Philosophical Conservatism

The Blog by a New Yorker on the Philosophy of Conservatism featuring all original commentary on various issues, insightful quotes and other goodies. I welcome any questions on the topic.

[philosophicalconservatism]

“Economics teaches humility because it teaches us more about what we can’t do than what we can do”

— Peter Boettke (1960-) American economist.

[philosophicalconservatism]

“Happiness is not the end of life: character is.”

— Henry Ward Beecher 

[philosophicalconservatism]

“We are never more discontented with others than when we are discontented with ourselves. The consciousness of wrong-doing makes us irritable, and our heart, in its cunning, quarrels with what is outside it, in order that it may deafen the clamor within.”

— Henri Frederic Amiel (1821-1881) French writer 

[philosophicalconservatism]

“There can be no friendship where there is no freedom. Friendship loves a free air, and will not be fenced up in straight and narrow enclosures.”

— William Penn (1644-1718) American colonial founder

[philosophicalconservatism]

“Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed, nothing else can be managed”

— Peter Drucker (  1909 -2005 )  American management consultant and author.

[philosophicalconservatism]

“The uneasy ghost of Marx must suffer the torments of the damned at the truth glaring from the pages of history that one does not abolish property by transferring it to ‘the state’.”

— Louis O Kelso (1913-1991)  American political economist 

[philosophicalconservatism]

Social traditions, Burke pointed out, are forms of knowledge. They contain the residues of many trials and errors, and the inherited solutions to problems that we all encounter... Social traditions exist because they enable a society to reproduce itself. Destroy them heedlessly and you remove the guarantee offered by one generation to the next. In discussing tradition, we are not discussing arbitrary rules and conventions. We are discussing *answers* that have been discovered to enduring *questions*. These answers are tacit, shared, embodied in social practices and inarticulate expectations. Those who adopt them are not necessarily able to explain them

Roger Scruton (1949-2020) English Conservative philosopher

[philosophicalconservatism]

“Life is a magic vase filled to the brim, so made that you cannot dip from it nor draw from it. But it overflows into the hand that drops treasures into it. Drop in malice and it overflows hate; drop in charity and it overflows love.”

— John Ruskin (1819-1900) English critic 

[philosophicalconservatism]

“It is in the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigour… . degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats into the heart of its laws and constitution.”

— Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 1787  

[philosophicalconservatism]

Time to go back to normal.

[philosophicalconservatism]

"Freedom is not synonymous with an easy life. … There are many difficult things about freedom: It does not give you safety, it creates moral dilemmas for you; it requires self-discipline; it imposes great responsibilities; but such is the nature of man and in such consists his glory and salvation."

Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013) British prime minister

[philosophicalconservatism]

"The surest way to work up a crusade in favor of some good cause is to promise people they will have a chance of maltreating someone. To be able to destroy with good conscience, to be able to behave badly and call your bad behavior 'righteous indignation' — this is the height of psychological luxury, the most delicious of moral treats."

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist.

[philosophicalconservatism]

“To yield and give way to our passions is the lowest slavery, even as to rule over them is the only liberty.” ― Justin Martyr, Fragments of the Lost Work of Justin on the

[philosophicalconservatism]

Enthusiasts of Socialism do not actually care about how it works but about how it feels. Yet feelings are something that are confined to one's own bosom. They do no good for one's fellow man.

[philosophicalconservatism]

“Give me television and hamburgers, but don’t bother me with the responsibilities of liberty.”

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist.

[philosophicalconservatism]

Progressive ideology absolves criminal males of accountability within the justice system in order to hold the male race generically responsible for the suffering of their victims.

[philosophicalconservatism]

“The most priceless asset that can be accumulated in the course of any life is time well spent.”

—  William H. Rehnquist, Remarks Presented At The Marquette University Commencement, Milwaukee