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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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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
Thinking
Issues
Grant
Anyone
Grants
Else
Composition
Right
Phenomenon
Many
Speed
Much
Fully
Time
Couldn
Think
Asked

More quotes by William F. Buckley, Jr.

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As a businessman, Frank Lorenzo gives capitalism a bad name.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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Old ladies photographed by CBS who announced that they would die of malnutrition if Reagan's bill were passed could probably have saved themselves their impending penury by the simple device of applying to the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists for scale every time they were featured by Dan Rather or whoever.
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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One can't doubt that the American objective in Iraq has failed - different plans have to be made. And the kernel here is the acknowledgement of defeat.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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Boredom is the deadliest poison.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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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.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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We view our atomic arsenal as proudly and as devotedly as any pioneer ever viewed his flintlock hanging over the mantel as his children slept, and dreamed.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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I would rather be governed by the first 2000 people in the Manhattan phone book than the entire faculty of Harvard.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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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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Not everything that is legal is reputable.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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Socialize the individual's surplus and you socialize his spirit and creativeness.
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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The anti-marijuana campaign is a cancerous tissue of lies, undermining law enforcement, aggravating the drug problem, depriving the sick of needed help and suckering well-intentioned conservatives and countless frightened parents.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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Idealism is fine, but as it approaches reality, the costs become prohibitive.
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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Liberals, it has been said, are generous with other peoples' money, except when it comes to questions of national survival when they prefer to be generous with other people's freedom and security.
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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The superstition that the hounds of truth will rout the vermin of error seems, like a fragment of Victorian lace, quaint, but too brittle to be lifted out of the showcase.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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The more complicated and powerful the job, the more rudimentary the preparation for it.
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.