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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.

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
Away
Hot
Assertiveness
Happens
Total
Brow
Become
Courage
Brows
Find
Gets
Wet
Blood
Reserves
Girded
Quite
Sarcastic
Bellicose
Fire
Carried
Showdown
Speak
Catch
Unbearably

More quotes by William F. Buckley, Jr.

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The principal sponsors of the terrorists are not religious fanatics. Palestine's Yasser Arafat, Iraq's Saddam Hussein, and Syria's Assad family have made themselves the icons of Islamism despite the fact that they are well-known atheists who live un-Muslim lives and have persecuted unto death the Muslim movements in their countries.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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I find it easier to believe in God than to believe Hamlet was deduced from the molecular structure of a mutton chop.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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I am, I fully grant, a phenomenon, but not because of any speed in composition. I asked myself the other day, Who else, on so many issues, has been so right so much of the time? I couldn't think of anyone.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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Presley brought an excitement to singing, in part because rock and roll was greeted as his invention, but for other reasons not so widely reflected on: Elvis Presley had the most beautiful singing voice of any human being on earth.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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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?
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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Friendship is strengthened by...that which ever so lightly elevates us from the trough of self-concern and self-devotion.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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I grew up, as reported, in a large family of Catholics without even a decent ration of tentativeness among the lot of us about our religious faith.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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When it is not possible to reason with holy warriors, it is necessary to immobilize them or crush them.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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I've always believed that conservatism is the politics of reality, and that reality ultimately asserts itself in a reasonably free society, in behalf of the conservative position.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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I profoundly believe it takes a lot of practice to become a moral slob.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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...following Mrs. Roosevelt in search of irrationality was like following a burning fuse in search of an explosive.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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What yells out at the US public . . . is the incandescent hypocrisy of so many people who, in the name of free speech, persecute its practitioners if their opinions are conservative.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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Why should any country continue, forever, to be great?
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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I get satisfaction of three kinds. One is creating something, one is being paid for it and one is the feeling that I haven't just been sitting on my ass all afternoon.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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The best defense against usurpatory government is an assertive citizenry.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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One must bear in mind that the expansion of federal activity is a form of eating for politicians.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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We are, always, reminded of the old saw: What would happen if the Soviet Union took over the Sahara Desert? Answer: Nothing for 50 years. After that there would be a shortage of sand.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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No one since the Garden of Eden - which the serpent forsook in order to run for higher office - has imputed to politicians great purity of motive.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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Self-control is one of the most exhilarating of pleasures.
William F. Buckley, Jr.