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...ambition without pious restraint must end in failure, often involving in its ruin that beautiful reverence which solaces common men for the obscurity and poverty of their lot.

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
Without
Conservative
Solace
Must
Ambition
Pious
Men
Failure
Obscurity
Poverty
Involving
Common
Restraint
Often
Ruin
Beautiful
Reverence
Ends
Ruins

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The ACLU has been able to harass out of existence public expressions of faith.
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The Secular City, having legislated and litigated itself out of any entanglement with the City of God, would be a hell upon earth .
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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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If a conservative order is indeed to return, we ought to know the tradition which is attached to it, so that we may rebuild society if it is not to be restored, still we ought to understand conservative ideas so that we may rake from the ashes what scorched fragments of civilizations escape the conflagration of unchecked will and appetite.
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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 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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Not by force of arms are civilizations held together, but by subtle threads of moral and intellectual principle.
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We cannot make a heaven on earth, though we may make a hell.
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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 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.
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Men cannot improve a society by setting fire to it: they must seek out its old virtues, and bring them back into the light.
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