Quotes about Conservatism

I have neither permitted, nor shall I permit, the things which have been settled by the holy fathers to be violated by any innovation.

I like neither new clothes nor new kinds of food.

the passionate defense of the Bible as a "history book" among the more conservative wings of Christianity, despite intentions, isn't really an act of submission to God; it is making God submit to us. In its most extreme forms, making God look like us is what the Bible calls idolatry.

Around the same time, however, and beaten by the fascists by only a hair, a closely related ideology developed in America that also called for a powerful centralized state. That ideology was, of course, progressivism. The fascists, like the progressives, sought a radical transformation of society that is the very antithesis of classical liberalism or modern American conservatism.

It is absurd and a detestable shame, that we should suffer those traditions to be changed which we have received from the fathers of old.

Conservatism is the policy of make no change and consult your grandmother when in doubt.

A conservative is a man who just sits and thinks, mostly sits.

In America, evangelical churches have often been bastions of conservatism, providing support for the status quo.

All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change.

Liberalism is trust of the people tempered by prudence. Conservatism is distrust of the people tempered by fear.

Unfortunately, the marvelous understanding celebrated at the original Pentecost has faded into the background, and now the word "Pentecostal" often signifies not Christian unity but sectarian differences. Many Pentecostals are conservative Christians who disdain those of a more liberal persuasion. And mainstream Christians often dismiss Pentecostals as looney tunes; anti-intellectual in their theology, overemotional in their worship.

We are reformers in spring and summer; in autumn and winter we stand by the old; reformers in the morning, conservers at night. Reform is affirmative, conservatism negative; conservatism goes for comfort, reform for truth.