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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.

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
Also
Unless
Right
Duty
Corresponding
Every
Responsibility
Owes
Moral
Realm
Freedom
Realms
Social
Genuine
Order
Exists
Cannot
Married

More quotes by Russell Kirk

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There are no lost causes because there are no gained causes.
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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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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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Despite much talk in this land about religious freedom, churches and their schools now confront grave difficulties.
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...only the unscrupulous or shortsighted can defend pollution and degradation of the countryside.
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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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Not by force of arms are civilizations held together, but by subtle threads of moral and intellectual principle.
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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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Real literature is something much better than a harmless instrument for getting through idle hours. The purpose of great literature is to help us to develop into full human beings.
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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.
Russell Kirk
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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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Schooling deprived of religious insights is wretched education.
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The natural law is an instrument for progress, not a weapon of revolution.
Russell Kirk
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We cannot make a heaven on earth, though we may make a hell.
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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.
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A just government maintains a healthy tension between the claims of authority and the claims of liberty.
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Locke contended that government originates out of the necessity for protecting property.
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If you want to have order in the commonwealth, you first have to have order in the individual soul.
Russell Kirk
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The ACLU has been able to harass out of existence public expressions of faith.
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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.
Russell Kirk