Today’s Quote-to-Quote: Modern Conservatism

“The radical of one century is the conservative of the next. The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out, the conservative adopts them.”
– Mark Twain

“Conservative: A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from a Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.”-
– Ambrose Bierce

“A conservative is a fellow who thinks a rich man should have a square deal.”
– Frank Dane

“A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs, who has never learned to walk.”
– Franklin D. Roosevelt

“Some fellows get credit for being conservative when they are only stupid.”
– Kin Hubbard

“To be conservative requires no brains whatsoever. Cabbages, cows and conifers are conservatives, and are so stupid they don’t even know it. All that is basically required is acceptance of what exists.”
– Colin Welch

“Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives.”
– John Stuart Mill

“The values to which the conservative appeals are inevitably caricatured by the individuals designated to put them into practice.”
– Harold Rosenberg

“It is fascinating that most white death row inmates in America describe themselves as politically conservative.”
– Richard Sherricky

“Modern conservatives are addicted to the power of money and believe privately-held wealth cures all problems. Well, until they have no money, and then they are at the head of the line demanding liberals save them from their ugly inhumane ideology.”
– Maureen Welles

“The conservative smugly delights in ridiculing liberals who seek to bring about a fairer, more equal existence for all the populace, yet you can’t base a sane, just and democratic nation on any other precept.”
– Harriet Ochs

“Every civilization has died at last not of the excesses of honest and open liberalism, but from the deceptions of jingoistic and corrupt conservatism.”
– Carleton Quinn