William Francis Buckley Quotes
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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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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.
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I am, I fully grant, a phenomenon, but not because of any speed in composition. I asked myself the other day, "Who else, on so many issues, has been so right so much of the time?" I couldn't think of anyone.
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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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I find it easier to believe in God than to believe Hamlet was deduced from the molecular structure of a mutton chop.
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As a businessman, Frank Lorenzo gives capitalism a bad name.
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I had much more fun criticizing than praising.
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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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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.
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I won't insult your intelligence by suggesting that you really believe what you just said.
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You know, I’ve spent my entire life time separating the Right from the kooks.
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Conservatives should be adamant about the need for the reappearance of Judeo-Christianity in the public square.
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Scientists are people who build the Brooklyn Bridge and then buy it.
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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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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.
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There is an inverse relationship between reliance on the state and self-reliance.
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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).
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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.
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Boredom is the deadliest poison.
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I get satisfaction of three kinds. One is creating something, one is being paid for it and one is the feeling that I haven't just been sitting on my ass all afternoon.
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Some of my instincts are reprehensible.
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We love your adherence to democratic principles.
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Socialize the individual's surplus and you socialize his spirit and creativeness.
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Everything I do and say and the way I do and say it annoys me.