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In politics we do well to abide by precedent and precept and even prejudice, for the great mysterious incorporation of the human race has acquired a prescriptive wisdom far greater than any man’s petty private rationality.

— Russell Kirk The Politics Of Prudence (1993)

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Wisdom

More quotes by Russell Kirk

Burke, could he see our century, never would concede that a consumption-society is the end for which Providence has prepared man.

The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot (1953)

If a man acknowledges no authority, he sets himself up as Cain, and before long he is struck down by nemesis, which follows upon hubris.

Prescription, Authority, and Ordered Freedom,” in What is Conservatism? (1964)

True conservatism rises at the antipodes from individualism. Individualism is social atomism; conservatism is community of spirit.

The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot (1953)

The natural law is an instrument for progress, not a weapon of revolution.

The Roots of American Order (1974)

Global environmentalists have said and written enough to leave no doubt that their goal is to destroy the prosperous economies of the world's richest nations.

Economics: Work and Prosperity in Christian Perspective (1989)

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If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.

William Blake The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790)

'The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.'

William Shakespeare As You Like It (1599)

It takes extraordinary wisdom and self-control to accept that many things have a logic we do not understand that is smarter than our own.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010)

Young men think old men are fools; but old men know young men are fools.

George Chapman All Fools (1605)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Russell Kirk (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.