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Before there was Ronald Reagan there was Barry Goldwater, and before there was Barry, there was National Review , and before there was National Review there was Bill Buckley with a spark in his mind.

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
Bills
Barry
National
Ronald
Mind
Review
Spark
Reagan
Sparks
Reviews
Bill
Goldwater

More quotes by William F. Buckley, Jr.

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Norman Mailer decocts matters of the first philosophical magnitude from an examination of his own ordure, and I am not talking about his books.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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Bobby Kennedy and Nelson Rockefeller are having a row, ostensibly over the plight of New York's mentally retarded, a loose definition of which would include everyone in New York who voted for Bobby Kennedy or Nelson Rockefeller.
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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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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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.
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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Mr. Rockefeller is due to entertain munificently at breakfast, and make his pitch. My advice to one invited guest was: Order caviar, and then say No.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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If only the left hated crime as much as they hated hate.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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It is not a sign of arrogance for the king to rule. That is what he is there for.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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Stick me in a confessional and ask the question: Sir, if you had the authority, would you forbid smoking in America? You'd get a solemn and contrite, Yes.
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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They [Theodore White and Lou Harris] took turns weeping, and finally concluded that Rockefeller got the votes of everyone in California who is a Negro, a Jew, a Mexican, and a college graduate, while Goldwater got the votes of every millionaire. Which certainly makes California the land of opportunity.
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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It seems to me that the idea traditionally defended of endeavoring to maintain existing ethnic balances simply doesn't work any more.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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Industry is the enemy of melancholy
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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All adventure is now reactionary.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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Only government can cause inflation, preserve monopoly, and punish enterprise.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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...the traces to the East haven been broken, the Republican party will never again be dominated by the editorial writers for the New York Herald Tribune. Free at last.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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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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I would sooner live in a society governed by the first two thousand names in the Boston telephone directory than in a society governed by the two thousand faculty members of Harvard University.
William F. Buckley, Jr.