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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.

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
Men
Truths
Life
Yesterday
Booth
Authority
Subservient
Wisdom
Obedient
Political
Ancestors
Live
Arrived
Mean
Ancestor
Never
Voting

More quotes by 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 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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Everything I do and say and the way I do and say it annoys me.
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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Did you know that forty percent of the words used by Shakespeare were used by him only once?
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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The Beatles are not merely awful. They are so unbelievably horrible, so appallingly unmusical, so dogmatically insensitive to the magic of the art, that they qualify as crowned heads of anti-music.
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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France believes in armed intervention by America only when the intervention is in France to rescue France from occupation by other powers.
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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Professor Galbraith is horrified by the number of Americans who have bought cars with tail fins on them, and I am horrified by the number of Americans who take seriously the proposals of Mr. Galbraith.
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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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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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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You cannot paint the Mona Lisa by assigning one dab each to a thousand painters.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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A society is not 'free' merely because the freedoms the people are doing away with are those they voted at the last election to do without.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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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.
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 are so concerned to flatter the majority that we lose sight of how very often it is necessary, in order to preserve freedom for the minority, let alone for the individual, to face that majority down.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
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Scientists are people who build the Brooklyn Bridge and then buy it.
William F. Buckley, Jr.