Kristol Quotes & Sayings

If you believe that no one was ever corrupted by a book, you have also to believe that no one was ever improved by a book. — Irving Kristol

What is at stake is civilization and humanity, nothing less. The idea that everything is permitted, as Nietzsche put it, rests on the premise of nihilism and has nihilistic implications. I will not pretend that the case against nihilism and for civilization is an easy one to make. We are here confronting the most fundamental of philosophical questions, on the deepest levels. In short, the matter of pornography and obscenity is not a trivial one, and only superficial minds can take a bland and untroubled view of it. — Irving Kristol

Back in George W. Bush's second term, when diplomatic realism began to overtake foolish bellicosity, the president developed one of his patented nicknames for the two most powerful neoconservative journalists, William Kristol and Charles Krauthammer: he called them 'the Bomber Boys.' — Joe Klein

It was a new kind of class war
the people as citizens versus the politicians and their clients in the public sector. — Irving Kristol

The really difficult moral issues arise, not from a confrontation of good and evil, but from a collision between two goods — Irving Kristol

Power breeds responsibilities, in international affairs as in domestic
or even private. To dodge or disclaim these responsibilities is one form of the abuse of power. — Irving Kristol

Even if we can't be happy, we must always be cheerful. — Irving Kristol

American power should be used not just in the defense of American interests but for the promotion of American principles. — William Kristol

If Romney explains why where we are with Obama is unacceptable, why whither we are tending is even worse - and why his own alternative path forward is superior - then we trust the American people to make the right choice in November. — Bill Kristol

The major political event of the twentieth century is the death of socialism. — Irving Kristol

While a defeat for Obamacare in the Court would be nice, the defeat of President Obama at the polls on November 6 is crucial. If electoral victory is achieved, Obamacare can and will be repealed - and more judges of a constitutionalist persuasion will be appointed by the next president. — Bill Kristol

What rules the world is ideas," Kristol once wrote, "because ideas define the way reality is perceived. — Anonymous

A neoconservative is a liberal who's been mugged by reality. A neoliberal is a liberal who's been mugged by reality but has refused to press charges. — Irving Kristol

One can be unhappy before eating caviar, even after, but at least not during. — Irving Kristol

I'm disappointed, depressed, and demoralized. [ ... ] It is very hard to avoid the conclusion that President Bush flinched from a fight on constitutional philosophy. Miers is undoubtedly a decent and competent person. But her selection will unavoidably be judged as reflecting a combination of cronyism and capitulation on the part of the president. — William Kristol

People need religion. It's a vehicle for a moral tradition. A crucial role. Nothing can take its place. — Irving Kristol

You have to know one big thing and stick with it. The leaders who had one very big idea and one very big commitment. This permitted them to create something. Those are the ones who leave a legacy. — Irving Kristol

Their message is conveyed in that hortatory tone and declamatory voice used by politicians when starting a condition contrary to fact. People who aren't cowed don't spend a lot of time proclaiming they won't be cowed. Leaders who really have strengthened the voice of freedom don't don't need to reassure there electorates that they're committed to doing so. — William Kristol

The enemy of liberal capitalism today is not so much socialism as nihilism. — Irving Kristol

And on this issue of the Shia in Iraq, I think there's been a certain amount of, frankly, Terry, a kind of pop sociology in America that, you know, somehow the Shia can't get along with the Sunni and the Shia in Iraq just want to establish some kind of Islamic fundamentalist regime. There's almost no evidence of that at all. Iraq's always been very secular. — William Kristol

[Among conservatives] there's been too much pseudo-populism, almost too much concern and attention for, quote, 'the people' ... After all, we conservatives are on the side of the lords and barons ... We ... are pulling up the drawbridge against the peasants. — William Kristol

Iraq's always been very secular. — William Kristol

No modern nation has ever constructed a foreign policy that was acceptable to its intellectuals — Irving Kristol

The most devastating indictment of the president's proposal is that it threatens to destroy virtually everything about American health care that's worth preserving. Under the plan's layers of regulation and oversight, even seeing a doctor whenever you like will be no easy matter: access to physicians will be carefully regulated by gatekeepers; referrals to specialists will be strongly discouraged; second opinions will be almost unheard of; and the availability of new drugs will be limited. — William Kristol

