Conservatism - Quotes and Examples

Hobbes on Human Rights

“covenants, without the sword, are but words”

Hobbes on Human Nature

The “state of nature” is “brutish and short” and defined by the “perpetual and restlesss desire for power”

Burke on How to Change

“change to conserve” through “pruning” existing institutions and not “philosophical abstractions”

Burke on Why We Should Change

“a state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation”

Burke on Tradition

Tradition is the “tested” wisdom of the past and is “wisdom without reflection”

Burke on Reason

Of Human nature, “reason is but a part and by no means the greatest part”

Oakeshott on Pragmatism v Rationalism

Pragmatism was “politics of scepticism” whereas Rationalism was “politics of faith”

Oakeshott on Tradition

“What has stood the rest of time is good and must not be lightly casted aside”

Robert Peel

Tamworth Manifesto - Torys’s should be focused on pragmatism

Great Reform Act 1832 Gave middle class men the right to vote

PM Disraeli

Artisans Dwelling Act 1875 cleared out slums

“the palace is not safe when the cottage is not happy”

PM Macmillan

Unemployment was viewed as the biggest issue for the stability of society

Established life peers through the Life Peerages Act 1958

Ayn Rand

“objectivism” and the “virtue of selfishness”

welfare should be only given willingly: “voluntarism”

David Cameron

Welfare Reform Act 2012 - weened benefits claimants off through incentives to work.