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Irving Kristol Quotes (1920-2009)
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About Irving Kristol
Irving Kristol (22 January 1920 – 18 September 2009) was an American columnist, journalist, and writer who was dubbed the "godfather of neoconservatism."
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“The enemy of liberal capitalism today is not so much socialism as nihilism.”
“A welfare state, properly conceived, can be an integral part of a conservative society.”
“If you care for the quality of life in our American democracy, then you have to be for censorship.”
“Capitalism is the least romantic conception of a public order that the human mind has ever conceived.”
“What's the point of being the greatest, most powerful nation in the world and not having an imperial role?”
“Democracy does not guarantee equality of conditions — it only guarantees equality of opportunity.”
“It was a new kind of class war — the people as citizens versus the politicians and their clients in the public sector.”
“The danger facing American Jews today is not that Christians want to persecute them but that Christians want to marry them.”
“An intellectual may be defined as a man who speaks with general authority about a subject on which he has no particular competence.”
“A liberal is one who says that it's all right for an 18-year-old girl to perform in a pornographic movie as long as she gets paid the minimum wage.”
“The Supreme Court... was never supposed to be... a democratic institution; it is a republican institution which counterbalances the... democratic institutions.”
“I have observed over the years that the unanticipated consequences of social action are always more important, and usually less agreeable, than the intended consequences.”
“Young people, especially, are looking for religion so desperately that they are inventing new ones. They should not have to invent new ones; the old religions are pretty good.”
“Neo-conservatives are unlike old conservatives because they are utilitarians, not moralists, and because their aim is the prosperity of post-industrial society, not the recovery of a golden age.”
“The liberal paradigm of regulation and license has led to a society where an 18-year-old girl has the right to public fornication in a pornographic movie -- but only if she is paid the minimum wage.”
“[Conservatism:] Our revolutionary message … is that a self-disciplined people can create a political community in which an ordered liberty will promote both economic prosperity and political participation.”
Irving Kristol Quotes by Topic
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Irving Kristol on Neoconservatism 2 quotes
View all 2 quotes on Neoconservatism →Irving Kristol on Socialism
Irving Kristol on 20th century
Irving Kristol on Intellectual
“An intellectual may be defined as a man who speaks with general authority about a subject on which he has no particular competence.”
Irving Kristol on Liberalism
“A liberal is one who says that it's all right for an 18-year-old girl to perform in a pornographic movie as long as she gets paid the minimum wage.”
Irving Kristol on Conservatism
“[Conservatism:] Our revolutionary message … is that a self-disciplined people can create a political community in which an ordered liberty will promote both economic prosperity and political participation.”
Irving Kristol on Nations
Irving Kristol on Atheism
“If there is one indisputable fact about the human condition it is that no community can survive if it is persuaded — or even if it suspects — that its members are leading meaningless lives in a meaningless universe.”
Irving Kristol on Planned economy
“As a result of the efforts of Hayek, Friedman, and the many others who share their general outlook, the idea of a centrally planned and centrally administered economy, so popular in the 1930s and early 1940s, has been discredited.”
Irving Kristol on Truth
“There are different kinds of truths for different kinds of people. There are truths appropriate for children; truths that are appropriate for students; truths that are appropriate for educated adults; and truths that are appropriate for highly educated adults, and the notion that there should be one set of truths available to everyone is a modern democratic fallacy. It doesn't work.”
Irving Kristol on Social democracy
“Democratic socialism turns out to be an inherently unstable compound, a contradiction in terms. Every social-democratic party, once in power, soon finds itself choosing, at one point after another, between the socialist society it aspires to and the liberal society that lathered [sic] it... [S]ocialist movements end up [in] a society where liberty is the property of the state, and is (or is not) doled out to its citizens along with other contingent 'benefits'.”
Irving Kristol on Democratic socialism
“Democratic socialism turns out to be an inherently unstable compound, a contradiction in terms. Every social-democratic party, once in power, soon finds itself choosing, at one point after another, between the socialist society it aspires to and the liberal society that lathered [sic] it... [S]ocialist movements end up [in] a society where liberty is the property of the state, and is (or is not) doled out to its citizens along with other contingent 'benefits'.”
About Irving Kristol
Irving Kristol (22 January 1920 – 18 September 2009) was an American columnist, journalist, and writer who was dubbed the "godfather of neoconservatism."