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The principle of real leadership ignored, the immortal objects of society forgotten, practical conservatism degenerated into mere laudation of private enterprise, economic policy almost wholly surrendered to special interests.

Russell Kirk

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Russell Kirk
Age: 75 †
Born: 1918
Born: October 19
Died: 1994
Died: April 19
Historian
Journalist
Literary Critic
Novelist
Peace Activist
Philosopher
Political Scientist
Science Fiction Writer
Writer
Plymouth
Michigan
Interest
Mere
Immortal
Society
Leadership
Practical
Real
Objects
Enterprise
Degenerated
Policy
Principle
Surrendered
Principles
Interests
Conservatism
Special
Conservative
Wholly
Economic
Forgotten
Ignored
Almost
Private
Practicals

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There are no lost causes because there are no gained causes.
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If men are discharged of reverence for ancient usage, they will treat this world, almost certainly, as if it were their private property, to be consumed for their sensual gratification and thus they will destroy in their lust for enjoyment the property of future generations, of their own contemporaries, and indeed their very own capital.
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And Burke, could he see our century, never would concede that a consumption-society, so near to suicide, is the end for which Providence has prepared man.
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The ACLU has been able to harass out of existence public expressions of faith.
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The libertarian thinks that this world is chiefly a stage for the swaggering ego the conservative finds himself instead a pilgrim in a realm of mystery and wonder, where duty, discipline, and sacrifice are required-and where the reward is that love which passeth all understanding.
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Ordinary human laws are the means - however imperfect - by which we express our understanding of the enduring moral law.
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The good society is marked by a high degree of order, justice, and freedom. Among these, order has primacy: for justice cannot be enforced until a tolerable civil social order is attained, nor can freedom be anything better than violence until order gives us laws.
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Not by force of arms are civilizations held together, but by subtle threads of moral and intellectual principle.
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If you want to have order in the commonwealth, you first have to have order in the individual soul.
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Individualism is a denial that life has any meaning except the gratification of the ego in politics it must end in anarchy. It is not possible for one man to be both Christian and Individualist.
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Principle #6: Recognition that change and reform are not identical, and that innovation is a devouring conflagration more often than it is a torch of progress.
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Locke contended that government originates out of the necessity for protecting property.
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Every right is married to a duty every freedom owes a corresponding responsibility and there cannot be genuine freedom unless there exists also genuine order, in the moral realm and in the social realm.
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...only the unscrupulous or shortsighted can defend pollution and degradation of the countryside.
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