Shouldn't Democrats insist that Sen. Durbin step down as their whip, the number two man in their leadership? — Bill Kristol

Whenever I hear anything described as a heartless assault on our children I tend to think it's a good idea. — William Kristol

Many of Bush's defenders have praised him for keeping the country safe since Sept. 11, 2001. He deserves that praise, and I'm perfectly happy to defend most of his surveillance, interrogation and counterterrorism policies against his critics. — Bill Kristol

Surely our inaction with respect to Syria is a poor precedent if we're fighting a war on terror. — Bill Kristol

There is nothing like a parade to elicit the proper respect for the military from the populace. — Irving Kristol

Nostalgia is one of the legitimate and certainly one of the most enduring of human emotions; but the politics of nostalgia is at best distracting, at worst pernicious. — Irving Kristol

The people who got everything wrong are back on TV talking about the place they got all wrong? Cheney, Bill Kristol, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle. It's like Satan's VIP list for Hell. — Bill Maher

Senator McGovern is very sincere when he says that he will try to cut the military budget by 30%. And this is to drive a knife in the heart of Israel ... Jews don't like big military budgets. But it is now an interest of the Jews to have a large and powerful military establishment in the United States ... American Jews who care about the survival of the state of Israel have to say, no, we don't want to cut the military budget, it is important to keep that military budget big, so that we can defend Israel. — Irving Kristol

These soldiers deserve a better defense secretary than the one we have. — William Kristol

[the war in Iraq] could have terrifically good effects troughout the Middle East — William Kristol

Yuppies don't have loyalty. They have useful relationships and meaningful encounters. — William Kristol

After all, if you believe that no one was ever corrupted by a book, you also have to believe that no one was ever improved by a book (or a play or a movie). You have to believe, in other words, that all art is morally trivial and that, consequently, all education is morally irrelevant. No one, not even a university professor, really believes that. — Irving Kristol

Republicans can also point to an alternate path. They can draw upon genuine experts to explain what should be done. — William Kristol

The most intelligent defender of capitalism in the modern period is Friedrich Hayek. — Irving Kristol

Anyone who knows anything about journalism knows that reporters are rarely in a position to investigate anything. They lack the authority to subpoena witnesses, to cross-examine, to scrutinize official records. They are lucky to get their phone calls returned. — Irving Kristol

A welfare state, properly conceived, can be an integral part of a conservative society. — Irving Kristol

If terror groups are to be defeated, it is national governments that will have to do so. In nations like India, governments will have to call on the patriotism of citizens to fight the terrorists. In a nation like Pakistan, the government will have to be persuaded to deal with those in their midst who are complicit. — Bill Kristol

Only liberal organizations are clearly designated [in the press] as "nonpatisan, nonprofit." Non-liberal research organizations are always identified as "right-wing" or "conservative." — Irving Kristol

[I]t's up to Republicans to expose the bureaucracies and criticize the orthodoxies - to ask why visas for travel to the United States are still being issued in West Africa and why American military forces are being deployed there without a workable plan or intelligible purpose, why CDC spending priorities are so skewed and CDC management so weak, and why here at home routine police powers aren't being used and routine public health measures aren't being implemented. — William Kristol

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. — Irving Kristol

If we free the people of Iraq, we will be respected in the Arab world ... and I think we will be respected around the world. — William Kristol

If God does not exist, and if religion is an illusion that the majority of men cannot live without ... let men believe in the lies of religion since they cannot do without them, and let then a handful of sages, who know the truth and can live with it, keep it among themselves. Men are then divided into the wise and the foolish, the philosophers and the common men, and atheism becomes a guarded, esoteric doctrine - for if the illusions of religion were to be discredited, there is no telling with what madness men would be seized, with what uncontrollable anguish. — Irving Kristol

Somehow, the fact that more poor people are on welfare, receiving more generous payments, does not seem to have made this country a nice place to live - not even for the poor on welfare, whose condition seems not noticeably better than when they were poor and off welfare. Something appears to have gone wrong; a liberal and compassionate social policy has bred all sorts of unanticipated and perverse consequences. — Irving Kristol

In any case, decisions on troop levels in the American system of government are not made by any general or set of generals but by the civilian leadership of the war effort. — Bill Kristol

Having defeated and then occupied Iraq, democratizing the country should not be too tall an order for the world's sole superpower. — William Kristol

