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All that is good is not embodied in the law and all that is evil is not proscribed by the law. A well-disciplined society needs few laws but it needs strong mores.

William F. Buckley, Jr.

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William F. Buckley, Jr.
Age: 82 †
Born: 1925
Born: November 24
Died: 2008
Died: February 27
Journalist
Novelist
Politician
Television Presenter
Writer
New York City
New York
William F. Buckley Jr.
William Frank Buckley Jr.
William Frank Buckley
Jr.
William Frank Buckley
Strong
Mores
Government
Embodied
Wells
Disciplined
Well
Laws
Needs
Liberty
Good
Law
Society
Evil
Proscribed

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Not everything that is legal is reputable.
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Conservatism is the tacit acknowledgement that all that is finally important in human experience is behind us that the crucial explorations have been undertaken, and that it is given to man to know what are the great truths that emerged from them.
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He [Cassius Clay] became a Black Muslim, which is a pseudo-religion for unbright neurotics who feel the need to hate all white people.
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Scientists are people who build the Brooklyn Bridge and then buy it.
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Why should any country continue, forever, to be great?
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People are beginning to wish that the voters had been given breathometer tests when they voted in the present government.
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[The] act of gratitude is nowadays is probably more often neglected than overdone.
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Arlen Specter is the man who voted in favor of Bill Clinton during impeachment, voted against Robert Bork for the Supreme Court, voted against school choice for the District of Columbia, endorses an absolutist interpretation of abortion rights. He is bright and he is tough and he belongs elsewhere.
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They told me if I voted for Goldwater, he would get us into a war in Vietnam. Well, I voted for Goldwater and that's what happened.
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Truth is a demure lady, much too ladylike to knock you on your head and drag you to her cave. She is there, but people must want her, and seek her out.
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Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views.
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Louis Kelso of San Francisco, a lawyer-economist, has for years felt that he has a radical answer to the problem.
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We love your adherence to democratic principles.
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Though liberals do a great deal of talking about hearing other points of view, it sometimes shocks them to learn that there are other points of view.
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I catch fire and find the reserves of courage and assertiveness to speak up. When that happens I get quite carried away. My blood gets hot my brow wet I become unbearably and unconscionably sarcastic and bellicose I am girded for a total showdown.
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I mean to live my life an obedient man, but obedient to God, subservient to the wisdom of my ancestors never to the authority of political truths arrived at yesterday at the voting booth.
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A Conservative is a fellow who is standing athwart history yelling 'Stop!'
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Now it is one thing to say I say it that people shouldn't consume psychoactive drugs. It is entirely something else to condone marijuana laws, the application of which resulted, in 1995, in the arrest of 588,963 Americans. Why are we so afraid to inform ourselves on the question?
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The Beatles are not merely awful. I would consider it sacrilegious to say anything less than that they are godawful.
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