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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.
William Francis Buckley
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You know, I’ve spent my entire life time separating the Right from the kooks.
William Francis Buckley
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I find it easier to believe in God than to believe Hamlet was deduced from the molecular structure of a mutton chop.
William Francis Buckley
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The Beatles are not merely awful. I would consider it sacrilegious to say anything less than that they are godawful.
William Francis Buckley
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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.
William Francis Buckley
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The academic community has in it the biggest concentration of alarmists, cranks and extremists this side of the giggle house.
William Francis Buckley
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It was rumored, in 1946, that the hangman in Nuremberg adjusted the nooses of some of the condemned to magnify the pain of suffocation. Such sadism was not called for then and is not called for now. But if fornication is wrong, there is no denying that it can bring pleasure. The death of Saddam Hussein at rope's end brings a pleasure that is undeniable, and absolutely chaste in its provenance.
William Francis Buckley
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I won't insult your intelligence by suggesting that you really believe what you just said.
William Francis Buckley
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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.
William Francis Buckley
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As a businessman, Frank Lorenzo gives capitalism a bad name.
William Francis Buckley
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Conservatives should be adamant about the need for the reappearance of Judeo-Christianity in the public square.
William Francis Buckley
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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.
William Francis Buckley
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Scientists are people who build the Brooklyn Bridge and then buy it.
William Francis Buckley
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There is an inverse relationship between reliance on the state and self-reliance.
William Francis Buckley
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One can't doubt that the American objective in Iraq has failed - different plans have to be made. And the kernel here is the acknowledgement of defeat.
William Francis Buckley
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Before there was Ronald Reagan there was Barry Goldwater, and before there was Barry, there was National Review , and before there was National Review there was Bill Buckley with a spark in his mind.
William Francis Buckley
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Boredom is the deadliest poison.
William Francis Buckley
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Socialize the individual's surplus and you socialize his spirit and creativeness.
William Francis Buckley
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Some of my instincts are reprehensible.
William Francis Buckley
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Stick me in a confessional and ask the question: Sir, if you had the authority, would you forbid smoking in America? You'd get a solemn and contrite, Yes.
William Francis Buckley
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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.
William Francis Buckley
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Only government can cause inflation, preserve monopoly, and punish enterprise.
William Francis Buckley
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Everything I do and say and the way I do and say it annoys me.
William Francis Buckley
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The largest cultural menace in America is the conformity of the intellectual cliques which, in education as well as the arts, are out to impose upon the nation their modish fads and fallacies, and have nearly succeeded in doing so. In this cultural issue, we are, without reservations, on the side of excellence (rather than "newness") and of honest intellectual combat (rather than conformity).
William Francis Buckley
