WFWilliam F. Buckley Jr.

20 collected words

William F. Buckley Jr.

Dates not recorded

Name supplied in the contributor-provided quotation collection. Basic attribution label; identity, lifetime and quotation authenticity have not been independently verified.

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Quotations and sayings

01Undated

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. / quote

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02Undated

Decent people should ignore politics, if only they could be confident that politics would ignore them

William F. Buckley Jr. / quote

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03Undated

A second marked characteristic of the Liberal in debate with the conservative is the tacit premise that debateis ridiculous....Many people shrink from arguments over facts because facts are tedious, because they require a formal familiarity with the subject under discussion, and because they can be ideologically dislocative. Many Liberals accept their opinions, ideas, and evaluations as others accept revealed truths.

William F. Buckley Jr. / quote

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04Undated

Human progress is achieved by taking exact measurements.

William F. Buckley Jr. / quote

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05Undated

I do not, in short, myself believe it is in the least bit undignified to confess to having been critically influenced in one's thinking by a teacher, or a faculty, or a book; but the accent these days is so strong on atomistic intellectual independence that to suggest such a thing is, as I have noted, highly inflammatory.

William F. Buckley Jr. / quote

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06Undated

[D]emocracy can itself be as tyrannical as a dictatorship, since it is the extent, not the source, of government power that impinges on freedom."-William F Buckley

William F. Buckley Jr. / quote

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07Undated

I believe that the duel between Christianity and atheism is the most important in the world. I further believe that the struggle between individualism and collectivism is the same struggle reproduced on another level.

William F. Buckley Jr. / quote

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08Undated

For people who like that sort of thing, that's the sort of thing they like.

William F. Buckley Jr. / quote

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09Undated

We find that in the absence of demonstrable truth, the best we can do is to exercise the greatest diligence, humility, insight, intelligence, and industry in trying to arrive at the nearest values to truth. I hope, of course, to argue convincingly that having done this, we have an inescapable duty to seek to inculcate others with these values.

William F. Buckley Jr. / quote

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10Undated

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. / quote

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11Undated

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 in their jeans simply makes no sense - the kindest way to put it. A sterner way to put it is that it is an outrage, an imposition on basic civil liberties and on the reasonable expenditure of social energy.

William F. Buckley Jr. / quote

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12Undated

She [Ayn Rand] had to declare that....altruism was despicable, that only self-interest is good and noble. (About Ayn Rand)

William F. Buckley Jr. / quote

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13Undated

I won't insult your intelligence by suggesting that you really believe what you just said.

William F. Buckley Jr. / quote

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14Undated

I would like to take you seriously, but to do so would affront your intelligence.

William F. Buckley Jr. / quote

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15Undated

There is an inverse relationship between reliance on the state and self-reliance.

William F. Buckley Jr. / quote

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16Undated

All adventure is now reactionary.

William F. Buckley Jr. / quote

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17Undated

Truth is a demure lady, much too ladylike to knock you on your head and drag you to her cave. She is there, but people must want her, and seek her out.

William F. Buckley Jr. / quote

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18Undated

I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University.

William F. Buckley Jr. / quote

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19Undated

The best defense against usurpatory government is an assertive citizenry.

William F. Buckley Jr. / quote

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20Undated

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. / quote

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