Quote

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.

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Answers
Soviet
Happen
Sand
Happens
Union
Nothing
Desert
Years
Unions
Always
Answer
Sahara
Would
Saws
Shortage
Took
Reminded

More quotes by William F. Buckley, Jr.

Image
If you had a European prime minister who experienced what we've experienced it would be expected that he would retire or resign.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
Image
He was a conservative all right, but invariably he gave the impression that he was a conservative because he was surrounded by liberals that he had been a revolutionist if that had been required in order to be socially disruptive.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
Image
I had much more fun criticizing than praising.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
Image
The majority of the senior class of Vassar does not desire my company and I must confess, having read specimens of their thought and sentiments, that I do not desire the company of the majority of the senior class of Vassar.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
Image
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.
Image
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.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
Image
Some of my instincts are reprehensible.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
Image
The Beatles are not merely awful. I would consider it sacrilegious to say anything less than that they are godawful.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
Image
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.
Image
Friendship is strengthened by...that which ever so lightly elevates us from the trough of self-concern and self-devotion.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
Image
You cannot paint the Mona Lisa by assigning one dab each to a thousand painters.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
Image
The amount of money and of legal energy being given to prosecute hundreds of thousands of Americans who are caught with a few ounces of marijuana makes no sense.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
Image
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.
Image
Socialize the individual's surplus and you socialize his spirit and creativeness.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
Image
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.
Image
History is but the polemics of the victor.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
Image
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.
Image
In the hands of a skillful indoctrinator, the average student not only thinks what the indoctrinator wants him to think . . . but is altogether positive that he has arrived at his position by independent intellectual exertion. This man is outraged by the suggestion that he is the flesh-and-blood tribute to the success of his indoctrinators.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
Image
Idealism is fine, but as it approaches reality, the costs become prohibitive.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
Image
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.