, 1925
  • "We can not continue these brilliant successes in the future, unless we continue to learn from the past." -- Inaugural Address, March 4, 1925
  • "But there is another element, more important than all, without which there can not be the slightest hope of a permanent peace. That element lies in the heart of humanity. Unless the desire for peace be cherished there, unless this fundamental and only natural source of brotherly love be cultivated to its highest degree, all artificial efforts will be in vain." -- Inaugural Address, March 4, 1925
  • "Peace will come when there is realization that only under a reign of law, based on righteousness and supported by the religious conviction of the brotherhood of man, can there be any hope of a complete and satisfying life. Parchment will fail, the sword will fail, it is only the spiritual nature of man that can be triumphant." -- Inaugural Address, March 4, 1925
  • "The collection of any taxes which are not absolutely required, which do not beyond reasonable doubt contribute to the public welfare, is only a species of legalized larceny." -- Inaugural Address, March 4, 1925

    Emerson, Ralph Waldo

    Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American author and philosopher.

  • "There is a certain meanness in the argument of conservatism, joined with a certain superiority of fact."

    Franklin, Benjamin

    Benjamin Franklin was an inventor and statesman.

  • "No nation was ever ruined by trade."
  • "But in this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."
  • "The absent are never without fault. Nor the present without excuse."
  • "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety." -- 1759

    Friedman, Milton

    Milton Friedman is an economist.
  • "Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program."

    Goldberg, Jonah

    Jonah Goldberg is a columnist for the National Review.

  • "The great accomplishment of the Left in the 1930s was the gift for dismissing questions of fact with accusations about motive."

    Goldwater, Barry

    Barry Goldwater was a U.S. Senator from Arizona and the Republican nominee for President in 1964.

  • "I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice; and let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." -- To the Republican Convention, July 16, 1964
  • "A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away."

    Harvey, Paul

    Paul Harvey is a radio newsreader for ABC.

  • "In times like these, it helps to recall that there have always been times like these."

    Hobbes, Thomas

    Thomas Hobbes was a distinctly pessimistic British political philosopher.

  • "Covenants without swords are but words."

    Hoover, Herbert

    Herbert Hoover was the thirty-first President of the United States

  • "Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt."

    Jackson, Robert H.

    Robert H. Jackson was a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • "It is not the function of our government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error." -- 1950

    Jefferson, Thomas

    Thomas Jefferson was, among other things, the first Secretary of State, the second Vice-President, and the third President of the United States, as well as the founder of the University of Virginia.

  • "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just."
  • "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."
  • "It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself."
  • "The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling posterity on a large scale."
  • "Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom."
  • "The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."
  • "Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God."
  • "A noiseless course, not meddling with the affairs of others, unattractive of notice, is a mark that society is going on in happiness."
  • "To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves, is sinful and tyrannical."

    Jens, Dean

    Dean Jens is a physicist, computer programmer, and radical reactionary.

  • "I'm not sure what I mean by 'heart of a conservative', but I think it has something to do with Norman Rockwell."
  • "An actual right is something that governments need merely to secure, not to implement."
  • "Government is the opiate of the masses."

    Johnson, Samuel

    Samuel Johnson was an English writer and lexicographer.

  • "Your levellers want to level down as far as themselves, but they cannot bear levelling up to themselves."

    James Kilpatrick

    James Kilpatrick is a syndicated columnist who writes on legal matters.

  • "When government is given a power, it is likely that government will abuse it."

    Krauthammer, Charles

    Charles Krauthammer is a syndicated columnist for the Washington Post.

  • "The first duty of any legal system is justice, not social work." -- 12/13/96
  • "... [T]he war against individualism that began with collectivism has, with its collapse, mutated into the championing of groups." -- 12/30/96
  • "[W]hen government stepped in to take over all the caring functions that for generations had been the province of family and community and charities and churches, it did not add to the welfare of those it was helping. It was merely substituting. Not only did it add very little. In fact, it subtracted: By substituting the bureaucrat downtown for the churches, the social clubs, the charitable societies, it robbed these traditional caring institutions of their vocation and vitality."

    Leaf, Jonathan

    Jonathan Leaf is a columnist for the National Review.

  • "One should always be fearful of radical change if for no other reason that one can never predict its ultimate consequences."

    Lincoln, Abraham

    Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States.

  • "I'm a slow walker, but I never walk back."

    Lindberg, Carter

    Carter Lindberg is a historian.

  • "If we do not know our own personal and community histories, we are like children who are easily manipulated by those who would use the past for their own purposes."
  • "[F]orgetfulness of the past contributes to incomprehension of the present." -- The European Reformations

    Linklater, Magnus

    Magnus Linklater is a columnist for the London Times

  • "History and tradition, far from imprisoning a nation, provide the solid foundation on which it rests."

    Madison, James

    James Madison was the 4th President of the United States.

  • "Since the general civilizations of mankind I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."

    Mill, John Stuart

    John Stuart Mill was an English writer and philosopher.

  • "Ages are no more infallible than individuals." -- On Liberty
  • "Judgment is given to men that they may use it." -- On Liberty
  • "But they are always a mass, that is to say, collective mediocrity." -- On Liberty
  • "Disinterested benevolence can find other instruments to persuade people to their good than whips and scourges." -- On Liberty
  • "I am not aware that any community has a right to force another to be civilized." -- On Liberty

    O'Rourke, P. J.

