Quote

States are like people. They do not question the awful status quo until some dramatic event overturns the conventional and lax way of thinking.

Victor Davis Hanson

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Victor Davis Hanson
Age: 71
Born: 1953
Born: September 5
Classical Scholar
Historian
Journalist
University Teacher
Fowler
California
Way
Conventional
Thinking
Status
Like
Event
People
Dramatic
Awful
Events
Question
Overturns
States
Lax

More quotes by Victor Davis Hanson

Image
Often, the pretexts for starting a war are not real shortages of land, food or fuel, but rather perceptions - like fear, honor and perceived self-interest.
Victor Davis Hanson
Image
Behind every liberal philanthropist fortune is a huge capitalist score. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett can afford now to be liberal - an expensive indulgence - because in their early incarnations they were no-holds-barred capitalists who made lots of enemies conducting business without mercy and in search of pure profit.
Victor Davis Hanson
Image
There's just no - nothing like this country, which is the only, really, multiracial country that's tried to share in a common culture in the history of civilization that's pulled it off. A lot of the times, we want perfection. If we're not perfect, we're not good.
Victor Davis Hanson
Image
It is a hard thing for intellectuals to acknowledge benefits from their rich moral inferiors who never so intended it.
Victor Davis Hanson
Image
We have had raucous moments in our history. And I think we're in one now. But it's not going to endanger the future of democracy.
Victor Davis Hanson
Image
Multiculturalism is a good reminder that when standards are relative, there are no standards at all.
Victor Davis Hanson
Image
We're in a very Orwellian situation where when we - we've slashed defense. And we've raised taxes. And we consider $600 billion annual deficit success because it's not $1 trillion.
Victor Davis Hanson
Image
California is now a valuable touchstone to the country, a warning of what not to do. Rarely has a single generation inherited so much natural wealth and bounty from the investment and hard work of those more noble now resting in our cemeteries-and squandered that gift within a generation.
Victor Davis Hanson
Image
Cheap anti-Americanism will eventually have consequences.
Victor Davis Hanson
Image
Entertainers wrongly assume that their fame, money, and influence arise from broad knowledge rather than natural talent, looks, or mastery of a narrow skill.
Victor Davis Hanson
Image
Most authoritarians do not surrender power voluntarily.
Victor Davis Hanson
Image
I saw more stupid people in graduate school and three decades in academia than I ever did who ran 100 acres without going broke.
Victor Davis Hanson
Image
Any time the Western way of war can be unleashed on an enemy stupid enough to enter its arena, victory is assured.
Victor Davis Hanson
Image
So why, after prior successes, did Obama's race/class/gender attack finally sputter out like the French at Waterloo?
Victor Davis Hanson
Image
Behind every American soldier, dozens of their countrymen tonight sleep soundly — and hundreds more in their shadow abroad will wake up alive and safe.
Victor Davis Hanson
Image
Western elites - the beneficiaries of 60 years of peace and prosperity achieved by the sacrifices to defeat fascism and Communism - are unhappy in their late middle age, and show little gratitude for, or any idea about, what gave them such latitude. If they cannot find perfection in history, they see no good at all.
Victor Davis Hanson
Image
The president who is most slandered as Hitler will probably prove to be the most zealous advocate of democratic government abroad, the staunchest friend of beleaguered Israel, and the greatest promoter of global individual freedom in our recent memory.
Victor Davis Hanson
Image
Trump is a symptom of widespread disgust, not the head of a carefully crafted ideological movement with a checklist of issues.
Victor Davis Hanson
Image
This is something that Donald Trump has been very effective at exploiting because throughout our history, one of the things that was important to galvanize the country against a perceived threat has been philology.
Victor Davis Hanson
Image
The fact is, beneath the hype, Iraqis will soon appreciate American help and idealism far more than French perfidy. It is never wrong to be on the side of freedom - never.
Victor Davis Hanson