Being frustrated is disagreeable, but the real disasters of life begin when you get what you want. — Irving Kristol

I personally - if I were designing the tax code - would have a tax code in which Mitt Romney paid more than 13 percent, given what I know about the kind of investments he made money from. — Bill Kristol

Conservative policies have on the whole worked - insofar as any set of policies can be said to 'work' in the real world. Conservatives of the Reagan-Bush-Gingrich-Bush years have a fair amount to be proud of. — Bill Kristol

The trouble with traditional American conservatism is that it lacks a naturally cheerful, optimistic disposition. Not only does it lack one, it regards signs of one as evidence of unsoundness, irresponsibility. — Irving Kristol

If the American people really come to a settled belief that Bush lied us into war, his presidency will be over. — Bill Kristol

Recalling that a good chunk of the 47 percent who don't pay income taxes are Romney supporters - especially of course seniors (who might well 'believe they are entitled to heath care,' a position Romney agrees with), as well as many lower-income Americans (including men and women serving in the military) who think conservative policies are better for the country even if they're not getting a tax cut under the Romney plan. So Romney seems to have contempt not just for the Democrats who oppose him, but for tens of millions who intend to vote for him. — William Kristol

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

The liberal media were never that powerful, and the whole thing was often used as an excuse by conservatives for conservative failures. — William Kristol

There will be trying times during Obama's presidency, and liberty will need staunch defenders. Can Obama reshape liberalism to be, as it was under F.D.R., a fighting faith, unapologetically patriotic and strong in the defense of liberty? That would be a service to our country. — Bill Kristol

If you care for the quality of life in our American democracy, then you have to be for censorship. — Irving Kristol

A conservative is a liberal mugged by reality. — Irving Kristol

Have you ever met a war you didn't love? — William Kristol

Since Ronald Reagan's election in 1980, conservatives of various sorts, and conservatisms of various stripes, have generally been in the ascendancy. And a good thing, too! Conservatives have been right more often than not - and more often than liberals - about most of the important issues of the day. — Bill Kristol

Romney has to convince the American public that they need to do something they're not usually inclined to do - replace a sitting president with a challenger. And unlike in 1980 and 1992, when the public was persuaded to do just that, the incumbent president has not been weakened by a primary opponent. — Bill Kristol

Patriotism is an indispensable weapon in the defense of civilization against barbarism. — Bill Kristol

Lest conservatives be too proud, it's worth recalling that conservatism's rise was decisively enabled by liberalism's weakness. — Bill Kristol

Leo Strauss's discoveries in the history of political philosophy had the effect of liberating his students from the yoke of contemporary thought. — William Kristol

Democracy does not guarantee equality of conditions - it only guarantees equality of opportunity. — Irving Kristol

Conservatives shouldn't count on the Supreme Court to do our work for us on Obamacare. The Court may rule as it should, and strike down the mandate. But it may not. And even if it does, the future of health care in America - and for that matter, the future of limited government - depends ultimately on the verdict of the American people. — Bill Kristol

The average GOP presidential vote in these last five elections was 44.5 percent. In the last three, it was 48.1 percent. Give Romney an extra point for voter disillusionment with Obama, and a half-point for being better financed than his predecessors. It still strikes me as a path to narrow defeat. — Bill Kristol

Barack Obama is not going to beat Hillary Clinton in a single Democratic primary. I'll predict that right now. — William Kristol

The trouble with politics and political coverage today is that there's too much liberal bias ... There's too much tilt toward the left-wing agenda. Too much apology for liberal policy failures. Too much pandering to liberal candidates and causes. — William Kristol

All defense secretaries in wartime have, needless to say, made misjudgments. — Bill Kristol

I've always rebelled a little when people say, 'My Jewish values lead me to really care about the poor.' I know some Christians who care about the poor, too. — William Kristol

White women are a problem, that's, you know - we all live with that. — William Kristol

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. — Irving Kristol

It is ironic to watch the churches, including large sections of my own religion, surrendering to the spirit of modernity at the very moment when modernity itself is undergoing a kind of spiritual collapse ... — Irving Kristol

The danger facing American Jews today is not that Christians want to persecute them but that Christians want to marry them. — Irving Kristol

Bush is no conservative. — Bill Kristol