Top 25 Quotes by Russell Kirk of 62 - Page 3

The decay of old aristocratic prejudices against greedy speculation, the undermining of orthodox Christian faith (which forbids avarice)... the debauching of agriculture to a gross money-getting concern: these

The decay of old aristocratic prejudices against greedy speculation, the undermining of orthodox Christian faith (which forbids avarice)... the debauching of agriculture to a gross money-getting concern: these particular aspects of a vast and voracious concentration upon profits are so many illustrations of our sinning confusion of values.

Russell Kirk

Christian, Illustration, Agriculture

Russell Kirk (2001). “The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot”, p.140, Regnery Publishing

Why do we not exhaust the heritage of the ages, spiritual and material for our immediate pleasure, and let posterity go hang? So far as simple rationality is concerned, self-interest can advance no argument against the appetite of present possessors. Yet within some of us, a voice that is not the demand of self-interest or pure rationality says that we have no right to give ourselves enjoyment at the expense of our ancestors' memory and our descendants' prospects. We hold our present advantages only in trust.

Russell Kirk

Spiritual, Memories, Simple

The automobile, practical since 1906, was proceeding to disintegrate and stamp anew the pattern of communication, manners, and city life in the United States, by 1918; before long, men would begin to see that the automobile, and the mass production techniques which made its possible, could alter the national character and morality more thoroughly than could the most absolute of tyrants. As a mechanical Jacobin, it rivaled the dynamo. The productive process which made these vehicles cheap was still more subversive of the old ways than was the gasoline engine itself.

Russell Kirk

Communication, Character, Men

To complete the rout of traditionalists, in America an impression began to arise that the new industrial and acquisitive interests are the conservative interest, that conservatism is simply a political argument in defense of large accumulations of private property, that expansion, centralization, and accumulation are the tenets of conservatives. From this confusion, from the popular belief that Hamilton was the founder of American conservatism, the forces of tradition in the United States never have fully escaped.

Russell Kirk

America, Confusion, Political

Russell Kirk (1978). “The conservative mind: from Burke to Eliot”

And Burke, could he see our century, never would concede that a consumption-society, so near to suicide, is the end for which Providence has prepared man.

Russell Kirk

Suicide, Men, Century

Russell Kirk (2001). “The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot”, p.11, Regnery Publishing

The natural law is an instrument for progress, not a weapon of revolution.

Russell Kirk

Law, Progress, Weapons

Russell Kirk (2014). “The Roots of American Order”, p.118, Open Road Media

There are no lost causes because there are no gained causes.

Russell Kirk

Wisdom, Causes, Lost

Russell Kirk (2017). “America's British Culture”, p.120, Routledge

...so mankind is now trapped by the failure of its energies and by the depletion of those natural resources that men have plundered wantonly.

Russell Kirk

Men, Energy, Conservative

Russell Kirk (1978). “The conservative mind: from Burke to Eliot”

Rather than ennobling the public mind and cementing the social fabric, applied science speedily became the chief weapon of a gross individualism, which was anathema to the frugal and righteous (John Quincy) Adams, the source of enormous fortunes divorced from duty, the instrument of unscrupulous ambition and rapacious materialism. Presently, it came to scar the very of the country which Adams loved, a disfiguring process uninterrupted since his day.

Russell Kirk

Country, Ambition, Mind

Russell Kirk (2001). “The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot”, p.237, Regnery Publishing

The resources of nature, like those of spirit, are running out, and all that a conscientious man can aspire to be is a literal conservative, hoarding what remains of culture and of natural wealth against the fierce appetites of modern life.

Russell Kirk

Running, Men, Hoarding

Russell Kirk (2001). “The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot”, p.362, Regnery Publishing