Conservatism Quotes

A conservative government survives essentially by dampening expectations and subduing hopes. Conservatism is basically pessimistic, reformism is basically optimistic. (Gough Whitlam)
There is always a certain meanness in the argument of conservatism, joined with a certain superiority in its fact. View quote
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The two parties which divide the state, the party of Conservatism and that of Innovation, are very old, and have disputed the possession of the world ever since it was made. View quote
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Continuity is at the heart of conservatism: ecology serves that heart. View quote
Garrett Hardin
Ostensibly rigorous and realistic, contemporary conservatism is an ideology of denial. Its symbol is a smile button. View quote
Christopher Lasch
The intellectual debility of contemporary conservatism is indicated by its silence on all important matters. View quote
Christopher Lasch
Conservatism clings to what has been established, fearing that, once we begin to question the beliefs that we have inherited, all the values of life will be destroyed. View quote
Morris Raphael Cohen
Conservatism, though a necessary element in any stable society, is not a social program; in its paternalistic, nationalistic and power adoring tendencies it is often closer to socialism than true liberalism; and with its traditionalistic, anti-intellectual, and often mystical propensities it will never, except in short periods of disillusionment, appeal to the young and all those others who believe that some changes are desirable if this world is to become a better place. View quote
Friedrich Hayek
Caution and conservatism are expected of old age; but when the young men of a nation are possessed of such a spirit, when they are afraid of the noise and strife caused by the applications of the truth, heaven save the land! Its funeral bell has already rung. View quote
Henry Ward Beecher
Liberalism is trust of the people tempered by prudence. Conservatism is distrust of the people tempered by fear. View quote
William Ewart Gladstone
All Taliban are moderate. There are two things: extremism ["ifraat", or doing something to excess] and conservatism ["tafreet", or doing something insufficiently]. So in that sense, we are all moderates - taking the middle path. (Mohammed Omar)
We will not adopt the fantastic hypocrisy of modern conservatism which preaches the values of families and communities, while conducting a direct assault on them through reduced wages and conditions and job security. View quote
Paul Keating
Ambition will take you And ride you too far and Conservatism bring you to boredom once more Sit down by the river And watch the stream flow Recall all the dreams That you once used to know The things you've forgotten That took you away To pastures not greener but meaner. View quote
Van Morrison
When the Republican Party is no longer the party of fiscal conservatism then clearly I would argue that we've lost our way. View quote
Bobby Jindal
[T]he degree of confirmation assigned to any given hypothesis is sensitive to properties of the entire belief system ... simplicity, plausibility, and conservatism are properties that theories have in virtue of their relation to the whole structure of scientific beliefs taken collectively. A measure of conservatism or simplicity would be a metric over global properties of belief systems. View quote
Jerry Fodor
Conservatism is itself a modernism, and in this lies the secret of its success. View quote
Roger Scruton
The two parties which divide the State, the party of Conservatism and that of Innovation are very old, and have disputed the possession of the world ever since it was made ... Now one, now the other gets the day, and still the fight renews itself as if for the first time, under new names and hot personalities ... Innovation is the salient energy; Conservatism the pause on the last movement. View quote
Ralph Waldo Emerson
I see unhealthy signs of a new regime of religiosity and conservatism. View quote
George Alec Effinger
[Conservatism:] Our revolutionary message ... is that a self-disciplined people can create a political community in which an ordered liberty will promote both economic prosperity and political participation. View quote
Irving Kristol
The trouble with traditional American conservatism is that it lacks a naturally cheerful, optimistic disposition. Not only does it lack one, it regards signs of one as evidence of unsoundness, irresponsibility. View quote
Irving Kristol
Every historian loves the past or should do. If not, he has mistaken his vocation; but it is a short step from loving the past to regretting that it has ever changed. Conservatism is our greatest trade-risk; and we run psychoanalysts close in the belief that the only "normal" people are those who cause no trouble either to themselves or anybody else. (A. J. P. Taylor)
The problem is that too often the only people who can act don't want change. Power doesn't so much corrupt as it breeds conservatism. View quote
Jack McDevitt
Conservatism is the blind and fear-filled worship of dead radicals. View quote
Mark Twain
They offer me neither food nor drink - intellectual nor spiritual consolation... [Conservatism] leads nowhere; it satisfies no ideal; it conforms to no intellectual standard, it is not safe, or calculated to preserve from the spoilers that degree of civilisation which we have already attained. View quote
John Maynard Keynes
Fiscal conservatism is just an easy way to express something that is a bit more difficult, which is that the size and scope of government, and really the size and scope of politics in our lives, has grown uncomfortable, unwieldy, intrusive and inefficient. View quote
P. J. O'Rourke