Quote

Our institutions, if they do not erode entirely, can survive periods of decadence brought on by our material success, eras when the whole notion of civic militarism seems bothersome, and in which free speech is used to focus on our own imperfections without concern for the ghastly nature of our enemies.

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
Whole
Focus
Material
Ghastly
Enemy
Notion
Civics
Free
Brought
Imperfections
Success
Institutions
Imperfection
Bothersome
Nature
Periods
Eras
Erode
Seems
Concern
Enemies
Decadence
Used
Materials
Entirely
Militarism
Without
Speech
Survive
Civic

More quotes by Victor Davis Hanson

Image
I think the Democrat Party is taking its cue from the media. When the media has a narrative, whether it's the use of profanity, the Democratic Party follows it.
Victor Davis Hanson
Image
The columnist like myself or people at Stanford University don't wake up in the morning and see their job outsourced. Yet we promote free markets. But we're not sensitive to what that does to other people who don't have our privilege.
Victor Davis Hanson
Image
I think people are beating each other up in the halls of Congress, as they did in the late 1850s.
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's radical Islamic terrorism. And yet, when you see the last eight years, something's gone wrong to call it violent extremism or man-caused disasters. It would be as if we were looking at [Adolf] Hitler in the 1930s. And we were afraid to say that he was a Nazi.
Victor Davis Hanson
Image
It is never wrong to be on the side of freedom...never .
Victor Davis Hanson
Image
Stalin and Mao killed over 80 million and did not make omelets despite the broken eggs.
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
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
A Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, John Edwards, Howard Dean, George Soros, or Al Gore looks - no, acts - like he either came out of a hairstylist's salon or got off a Gulfstream.
Victor Davis Hanson
Image
Nor did Americans believe that Republicans had been waging war on minorities, women, or gays - especially given that Republicans have held the House only since 2011 and have been out of power in the Senate and presidency since 2009.
Victor Davis Hanson
Image
War seems to come out of nowhere, like rust that suddenly pops up on iron after a storm.
Victor Davis Hanson
Image
Even in its third century, America is still the most meritocratic nation in the world.
Victor Davis Hanson
Image
I see a continuation of the populist outrage that prompted the Brexit and sparked the Bernie Sanders campaign.
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
Image
History has shown that a government's redistribution of shrinking wealth, in preference to a private sector's creation of new sources of it, can prove more destructive than even the most deadly enemy.
Victor Davis Hanson
Image
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
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
Donald Trump, he didn't dismantle Eastern European missile defense. He didn't go to Geneva and press a plastic red button. He didn't make fun of Romney for saying Russia was an existential enemy. He didn't have a hot mic exchange with a Russian President saying that he would be more flexible with the Russians after the elections.
Victor Davis Hanson
Image
I'm kind of old-fashioned because I was born and live in the same house for six generations.
Victor Davis Hanson