William F. Buckley, Jr. Quotes
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The anti-marijuana campaign is a cancerous tissue of lies, undermining law enforcement, aggravating the drug problem, depriving the sick of needed help and suckering well-intentioned conservatives and countless frightened parents.
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History is but the polemics of the victor.
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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.
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One must bear in mind that the expansion of federal activity is a form of eating for politicians.
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The duel between Christianity and atheism is the most important in the world, and the struggle between individualism and collectivism is the same struggle reproduced on another level.
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I profoundly believe it takes a lot of practice to become a moral slob.
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Though liberals do a great deal of talking about hearing other points of view, it sometimes shocks them to learn that there are other points of view.
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I would like to electrocute everyone who uses the word 'fair' in connection with income tax policies.
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Bobby Kennedy and Nelson Rockefeller are having a row, ostensibly over the plight of New York's mentally retarded, a loose definition of which would include everyone in New York who voted for Bobby Kennedy or Nelson Rockefeller.
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Those who suffer from the abuse of drugs have themselves to blame for it. This does not mean that society is absolved from active concern for their plight. It does mean that their plight is subordinate to the plight of those citizens who do not experiment with drugs but whose life, liberty, and property are substantially affected by the illegalization of the drugs sought after by the minority.
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They are men and women who tend to believe that the human being is perfectible and social progress predictable, and that the instrument for effecting the two is reason; that truths are transitory and empirically determined; that equality is desirable and attainable through the action of state power; that social and individual differences, if they are not rational, are objectionable, and should be scientifically eliminated; that all people and societies strive to organize themselves upon a rationalist and scientific paradigm.
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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.
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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.
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We love your adherence to democratic principles.
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Earlier this month the State Department gave the umpteenth performance of its popular play, Please Tread on Me, with Ceylon as guest star, and the usual cast.
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To buy very good wine nowadays requires only money. To serve it to your guests is a sign of fatigue.
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We view our atomic arsenal as proudly and as devotedly as any pioneer ever viewed his flintlock hanging over the mantel as his children slept, and dreamed.
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The more complicated and powerful the job, the more rudimentary the preparation for it.
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I would rather be governed by the first 2000 people in the Manhattan phone book than the entire faculty of Harvard.
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Self-control is one of the most exhilarating of pleasures.
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I had much more fun criticizing than praising.
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There is an inverse relationship between reliance on the state and self-reliance.
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You know, I’ve spent my entire life time separating the Right from the kooks.
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Socialize the individual's surplus and you socialize his spirit and creativeness.
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Arlen Specter is the man who voted in favor of Bill Clinton during impeachment, voted against Robert Bork for the Supreme Court, voted against school choice for the District of Columbia, endorses an absolutist interpretation of abortion rights. He is bright and he is tough and he belongs elsewhere.
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If Bach is not in Heaven, I am not going!
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The Beatles are not merely awful. I would consider it sacrilegious to say anything less than that they are godawful.
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I catch fire and find the reserves of courage and assertiveness to speak up. When that happens I get quite carried away. My blood gets hot my brow wet I become unbearably and unconscionably sarcastic and bellicose I am girded for a total showdown.
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It seems to me that the idea traditionally defended of endeavoring to maintain existing ethnic balances simply doesn't work any more.
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What was wrong with communism wasn't aberrant leadership, it was communism.
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William F. Buckley, Jr.
- Born: November 24, 1925
- Died: February 27, 2008
- Occupation: Author
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