    P. J. O'Rourke is a conservative humorist and author.

  • "The free market is ugly and stupid, like going to the mall; the unfree market is just as ugly and just as stupid, except there's nothing in the mall and if you don't go there they shoot you."
  • "America was not founded so we could all be better. America was founded so we could all be whatever we damn well pleased."
  • "Freedom is not empowerment. Empowerment is what the Serbs have in Bosnia. Anybody can grab a gun and be empowered. It's not entitlement. An entitlement is what people on welfare get, and how free are they? It's not an endlessly expanding list of rights--the 'right' to education, the 'right' to health care, the 'right' to food and housing. That's not freedom, that's dependency. Those aren't rights, those are the rations of slavery--hay and a barn for human cattle. There's only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences."

    Paine, Thomas

    Thomas Paine was a Revolutionary-era writer and author of the famous Common Sense.

  • "He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression."
  • "Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation is principle is always a vice."

    Rand, Ayn

    Ayn Rand was an author and the founder of the Objectivist movement.

  • "Civilization is the process of setting man free from men."
  • "If you ask me to name the proudest distinction of Americans, I would choose- because it contains all the others- the fact that they were the people who created the phrase "to make money." No other language or nation had ever used these words before; men had always thought of wealth as a static quantity- to be seized, begged, inherited, shared, looted or obtained as a favor. Americans were the first to understand that wealth has to be created."

    Reagan, Ronald

    Ronald Reagan was the 40th President of the United States.

  • "Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first."
  • "There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers."
  • "Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it."

    Reese, Charley

    Charley Reese is a columnist for the Orlando Sentinel

  • "The first step in reforming the country is to repeal earlier reforms that have proven to be worse than the ills they were designed to correct."
  • "If you have to obtain a government license to exercise a right, it is not a right."

    Rogers, Will

    Will Rogers (1879-1935) was a comedian who entertained millions during the Depression era.

  • "I can remember way back when a liberal was one who was generous with his own money."
  • "Just be thankful you're not getting all the government you paid for."
  • "Things will get better - despite our efforts to improve them."
  • "What the country needs is dirtier fingernails and cleaner minds."
  • "Alexander Hamilton started the U.S. Treasury with nothing -- and that was the closest our country has ever been to being even."

    Roosevelt, Theodore

    Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) was the 26th President of the United States.

  • "It either is or ought to be evident to everyone that business has to prosper before anyone can get any benefit from it."
  • "Peace is a goddess only when she comes with sword girt on thigh."
  • "Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground."

    Scalia, Antonin

    Antonin Scalia is a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • "We must pray for the courage to endure the scorn of the sophisticated world."

    Scott, Walter

    Sir Walter Scott was a British novelist.

  • "When a man has not a good reason for doing a thing, he has a good reason for letting it alone."

    Shaw, George Bernard

    G. B. Shaw (1856-1950) was a British playright and noted cynic.

  • "A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend upon the support of Paul."
  • "The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it."

    Thatcher, Margaret

    Baroness Thatcher was Prime Minister of the U.K. from 1979 through 1990.

  • "There is no such thing as a society. There are individual men and women and there are families." -- October 21, 1987
  • "You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it."
  • "Of course, it's the same old story. Truth usually is the same old story."
  • "Don't follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you."

    Washington, George

    George Washington, "The Father of his Country", was the first President of the United States, as well as the Commander-in-Chief of the revolutionary army and President of the U.S. Constitutional Convention.

  • "To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace."
  • "Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair; the rest is in the hands of God."

    Webster, Daniel

    Daniel Webster was a 19th century American statesman.

  • "A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures."

    Weld, William

    William Weld was the governor of Massachusetts.

  • "I'm not arguing here that government ought to do more with less; I'm saying government ought to do less with less." -- during a debate

    Wellesley, Arthur

    Arthur Wellesley was the Duke of Wellington

  • "Reform? reform? Aren't things bad enough already?"
  • "Educate people without religion and you make them but clever devils."

    Will, George

    George Will is a syndicated columnist for the Washington Post.

  • "... The most that can ever be said with certainty, anywhere, is: So far, so good." -- The Leveling Wind"
  • "I am temperamentally inclined to worry. That is why I am a conservative." -- The Leveling Wind
  • "Proper conservatives subscribe to the 'Ohio in 1895 Theory of History' -- so named, by me, because of this: In 1895 there were just two automobiles in Ohio -- and they collided. Conservatives expect trouble and are rarely disappointed." -- The Leveling Wind
  • "In a well-functioning society, some things are supposed to be dull." -- The Leveling Wind
  • "The American idea is that government exists to protect, not to give, the most fundamental rights which, as Jefferson wrote ... are 'unalienable' because they exist independent of, and prior to, government."
  • "America is -- always has been -- on a high-speed ride. But there is no driver. Never has been. That's the nature of a free society." -- 10/10/96
  • "The Berlin Wall is the defining achievement of socialism."
  • "Equality-- other than equality before the law-- is a problematic, and often pernicious social value. The celebration of equality of condition often is merely envy tarted up in the clothing of compassion." -- Healthy Inequality, 10/25/96
  • "A society that chafes against stratifications derived from disparities of talents will be a society that discourages individual excellence." -- Healthy Inequality, 10/25/96
  • "[T]here simply is no such thing as a 'minor crime' because all crime breeds disorder, which is an infectious social disease. It atomizes communities, increases anxiety, wariness, avoidance, and truculence and dissolves the sense of mutual regard and obligations of civility." -- Big Stick Conservatism, 11/11/96
  • "Enough micro-solutions and there will be no macro-problems."

    Wilson, Harold

    Harold Wilson was Prime Minister of the U.K.

  • "One man's wage rise is another man's price increase."

    Wilson, Woodrow

    Although Woodrow Wilson, the twenty-eigth President of the United States (and previously President of Princeton University) was a Democrat and not exactly a conservative, some of his statements regarding justice and liberty bear reflection.

  • "Unless justice is done to others it will not be done to us."

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